For the first episode in our new series David explores Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937), a great anti-war film that is also a melancholy meditation on friendship between enemies, love across borders, and the inevitability of loss. What, in the end, is the great illusion: war itself, or the belief that we can escape its baleful consequences?Our bonus episode with Chris Clark on how Europe’s elites sleepwalked into war in 1914 is available on PPF+. Sign up now for just £5 per month or £50 a year to get 24 bonus episodes a year plus ad-free listening https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plusNext time: Mr Smith Goes to Washington Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices