The Grand Illusion (1937)

Pierre Fresnay: Le captaine de Boeldieu

Photos 

Quotes 

• Capt. de Boeldieu : For me it's simple. A golf course is for golf. A tennis court is for tennis. A prison camp is for escaping.

• Capt. de Boeldieu : Out there, children play soldier...

  Capt. de Boeldieu : In here, soldiers play like children.

• Capt. de Boeldieu : May I ask you a question?

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Of course.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : Why did you make an exception of me by inviting me here?

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Because your name is Boeldieu, career officer in the French Army. And I am Rauffenstein, career officer in the Imperial German Army.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : But my comrades are officers as well.

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : A 'Maréchal' and 'Rosenthal,' officers?

  Capt. de Boeldieu : They're fine soldiers.

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Charming legacy of the French Revolution.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : Neither you nor I can stop the march of time.

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Boldieu, I don't know who will win this war, but whatever the outcome, it will mean the end of the Rauffensteins and the Boeldieus.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : We're no longer needed.

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Isn't that a pity?

  Capt. de Boeldieu : Perhaps.

• Capt. de Boeldieu : Is that supposed to be witty?

• Lieutenant Maréchal : It's not a very common disease in high society. Eh, Boeldieu?

  Capt. de Boeldieu : Yes, but it's a vanishing privilege. Like so much else, it's become popularized. Cancer and gout are not working-class diseases, but they will be, believe me.

  Lieutenant Rosenthal : How about intellectuals?

  Le lieutenant Demolder : In our case, tuberculosis.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : Here's Mr. Pindar.

  Lieutenant Maréchal : And the middle-class?

  Lieutenant Rosenthal : Liver ulcers, they eat too much. We'd each die of our own class aliment, if war didn't make all germs equal.

• Capt. de Boeldieu : Your decorations show vegetarianism didn't interfere with duty.

  L'instituteur : It didn't stop my wife sleeping around either.

• Capt. von Rauffenstein : And how's your cousin, Edmond de Boeldieu, who was my Military Attaché in Berlin?

  Capt. de Boeldieu : He is well and happy. He lost an arm and married a very rich wife.

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : A fine career!

• Capt. von Rauffenstein : Forgive me.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : I would have done the same. French or German, duty is duty.

• Capt. de Boeldieu : You have to carry on.

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Carry on a futile existence.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : To be killed in a war is a tragedy for a commoner. For you and me, it's a good way out.

• Capt. de Boeldieu : Where are your manners?

  Le sergent Arthur : Sorry, it's our duty, this is war.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : Agreed, but even so, let's remember our manners.

• Lieutenant Rosenthal : Gentlemen, dinner is served. What shall we begin with? Cold chicken, pâté de foie, mackerel in wine?

  Capt. de Boeldieu : Quite a menu!

  Lieutenant Maréchal : Don't they feed us?

  L'ingénieur : They do in theory. In fact it's uneatable. Fortunately there are our parcels, especially Rosenthal's.

  Lieutenant Rosenthal : Please. Drop of cognac as an aperitif?

  Capt. de Boeldieu : Why not?

  Cartier - l'acteur : I have never eaten so well in my life! Some fish?

  Lieutenant Maréchal : Yes, please.

  Cartier - l'acteur : I'm starting to take Rosenthal's kindness for granted. It shows man is a creature of habit.

  L'instituteur : No need to tell you he's a teacher. Teach, preach, screech, leech.

• Lieutenant Maréchal : What've you planted here?

  L'ingénieur : Dandelions.

  Lieutenant Maréchal : I dream of dandelion salad.

  Lieutenant Maréchal : The war'll be over before our dandelions sprout.

  L'ingénieur : Don't be so sure.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : This curious exercise will give us laborer's hands.

• Cartier - l'acteur : He was born in Jerusalem!

  Lieutenant Rosenthal : Wrong, Vienna! My mother was Danish, my father Polish, naturalized French.

  Lieutenant Maréchal : Good old French aristocracy.

  Lieutenant Rosenthal : And yet for all your old French stock, not one of you owned an acre of France. In 35 years, the Rosenthal's have acquired three historic castles and all that goes with them: hunting, farmland and horses. And 3 galleries of genuine ancestors. Believe me, it's worth escaping to fight for that.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : I had never considered patriotism from that rather special point of view.

• Lieutenant Rosenthal : One thing upsets me, leaving Maréchal behind.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : I dislike it too. In fact, it irks me. Ah! Sentiment has no place in war.

• Capt. von Rauffenstein : Maxim's. That reminds me, I used to know a girl there in 1913. Her name was - Fifi.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : So did I.

• Capt. von Rauffenstein : Give me your word that there is nothing in here against regulations.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : You have my word. But why mine rather than the others?

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : The word of a Rosenthal? Or a Maréchal?

  Capt. de Boeldieu : Their word is as good as ours.

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Perhaps.

• Lieutenant Maréchal : We've been together eighteen months and you still stand on ceremony.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : I am the same with my mother and my wife.

• Capt. de Boeldieu : Cigarette?

  Lieutenant Maréchal : No thanks. English tobacco gives me a sore throat.

• Capt. von Rauffenstein : Boeldieu! Listen to me! I'm begging you, come down! Boeldieu!

  [in English] 

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Have you really gone insane?

  Capt. de Boeldieu : I'm perfectly sane!

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Boeldieu! You understand if you do not obey my order now, I'll have to shoot. I dread to do that. I beg you, man to man. Come back.

  Capt. de Boeldieu : It's damn nice of you, Rauffenstein. But it's impossible.

  Capt. von Rauffenstein : Halt! Halt! Halt!