#329: MALLE, Louis: Lacombe, Lucien (1974)

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3 FILMS BY LOUIS MALLE {Spine #327}

MALLE, Louis (France)
Lacombe, Lucien [1974]
Spine #329
DVD


One of the first French films to address the issue of collaboration during the German occupation, Louis Malle's brave and controversial Lacombe, Lucien traces a young peasant's journey from potential Resistance member to Gestapo recruit. At once the story of a nation and of one troubled boy, the film is a disquieting portrait of lost innocence and guilt.

138 minutes
Color
Monaural
in French
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2006
Director/Writers


Screenplay by Louis Malle and Patrick Modiano.

We know Lucien Lacombe (Pierre Blaise) is a monster when he surreptitiously pulls out his slingshot and kills a chirping bird.

Malle makes his devastatingly simple point early on when Lucien asks the schoolteacher (Jean Bousquet) if he can join the Resistance. Rejected as too young — and at odds with his stepfather — he informs on the teacher to the French Gestapo at the first opportunity.

He’s soon swimming in cash and clothes — his golf-pants suit is made by a Jewish tailor escaped from Paris, Albert Horn (Holger Löwenadler). There he meets the daughter, France Horn (Aurore Clément).

[A richly drawn character, she plays the piano very well — convincingly practicing Beethoven.]

The stone-faced grandmother, Bella Horn (Thérèse Giehse), is usually playing solitaire. It is therefore refreshing to see her in a different light by the final act …

Malle’s craftsmanship is on display throughout.

Film Rating (0-60):

54

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-page booklet featuring an essay by Pauline Kael.

“There’s no special magic involved in the moviemaking technique — it’s simple, head-on, unforced. The movie is the boy’s face. The magic is in the intense curiosity and intelligence behind the film — in Malle’s perception that the answers to our questions about how people with no interest in politics become active participants in brutal torture are to be found in Lucien’s plump-cheeked, narrow-eyed face, and that showing us what this boy doesn’t react to can be the most telling of all.”

Commentary

None.

Original theatrical trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

34

54 + 34 =

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