Lacombe, Lucien (1974) User Reviews

The arrogance and naivety of youth.

[hitchcockthelegend · 9/10 · 17 August 2008]

Having been rejected by the Resistance for being too young, teenager Lucien Lacombe joins the Gestapo in a show of defiance. But upon falling for the daughter of a Jewish tailor, Lucien begins to view his actions in a very different light.

Louis Malle was never a director to worry about public opinion, having ruffled feathers with his intellectual study of incest in 1971s, Soufflé au coeur, Le, he practically ostracised himself with this simmering collaboration piece. Tho it has to be said that the sheer weight of the fall out in his home country would surely have taken him by surprise, however, what remains to this day is a highly accomplished character piece that engrosses from the get go. It's now something of common knowledge that Malle drew from his own upbringing by way of motivation in some of his work, how much of this particular story affected him is not entirely clear, but what isn't in doubt is that the directors time during the occupation of France lends this piece an aura of honesty, it feels personal, and the result is very special indeed.

Each individual viewer can interpret the sequence of events as they may, but just maybe Lacombe Lucien is a simple portrayal of a missed opportunity, and this missed opportunity coupled with naivety bred the wickedness that is viewed in the film. The theme of betrayal hangs heavy in the story, and the mere fact that Malle refused to take sides with his outlaying of the story, only furthers the sense of intrigue that covers the viewer come the stunning ending, an ending that creeps up on you and begs you for another thought process.

Sadly, first time actor Pierre Blaise would perish in a road accident a year after Lacombe Lucien's release, his portrayal of the title character is truly wonderful and it leaves a truly fitting epitaph indeed. Lacombe Lucien is highly recommended cinema, uneasy and itchy at times for sure, but it's never less than masterful in its approach on either side of the camera. 9/10

or the portrait of a young man, victim of his naivety

[dbdumonteil · 9/10 · 19 October 2002]

When this movie was released in 1974, it created a huge scandal and strong controversies because it was the first movie about the second world war to introduce a collaborator and not a resistant as a main character. Louis Malle was surely affected by these controversies and he decided to escape into the dream and imagination in his next film: the odd and underrated "Black Moon". So the main character here, Lucien Lacombe, is a member of the German police but he didn't choose this situation because he is anti-semitic or he's fond of Nazi thesis. It's simply because he is a victim of his naivety and of his foolishness and he's easy to persuade. Several times in the movie, you are under the impression that he doesn't know what he's doing or saying (for example, when he's drinking champagne with Albert Horn, a Jew tailor and his daughter France). On the other hand, the stroke is responsible of Lucien's entrance in the collaboration: the school teacher doesn't want him to enter the Resistance because he's too young, he had a flat tyre.... Moreover, the action takes place in june 1944 and it's not the right era: it's nearly the end of the war I also noticed that the collaborators were initiating him into several activities (at one moment, one of them is learning him to fire with a browning) without taking care of his opinion. With all these happenings, Lucien's behaviour is changing: he becomes rough, haughty, scornful, takes advantage of his wealthy life and committs a few errors ( Horn is under arrest due to him and he didn't want it to happen). At the end, Pierre Blaise provides a great calibre in his main rôle and thanks to this, the film is strong, powerful and remain one of Malle's best films.

Note: the movie was inspired by a real fact: during the second world war in France, a young collaborator had arrested and killed numerous resistants.

when he falls in love with a Jewish girl...

[tenebrisis · 9/10 · 18 October 2013]

Louis Malle's film about the German occupation of France is based on his own experiences during that time, when he was a teenager (Malle was born in 1932) The young man is Lucien Lacombe, and he is 17 in 1944, when the German war machine has started to fall apart. He lives in occupied France, and as we get to know him, we realize he's a moral cipher with no point of view at all toward the momentous events surrounding him. He's not stupid, but his interest in the war is limited mostly to the daily ways it affects him directly.

It affects him at home, where his mother lives with her lover (his father is missing in action). It affects him at work, where he labors in his boring job at the hospital. A lot of the young men in the town are members of the underground resistance movement. They carry guns, are involved in secret schemes and don't have to mop floors. Lucien approaches the local resistance and asks to join, but he's turned away because he's too young. He wants desperately (if "desperately" isn't too strong a word for such a taciturn character) to break the mold of his life, and since the resistance won't have him, he joins the local Gestapo. This is crazy, we're thinking. Lucien joins the Gestapo almost absentmindedly, and then this bright Jewish girl falls for a guy like that. But Louis Malle's point is a complex one. Neither of these people can quite see beyond their immediate circumstances. They're young, uninformed, naive, and the fact is that adolescent sex appeal is a great deal more meaningful to them than all the considerations of history.

