The closest Renoir ever came to a direct remake. Though to write it off so is to not only misunderstand the film, but his development between '37 and '62. Where the former encapsulates a bittersweet hope for fraternite among all men on the verge of a catastrophe, the latter swings wildly from burlesque humor to tragic resignation in a struggle for personal freedom in it's aftermath.
8 Reviews
Bitter Sweet Caporal
writers_reign25 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Towards the end of his working life - he shot only one more film and that initially for television - Renoir returned to the milieu of one of his greatest successes, La Grande Illusion, shot Le Caporal epingle in black and white and set it largely in prison camps though this time the war in question was the Second World War as opposed to the first and as he could hardly replicate the acting quality of Gabin, Stroheim, Carette, Dalio, etc perhaps wisely he opted to go with a definite second eleven headed by Jean-Pierre Cassel and featuring Claude Rich and Claude Brasseur. There's not a lot of sunshine or hope on offer; dismal seems to be the prevailing colour and each time Cassel takes one step forward he goes back two. Perhaps the best description is picaresque by virtue of the motley characters he encounters which transform him into a sort of captive Candide. Charles Spaak, who had written La Grande Illusion, worked uncredited on Caporal and maybe he should have worked harder for though it holds the attention it remains inferior to La Grande Illusion.
Pure Cynicism
LobotomousMonk11 March 2013
Le Caporal opens with a montage of WWII documentary footage. "Honor and glory to the survivors" provides a nice interplay between themes in Grande Illusion and more personal philosophies regarding the condition of the human race (Renoir's 'humanism'). The drama moves at a relatively slow pace and the performances are full of affect. More documentary footage has a voice-over narration in French but from the perspective of the Nazis. There is an element of self-reflexivity to the film not just through the use of documentary footage and a more psychologically-based stylistic system but also infused into the themes of coercion and resistance. Le Caporal is more concerned with individualism than Grande Illusion which focused on group dynamics. This is underscored by the obsessive compulsive worry that one character shows for the safety of his cows, regardless of what is happening in the moment. The story does not track the multiple characters but instead folds their offscreen progress in with the corporal at regular intervals. He becomes a transient in their lives (hence elusive). There is a disconnect in this regard and a repetition to the structure of the narrative that underscores this disconnect. The graceful allusions in Regle with Schumacher are replaced by purely cynical portrayals of Germans (the drunken warmonger states "I'm probably a better German than you all"). Scorsese commented that Le Caporal Epingle is "in a different emotional key than La Grande Illusion".
Minor Renoir
tieman6417 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Jean Renoir produced a fairly long string of masterpieces. This film, "The Elusive Corporal", is one of his least well known. Released at the tail-end of his career it is typically compared to "La Grande Illusion", a seminal film released by Renoir a quarter century earlier. Indeed, "Corporal" seems to play off the reputation of "Illusion", both films containing a number of parallels and reversals. Where "Illusion" was set during the First World War, for example, "Corporal" nosedives into the Second. Meanwhile, both films contain French soldiers attempting to break out of German prison camps, both contain botched escape attempts, both contain heroes who repeatedly shrug off their failures, and both end with two men scrambling toward national borders, Switzerland in "Illusion", Paris in "Corporal". And of course "Corporal" was Renoir's first film in years to be shot in black-and-white, a strange choice, but one which recalls the director's work in the 1930s.
Despite all these similarities, "Corporal" is much more lighthearted in tone. Jean Pierre Cassel stars as our hero, a French enlistee who has surrendered to the Nazis. He spends the film ensconced in a detention camp, from which he stages a series of hilarious escapes. There are shades of "Cool Hand Luke", shades of Bresson's "A Man Escaped", but Renoir's tone is gentler, more lighthearted (ie "Stalag 17"). In his hands, Cassel isn't struggling to escape, but is already always free. The Germans can't contain his self-determination, cannot break his will. Cassel's character is himself always several steps ahead of the competition, always subtly judging, perceiving, and withholding information. He remains elusive to even his fellow prisoners, refusing to give of himself over to any and everybody.
