The Elusive Corporal

The Elusive Corporal (French: Le Caporal épinglé) is a 1962 French film directed by Jean Renoir that stars Jean-Pierre Cassel, Claude Brasseur, and Claude Rich. It was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival. Renoir shot his film in Austria in 1961 from Jacques Perret's book based on his own prisoner of war experiences. Renoir's friend and assistant director Guy Lefranc had also been a World War II prisoner of war and had developed the project for seven years. The story serves as a companion piece to the director's 1937 film, Grand Illusion, once more bringing together men from across the broad social spectrum of French society to depict one man's Sisyphean efforts to escape captivity in a German POW camp.