Louis Malle, whose previous film was the bittersweet and lovely "Murmur of the Heart" (1971), gave himself a difficult assignment this time. His film isn't really about French collaborators, but about a particular kind of human being, one capable of killing and hurting, one incapable of knowing or caring about his real motives, one who would be a prime catch for basic training and might make a good soldier and not ask questions.

As played by Pierre Blaise, a young forester who had never acted before (and who died in a road crash a few years later), Lucien is a victim trapped in his own provincialism and lack of curiosity. Louis Malle seems almost to be examining the mentality of someone like the war criminals at My Lai -- technicians of murder who hardly seemed to be troubled by their actions. That's the achievement of "Lacombe, Lucien." But what Louis Malle is never quite able to do is to make us care about Lucien, who is so morally illiterate that his choices, even the good ones, seem randomly programmed. Perhaps to show that illiteracy is the point of the film.

Brilliant and Complex Story of Innocence Lost

[howard.schumann · 5 August 2002]

Lacombe Lucien is an understated yet complex story of innocence corrupted by war. Though commercially successful, the film was judged harshly in France by critics on the Left because of its non-judgmental stance toward collaboration. Indeed, the film offers no psychological interpretations but is content to simply show what happened in almost Bressonian fashion (Malle worked as an assistant with Bresson in producing a documentary).

Based on the childhood memories of Louis Malle, Lacombe Lucien tells the story of Lucien (Pierre Blaise) a rural French teenager who, having been rejected by the French resistance in 1944, joins with the German occupiers and becomes an enforcer. It is brilliant in its understated portrait of how self-interest and pride can lead to regrettable choices.

Lucien lives with his mother together with another man while his father remains a prisoner of war. With limited education and lacking sophistication, Lucien is angered when his desire to join the underground is rejected because of his youth. Instead, he opportunistically becomes a member of the German police and soon takes on the persona of a surly thug. Malle makes clear that Lucien is neither fundamentally good nor bad, but only becomes involved with the Gestapo through a series of accidental circumstances. Though the film implies that Lucien is attracted to the Gestapo as a means for an individual without status or power to achieve a sense of self worth, ultimately Lucien must take responsibility for his choice.

He becomes involved with Albert Horn (Holger Lowenadler), a wealthy Jewish tailor from Paris, his mother Bella (Therese Giehse) who has lived in an Eastern European ghetto, and his young daughter France (Aurore Clement) who is totally Parisian and uncomfortable with her Jewish heritage. Their relationship becomes the turning point for Lucien's struggle to come to grips with who he is and retain his humanity. Though I felt repelled by Lucien's actions during the film, I also sympathized with his plight and understood the circumstances that led to his corruption. I felt he was moving toward self-awareness before the end of the film.

Lacombe Lucien poses moral questions about the point that innocence and immorality meet, and with its almost matter-of-fact style, the powerful conclusion almost takes us unaware. I found the film to be gripping and heartfelt and I would strongly recommend it. Pierre Blaise, in his first acting role as Lucien, turns in a performance of raw power. Unfortunately he was killed just one year later in an auto accident at the age of 24.

Masterpiece

[Chris Knipp · 10/10 · 15 August 2006]

Lucien, the provincial teenager who tries to join the resistance and when rejected becomes a Gestapo killer, may be more innocent and ignorant as well as more brutish than the average Frenchman of the occupation; but many French people must have fallen into collaboration like this. The period was rife with troubling complicity. Released at last in a fine US DVD version by Criterion Collection available with Murmur of the Heart (1971) and Goodbye, Children (1987), this rich, powerful work is not one for US film buffs to miss. This trio from Malle reveals him to be the New Wave's premier chronicler of the moral complexities and tragedies of the coming-of-age process.

For the lead role Malle found the remarkable Pierre Blaise, tragically killed in a car accident a year after release. A youth without previous acting experienced but with the provincial accent Malle couldn't find among professionals, Blaise combines the cherubic and the dangerous, the brutish and the sweetly innocent. Sullen yet ineluctably present, Blaise has great presence and essentially makes the film. In a French TV interview with Malle at the time still available online Malle says Blaise was compared with Delon. Blaise turned out to be "very, very gifted," Malle adds.

The atmosphere of this interview, incidentally, suggests that in some circles not everyone in France was as violently upset by or opposed to the film as we are now told. After all, Le Monde did hail Lacombe as a masterpiece initially, even if they recanted and called it "dangerous" later. "Dangerous" is a strange criticism for a film, a sort of backhanded flattery.

