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
Full Review
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
Full Review
dave j
Co-written and directed by Louis Malle based on some of his own experiences and on actual characters, which opens like "Rules of the Game" where the title character, Lacombe Lucien played by Pierre Blaise uses his slingshot to kill a bird whistling while on top of a tree before game hunting rabbits. Luciwen is very destructive but not sufficient or mature enough to join the underground French movement. He is then taken under the wing of some French policemen working for the gestapo.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
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
Full Review
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
Full Review
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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