The Elusive Corporal

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Audience Member Jean Renoir's comedy of irony is enjoyable, but not one of his best. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Not unpleasant as a comedy but far from a master piece. Good overall quality but lacks the originality and wit of the great films of the master. Totally forgettable and rightfully forgotten. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review walter m "The Elusive Corporal" starts with the French capitulation to German forces in 1940. All Guillaume(Jean Carnet), a soldier, wants to do now is return home and tend his pigs but the Nazis will not let him or any other French soldier leave. While the war may indeed may be over for the French, it is only just the start for the Nazis in trying to conquer all of Europe. That does not stop The Corporal(Jean-Pierre Cassel), Pop(Claude Brasseur) and Ballochet(Claude Rich) from giving it the old college try. Actually, Ballochet backs out at the last second while The Corporal and Pop are captured with a minimum of force. Next time will be harder since they are all being sent to Germany. Directed by Jean Renoir with his customary finesse, "The Elusive Corporal" is a very engaging and life affirming tale of war that is more about rebelliousness than bravery. A lot of class conflict is touched on in the movie, especially around The Corporal who despite his wealthy background is only an enlisted man and I think a lot of that has to do with his problems with authority which never goes down that well in the armed forces. That also explains why he is consistently the only one to go over the wall, risking being sent off to a fortress(Colditz, perhaps?), as most of the other soldiers just try to get along. I did not understand his obsession with returning to France since that is now occupied territory(and I hear Switzerland is nice this time of year) until the final scene. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Should rank among the best of great directors' forgotten late works. Renoir's second-to-last film is a good deal more than the WWII update of 'Grand Illusion' that it's consistently billed as (though I won't argue that it's better than the earlier classic). To begin with, there are no Gabins or Stroheims here, and traces of their romantic loftiness are mostly absent (though something of Fresnay's ever-prideful "Captain de Boeldieu" comes back in the bespectacled prisoner's beautifully executed death scene). Even Cassel, the movie's ostensible center, is hardly singularized (and it should resonate that there's no pretense to nobility in the characters here). The film plays even faster and looser than 'Grand Illusion' with the farcical elements of prison life, all the while retaining pacifistic reminders about war's absurdity. There's also more naturalism in the aesthetic. The major kicker of course is that Renoir thinks 'The Elusive Corporal''s war IS worth fighting, and if the film fails at all it maybe does so at the level of arguing that last point (Cassel's "swastikas still depress me" line is hardly a rallying call). Perhaps Renoir wants to have it both ways by humanizing the Germans while calling for their defeat. That's hardly a disagreeable approach, but I can't shake the feeling that for most of the film Renoir skirts the issue, focusing in instead on the amusing, tender stuff of Frenchmen scrambling for their freedom. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Le caporal epingle is described as a comedy drama, but this story of multiple escapes by a French corporal from POW camps in WW2 didn't seem funny to me. I knew it wouldn't have the same depth as 'La grande illusion' or' La regle du jeu', but even so found it very disappointing on every level. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member returning to the themes of his '37 masterpiece LA GRANDE ILLUSION, renoir once again created a humanistic, humorous, warm, elegant, but also serious movie about war and its consequences. renoir is a master and LE CAPORAL ÉPINGLÉ might not be his very best, but ranks definitely among his better works. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Elusive Corporal

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