One of the smallest, most perfect Christmas scenes in cinema comes from a French war film that trancends boundaries of race, language, religion, and social class.
In The Grand Illusion (France, 1937), two escaped French POWs, Lieutenants Maréchal (Jean Gabin, center) and Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio, left), are taken in by a German war widow, Elsa (Dita Parlo, right).
Spending Christmas eve together in Elsa's farmhouse, Rosenthal (who is Jewish) and Maréchal (who speaks little German) put together a surprise for her daughter, Lotte. Scavenging from the simple, homely supplies on hand, Rosenthal makes a manger scene with people and animals constructed from apples, leeks, and bread.
"Isn't my little donkey cute?" says Rosenthal, "and my ox….and the infant Jesus? An ancestor of mine." "Touché," says Maréchal.
But when Lotte sees the scene, she wants to eat baby Jesus. "Strictly forbidden, my sweet."
"Then I'll eat Joseph," she says.
- Nora
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
A trusted and roughly 75-year-old cinephile acquaintance of mine lists The Grand Illusion as the best film of all time. And yet, for some reason, I've never seen it. Your lovely scene description may be just the thing to tip it over into my xmas viewing schedule this year.
(No step-by-steps on how you make a Baby Jesus out of a leek?)