ABSTRACT
By focusing on work by Jean Renoir and a film by John Ford via a mere metteur en scène, Wesley Ruggles, it may be observed that we end the discussion of cinematic renditions of history on an auteurist note. If this is not far from the truth, it is beside the point. The analyses of, in particular, La Grande illusion and Young Mr. Lincoln seek to underline the possibilities (and limitations) of critical historiography within the classical-indeed, both these films have been taken to represent apotheoses of classical filmmaking.2
