#2: The Grand Illusion (1937)
Considered one of the greatest French films ever made, The Grand Illusion or La Grande Illusion is an examination of class differences in a WWI German prison camp. Released in 1937, nearly 20 years after the end of the war, this artistic film by Jean Renoir (son of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir) picks apart the notion of society.
Grand Illusion is such a powerful film that the renowned Orson Welles once said it would be one of the two films he’d take aboard the Ark. It won awards the world over and even became the very first foreign language film to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.