The film was based on a Jacque Perret novel, but Charles Spaak, who co-wrote "Illusion", did some uncredited writing on "Corporal's" screenplay as well. Unsurprisingly, "Corporal" features impressive black-and-white photography. Renoir's previous films were in colour, had a bouncy, impressionistic quality, a skill possibly inherited from his father, the Great Renoir, an Impressionist painter. "Corporal", though, echoes Renoir's earlier work, with stark faces, grim shadows, and a droll existentialism. Cassel would star in Melville's "Army of Shadows" several years later.
8/10 – The POW or prison movie is a genre which produces an inordinate amount of great films. Renoir's work here can't touch the best in the genre. Worth one viewing.
Despite all these similarities, "Corporal" is much more lighthearted in tone. Jean Pierre Cassel stars as our hero, a French enlistee who has surrendered to the Nazis. He spends the film ensconced in a detention camp, from which he stages a series of hilarious escapes. There are shades of "Cool Hand Luke", shades of Bresson's "A Man Escaped", but Renoir's tone is gentler, more lighthearted (ie "Stalag 17"). In his hands, Cassel isn't struggling to escape, but is already always free. The Germans can't contain his self-determination, cannot break his will. Cassel's character is himself always several steps ahead of the competition, always subtly judging, perceiving, and withholding information. He remains elusive to even his fellow prisoners, refusing to give of himself over to any and everybody.
The film was based on a Jacque Perret novel, but Charles Spaak, who co-wrote "Illusion", did some uncredited writing on "Corporal's" screenplay as well. Unsurprisingly, "Corporal" features impressive black-and-white photography. Renoir's previous films were in colour, had a bouncy, impressionistic quality, a skill possibly inherited from his father, the Great Renoir, an Impressionist painter. "Corporal", though, echoes Renoir's earlier work, with stark faces, grim shadows, and a droll existentialism. Cassel would star in Melville's "Army of Shadows" several years later.
8/10 – The POW or prison movie is a genre which produces an inordinate amount of great films. Renoir's work here can't touch the best in the genre. Worth one viewing.
worthwhile on its own
patrick.hunter11 February 2008
Warning: Spoilers
In 1937, Jean Renoir directed GRANDE ILLUSION, the first great (maybe greatest) POW film and one of the most influential motion pictures ever made. Even though this movie shows the influence, one should keep in mind that most POW movies of the time do so as well, from STALAG 17 to BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. However, rather than focus how THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL resembles GRANDE ILLUSION, what's more interesting I think is how it differs.
GRANDE ILLUSION used the POW camp as a metaphor for society, with all three classes represented. This film does not. It has no wealthy aristocrats, like Erich Von Strohiem's character. Some might compare Rich's character Ballochet to Pierre Fresney's Captain Boldieu, but doing so neglects that Ballochet is not an aristocrat; he only acts like one. Before becoming a POW, he was a gas meter attendant. Staying in the prison camp allows him to escape reality, for it offers him a deluded and misguided sense of comfort. This is why he does not want to leave it (until his final moment of self completion, of course). In this respect, Ballochet is unlike any character in GRANDE ILLUSION.
Saying that the POW camp in THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL reminds one of a country club ignores that virtually every other prisoner-of-war movie did the same. Only Bryan Forbes's unique KING RAT, released three years after this one, was a film that showed a prisoner-of-war camp as Godawful. I also don't see how viewers could interpret life in this film's camp is all that enviable. While it's true that Ballochet obtains a sinecure that allows him easy work and extra rations, the movie clearly condemns him and also shows that he's an exception. Many times, we see most prisoners working, often performing menial, unheroic labor (ie, emptying the latrine's cesspool tank--a symbol of those, like Ballochet or Pater, who choose the stagnation of remaining in prison). Rarely do we see the prisoners idling the time away. Unlike most POW movies, we're reminded that they are not only prisoners, but enslaved labor.
If one wants comparisons, one might more profitably compare THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL to French prison movies made just a few years before it (ie, A MAN ESCAPED and LE TROU). Like those films, this movie's concerns are not so much for society but for individuals, and, like THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL, they use escape as a metaphor for attaining selfhood (unlike GRANDE ILLUSION, which shows that even after escaping the prison, the prisoners still remain imprisoned---by their illusions).
