In July, Lionsgate Home Entertainment and the StudioCanal Collection will bring La Grande Illusion to North American Blu-ray. Director Jean Renoir's beloved antiwar drama stars Jean Gabin (Port of Shadows) as Maréchal, a French lieutenant enduring imprisonment within the German POW camps during World War I.
Along with the aristocratic Captain Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay, The Man Who Knew Too Much), Maréchal continually tries to escape his German captors, though a sudden transfer to a far more impregnable fortress puts both men's dreams of freedom in jeopardy.
One of cinema's treasures, the picture - which routinely places on the Sight and Sound rankings of the greatest films ever made - was also the first foreign film ever nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award.
Lionsgate's Blu-ray presents the feature in its 1.37:1 original aspect ratio with a 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track. The disc also contains the following supplements:
Two all-new critical retrospectives:
La Grande Illusion: Success and Controversy by cinema expert and Jean Renoir specialist Olivier Curchod
The original negative of La Grande Illusion by la Cinémathèque de Toulouse's Natacha Laurent
Restoring La Grande Illusion featurette
La Grande Illusion appreciation by cinema professor and film critic Ginette Vincendeau
John Truby film presentation
Trailers from 1937 and 1958 - Presentation of the movie by Jean Renoir