dlma1 M
Watched Lacombe, Lucien (1974) by Louis Malle last night on the Criterion Channel. I somehow had missed this one and hadn't seen it before. With a superb music score by Django Reinhardt, great cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli and fine direction by Malle, it is the story of a young man (Pierre Blaise, in his debut) in 1944 France. Pierre Blaise's character attempts to join the resistance but is rejected as too young so, of all things he joins the Carlingue, a group of French collaborators who helped the Gestapo! I can't go any further without being accused of spoiling the plot, so all I can say is that I recommend the film. 8/10. A note that Malle eventually left France under pressure because of his unflattering but accurate portrayal of Frenchmen during WWII (after the war every Frenchman seemed to claim to be a member of the Resistance!).
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
06/29/23
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dave s
In Louis Malle's Lacombe, Lucien, 18-year-old Lucien (Pierre Blaise) shows all the signs of a sociopath –hostility, aggression, a lack of empathy, and a disregard for the welfare of others, among other things. Set in 1944 France, Lucien, repugnant to the core, joins the Gestapo after being refused by Resistance forces, turning his back on his countrymen for his own narcissistic gain. Lacombe, Lucien is one of Malle's finer character studies, an examination of the origin of evil and how that evil takes root. It is bolstered by strong writing, some interesting characters (including France {Aurore Clement}, Lucien's Jewish girlfriend), and great performances throughout, making it one of Malle's best films.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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Audience Member
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Patrick Modiano, co-writer of this 1974 French film. Pierre Blaise gives a standout performance as the title character Lucien Lacombe, an enigmatic young man rejected by the Resistance in 1944 and instead stumbling into a role as a member of the Gestapo. The character is somewhat enigmatic and never successfully sympathetic but instead young, apathetic, selfish, cruel, quick to take advantage of his unexpected new powers as a German policeman but forced to face the consequences of the war, especially after he falls in love with a young Jewish woman.
The movie is tense and suspenseful precisely because it is always unclear what Lacombe will do next, even after he begins to realize that he is probably on the wrong side of the war.
One of the more disturbing aspects of the film is the apparent lack of rules about harming animals during the filming. There are some really gruesome dispatches of animals that reflect the time and culture and add to the character's cruelty and the bleakness of the film. This is not an enjoyable movie to watch but it is incredibly well done and its commentary about war and complicity will likely always be timely.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/16/23
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Audience Member
Louis Malle has set himself a particularly difficult challenge here: to compose a character study of an inarticulate man-child. But he has a purpose, for Lucien Lacombe is meant to represent the kind of French adolescent who might have been drawn to collaborate with the Nazis during the Occupation. He's not mature yet and vaguely frustrated with his lot (working at a nursing home in a small rural community) - he might be willing to join the Resistance but is turned down for being too young and unfocused. So, he is easily seduced by the power and decadence of the collaborators. As others have suggested, Malle (like Marcel Ophuls in The Sorrow and the Pity) has aimed to portray the "banality of evil" as produced by average individuals who, under other circumstances, probably wouldn't have acted this way. That is an open question for sure but the combination of person (Lacombe, Lucien) and situation (Vichy, France) may ignite to produce horrors. When Lucien becomes attracted to a young Jewish girl, the Gestapo power he possesses allows him to act willfully and to initiate actions that have terrible consequences; we just aren't sure whether he fully understands what he's doing. If this is really how evil materializes, we will all need to be on our guard.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
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Audience Member
good WWII chronicle gr8 music by django reinhardt
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
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Audience Member
This movie feels incomplete. Our main character, Lucien, is completely devoid of personality: he seems bored or indifferent to everything in a way that would shame Kristen Stewart. He tries to join the French Resistance not because he believes in anything but because he wants excitement. When he is refused, he promptly joins the Gestapo and gives them the names of everyone in the Underground. If he does it out of spite, none is shown.
Lucien uses his new power like a little kid who's discovered a gun. He ruins the lives of a Jewish family because he wants to have sex with the daughter. The father (probably the only sympathetic character) knows he has no way out with Lucien as a Gestapo member but the daughter hardly cares. Even after her father is sent away (most likely to a death camp), she follows him into the wilderness like a Stockholm Syndrome patient. Fittingly, her name is France.
There are so many parts of the story that don't add up: why does the father march into the Gestapo headquarters risking his family's safety? Why does the maid stay with the Germans when she knows the war will end soon and what does she even see in Lucien? Is Lucien's mother just fine with her son turning her neighbors over the Germans? The ending goes absolutely nowhere.
I guess the intention in Lucien's character is that there's no motive, emotion, or remorse. He kills people like he kills rabbits. There's no difference for him. Perhaps that's supposed to make him frightening, but it doesn't, he just comes across and simplistic and boring. The Criterion pamphlet that came with this DVD explains that he's supposed to be an everyday, ordinary person, but Lucien isn't because there's not the audience can identify with. He's just a hollow person.
This is pretty unrelated, but the animal abuse in this movie is pretty terrible.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
Full Review
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