Maybe this movie is not a perfect film (though I'm not sure about that), but it's certainly worthwhile. It's beautifully lensed, often presenting a gray, misty look. It intersperses documentary footage to remind us of how chaotic the reality outside the camp was like. And yes, one can say it resembles GRANDE ILLUSION, but one could also just as easily say it resembles PAPILLION. The point is not that it doesn't, because, actually it does. But then again, it's also quite different.
That it was made with such a small budget proves that Renoir's genius was still potent even toward the end of his career. It's a dramatic, humorous, subtle, and under-appreciated work of cinema.
GRANDE ILLUSION used the POW camp as a metaphor for society, with all three classes represented. This film does not. It has no wealthy aristocrats, like Erich Von Strohiem's character. Some might compare Rich's character Ballochet to Pierre Fresney's Captain Boldieu, but doing so neglects that Ballochet is not an aristocrat; he only acts like one. Before becoming a POW, he was a gas meter attendant. Staying in the prison camp allows him to escape reality, for it offers him a deluded and misguided sense of comfort. This is why he does not want to leave it (until his final moment of self completion, of course). In this respect, Ballochet is unlike any character in GRANDE ILLUSION.
Saying that the POW camp in THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL reminds one of a country club ignores that virtually every other prisoner-of-war movie did the same. Only Bryan Forbes's unique KING RAT, released three years after this one, was a film that showed a prisoner-of-war camp as Godawful. I also don't see how viewers could interpret life in this film's camp is all that enviable. While it's true that Ballochet obtains a sinecure that allows him easy work and extra rations, the movie clearly condemns him and also shows that he's an exception. Many times, we see most prisoners working, often performing menial, unheroic labor (ie, emptying the latrine's cesspool tank--a symbol of those, like Ballochet or Pater, who choose the stagnation of remaining in prison). Rarely do we see the prisoners idling the time away. Unlike most POW movies, we're reminded that they are not only prisoners, but enslaved labor.
If one wants comparisons, one might more profitably compare THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL to French prison movies made just a few years before it (ie, A MAN ESCAPED and LE TROU). Like those films, this movie's concerns are not so much for society but for individuals, and, like THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL, they use escape as a metaphor for attaining selfhood (unlike GRANDE ILLUSION, which shows that even after escaping the prison, the prisoners still remain imprisoned---by their illusions).
Maybe this movie is not a perfect film (though I'm not sure about that), but it's certainly worthwhile. It's beautifully lensed, often presenting a gray, misty look. It intersperses documentary footage to remind us of how chaotic the reality outside the camp was like. And yes, one can say it resembles GRANDE ILLUSION, but one could also just as easily say it resembles PAPILLION. The point is not that it doesn't, because, actually it does. But then again, it's also quite different.
That it was made with such a small budget proves that Renoir's genius was still potent even toward the end of his career. It's a dramatic, humorous, subtle, and under-appreciated work of cinema.
Jean Renoir's last film
robert-temple15 April 2024
This was a very fine swan song for Jean Renoir's directorial career. It is both serious and humorous at the same time. The film contains a great deal of original news footage relating to the Second World War and the Occupation of Paris, much or all of which seems not to have been made public elsewhere. In order to blend in seamlessly with the news footage, Renoir chose to make the film itself in black and white. The original title of the film is LE CAPORAL ÉPINGLÉ, and the English title is a translation of that. Young and little known at the time, Jean-Pierre Cassel was cast as the corporal, and that worked perfectly. The story starts with the surrender of the French to the Nazis, and we see the surrender documents being signed in the very same railway carriage which was used for the Germans to sign their surrender at the end of World War I. Then we see the Nazis marching into Paris and from an oncoming sea of German soldiers Renoir cuts to an oncoming sea of bedraggled French soldiers. Despite the fact that France has surrendered, the French soldiers are being imprisoned in camps and treated as prisoners of war. The story starts there. Cassell becomes a serial escaper, escaping over and over again in ingenious ways, but is always recaptured. It is funny but also tragic, because all the imprisoned French are wasting away with insufficient food and brutal punishments. The film is historically informative and has particular value for that. But the human relationships and interactions are fascinating and the film is absorbing and enjoyable. The daring and imagination shown in the escape attempts is often astonishing. The story is based upon a novel by Jacques Perret, and that in turn was based upon real people and events. Certainly this film fills in a gap in our knowledge of the French experience of defeat. And Renoir has made a testament to human resilience and ingenuity.
