Alicia I love this movie so much

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

LobotomousMonk 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".

tieman64 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.

dbdumonteil 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.

writers_reign 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.