Grand Illusion
Artist
Paul Davis
United States, born 1938
Date1999
Dimensions39 x 27 in. (99.1 x 68.6 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.6647
DescriptionLa Grande Illusion (1937), considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, deals with issues of class and culture among French and German soldiers in a prisoner-of-war camp during World War I. It is staunchly anti-war and one of the first films in the prison-escape genre. In the early 1990s, a previously unknown print of the film was discovered in France that had been returned along with many other reels from a Soviet archive during the Cold War. This poster was commissioned by Bruce Goldstein, founder and co-president of Rialto Pictures, for the 1999 theatrical rerelease of the film. The image was later used by Criterion on the cover of the first DVD in the Criterion Collection series, establishing the company’s policy of using contemporary illustrators for its DVD and Blu-ray releases. On View
Not on view
