Jean Renoir - Collection (ej svensk text)

“La Grande Illusion” (1937): During WWI, three French officers are captured. Captain De Boeldieu is an aristocrat while Lieutenant Marechal was a mechanic in civilian life. They meet other prisoners from various backgrounds, as Rosenthal, son of wealthy Jewish bankers. They are separated from Rosenthal before managing to escape. A few months later, they meet again in a fortress commanded by the aristocrat Van Rauffenstein. De Boeldieu strikes up a friendship with him but Marechal and Rosenthal still want to escape... One of the very first prison escape movies, “La Grande Illusion” is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made. “Le Caporal Epingle” (1952): An upper-class corporal from Paris is captured by the Germans when they invade France in 1940. “La Merseillaise” (1938): A news-reel like movie about early part of the French Revolution, shown from the eyes of individual people. “La Bete Humaine (1938): Severine and her husband Roubaud kill their former employer in a train. Engineer Jacques watches them, but doesn't tell the police, because he's in love with Severine. But in an epileptic attack he kills her... “Le Testament Du Docteur Cordelier” (1959): A lawyer, Joly (Teddy Bilis) is disturbed when his friend, the eminent psychiatrist and researcher, Dr Cordelier (Jean-Louis Barrault), makes out a Will leaving everything to a mysterious stranger, Opale. “Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe” (1959): Etienne Alexis, a candidate for president of the new Europe, is a scientist promoting artificial insemination for social betterment and therapy to eliminate passion. “Elena Et Les Hommes” (1956): Polish countess Elena falls in love with a French radical party's candidate, a general, in pre-World War I Paris, but another officer pines for her.