A comedy, really?
rommel3017 May 2022
This movie fell short of being funny and even dramatic. It hosted an unbelievable love-at-first-sight love story and an over-the-edge friendship. I found the movie boring and it's not due to a language barrier, as I'm French-speaking myself. "La Grande Vadrouille", another French comedy happening during WW2 which was released four years later (in 1966), is much funnier than this one.
Use your great illusions
dbdumonteil6 August 2006
Jean Renoir was always spared by the Nouvelle Vague critics.And however,if you've seen all his great films of the thirties (roughly from "la Chienne" to "La Règle du Jeu" )you may possibly find his latter days works disappointing:"le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe" and his pitiful attempt at a "Dr Jekill and M.Hyde" "Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier" "Le Caporal epinglé " is a different matter for it has its moments and the cast (Rich,Cassel,Claude Brasseur) is so perfect I do not need to add to the praise they have already received.
When I was a child ,I remember what my mother said when she saw the movie when it was theatrically released ;she did not like it very much.Six or seven years later,when I had the opportunity to see it ,I told her I did not understand her and that I had liked it ."Some day you will find out" was the answer.
At the time,I did not know even Renoir's name.Now that I've seen most of his movies,I do not take the same view as I did:I do not think,as it has often been mooted that it's a remake of "la grande illusion" although there are similarities between the two works.But Autant-Lara's "La traversée de Paris" or Henri Verneuil's "La Vache et le Prisonnier" (aka "the cow and I") which were pejoratively labeled "Cinema de Qualité" by the Young Turks were not inferior to "le Caporal Epinglé".Renoir's humor is sometimes vulgar and you'd better take "Stalag 17" instead.In the twenties his "Tire au Flanc" displays the same questionable coarse comedy side.
"La Grande Illusion" is one of the greatest films of the FRench cinema.Although it takes place during WW1,we never feel how atrocious that war was.
"Le Caporal Epinglé" takes place in a prison camp.And except for a few moments (Claude Rich's escape for instance) ,the soldiers seem to live in a holiday camp.
"LE Caporal Epinglé " is an entertaining movie though and the best scenes ,IMHO,are to be found outside the camp: Cassel on the dentist's chair is worth the price of admission.And the scene on the train with the naughty brat ("Be quiet or the gentleman will take you to war") is hilarious.
When I was a child ,I remember what my mother said when she saw the movie when it was theatrically released ;she did not like it very much.Six or seven years later,when I had the opportunity to see it ,I told her I did not understand her and that I had liked it ."Some day you will find out" was the answer.
At the time,I did not know even Renoir's name.Now that I've seen most of his movies,I do not take the same view as I did:I do not think,as it has often been mooted that it's a remake of "la grande illusion" although there are similarities between the two works.But Autant-Lara's "La traversée de Paris" or Henri Verneuil's "La Vache et le Prisonnier" (aka "the cow and I") which were pejoratively labeled "Cinema de Qualité" by the Young Turks were not inferior to "le Caporal Epinglé".Renoir's humor is sometimes vulgar and you'd better take "Stalag 17" instead.In the twenties his "Tire au Flanc" displays the same questionable coarse comedy side.
"La Grande Illusion" is one of the greatest films of the FRench cinema.Although it takes place during WW1,we never feel how atrocious that war was.
"Le Caporal Epinglé" takes place in a prison camp.And except for a few moments (Claude Rich's escape for instance) ,the soldiers seem to live in a holiday camp.
"LE Caporal Epinglé " is an entertaining movie though and the best scenes ,IMHO,are to be found outside the camp: Cassel on the dentist's chair is worth the price of admission.And the scene on the train with the naughty brat ("Be quiet or the gentleman will take you to war") is hilarious.
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