When considering the moral ambiguity of the piece, it's worth considering Allociné's commentary, which points out the following: "Malle adopted a Marxist approach in looking at the collaboration. He stated that his Lucien was inspired by Marx's concept of the lumpenproletariat as a social class with no choice other than to collaborate with the forces of repression because its members have no political culture available to them. Thus in the filmmaker's mind Lucien Labombe's enlistment in the militia was a choice determined not by ideology but by a need to gain material comfort and better his social position." This is in fact a classic "collabo" situation: while some supporters of the German occupation did so because of fascist, anti-Semitic beliefs, many more did it for expediency. It was the armée des ombres (to use Jean-Pierre Melville's title), the résistence "shadow army," whose members acted out of idealism. The determinism and sheer stupidity of Lucien's enlistment is underlined by the fact that it's late in the war: the Americans are coming, the Germans are losing, and the French resistance is inflicting daily casualties on the closest collaborators, as we see when Lucien's French Gestapo bosses get wounded and killed.

Lucien's lumpenproletariat helplessness couldn't be made clearer. Lucien begins with a job emptying bedpans. His father is prisoner of the Germans. His mother is living with another man and tells him not to come around any more. His prospects are grim. He has no status -- not even the comfort of parents. Though he's an ignorant boy, he has the solid (lumpen) physique of a man, and he also has a certain brutality: we see him kill first a small bird with a sling shot, then rabbits and chickens, and each time this is a gesture in response to being put down or rejected. Yet he has confidence. He asks his schoolteacher to take him into the maquis, but the man rejects him out of hand as too young, useless ("we have many like you"). By chance -- a tire blowout on his rickety bike -- he falls into a den of Gestapo collaborators. He's not daunted; he recognizes a bike champion among them and drinks with the men and with his tongue thus loosened, in an act of childish revenge whose dire consequences he probably doesn't know (and which are initially hidden from him), he informs on the teacher. He's soon taken to meet Albert Horn, an elegant Jewish tailor from Paris in hiding with his mother and daughter (Aurore Clément, intense in her first screen role). Horn makes a suit for Lucien, later another: they become his new uniform, an escape from his peasant identity and stepping stone to the power, status, and money that are why he's playing this deadly game.

On the way to the tailor in a collaborator's posh, sporty convertible, Malle brilliantly has Lucien try on a pair of big sunglasses -- which instantly transform him. By dint of this little gesture, the country bumpkin -- with his clear skin, rich wavy dark hair, and strong bone structure -- instantly becomes a blasé movie star. Coming of age in this film means sexiness, transformation, danger. Malle's teenagers all live in adult worlds of moral transgression but retain the prettiness and innocence of youth. What comes next clinches the moral ambiguity of Lucien's role: he falls in love with the very Parisian but still Jewish daughter of Monsieur Horn.

Lucien wields his new power crudely -- he has no finesse, only self-confidence and a well-tailored suit -- but he is drawn to Horn as a substitute father and to the daughter because she -- who herself rejects her Jewishness -- represents urban sophistication as well as femininity. Why does the tellingly named France (Horn takes no political or moral stand himself, but does love the country) sleep with Lucien? There are half a dozen very good reasons. The trajectory of Lacombe Lucien troubles us and makes us weep.

Pierre Blaise 1952 - 1975

[marcosaguado · 10/10 · 30 December 2004]

The news of the untimely death of Pierre Blaise in 1975 entered my brain in the shape and spirit of his memorable character in Louis Malle's remarkable film. Lacombe Lucien is dead. The marriage of character and actor was so profound that it was impossible to separate them. Pierre Blaise, in Louis Malle's hands had given us a unique, unrepeatable portrait of a young man walking the tightest rope, without actually knowing it. The innocence of his brutality is something we have never seen in film before or since. I saw the film again last night, first time in over 20 years, and there it was, beautiful Pierre Blaise, his portrait, with the passing of time, has acquired an extra coat of truth. It made me think, with a shiver running down my spine, of Columbine and suicide bombers. What an extraordinary film. Louis Malle, Pierre Blaise I miss you. Lacombe Lucien, however, is still here and will remain here for ever and ever.

Thought Provoking Piece

[gjung01 · 7/10 · 21 August 2006]

French director, Louis Malle's "Lacombe, Lucien" is an honest film about one young man's journey into accidentally becoming a Nazi collaborator during occupied France in the 1940s. Pierre Blaise was not an experienced actor when selected to portray the titular character. This could have been disastrous in most instances but Malle's instincts pay off. Blaise's boyish looks and blank stare are the perfect mix in pulling off the tabula rasa that is capable of evil if the circumstances are right. Lucien works as an orderly and helps out at a farm where his mother is shacking up with the owner while his father is in a German prison camp. He goes through life doing chores and farm work taking delight in killing animals whether it is for food or just for something to do (as in the scene where he kills a song bird out of boredom). This rugged, survivalist approach to life is ideal for a life on the farm in the country, however; the world has changed and after being rejected by his teacher to join the Resistance, Lucien seeks to find his place and purpose. By accident, he has a tire puncture on his bike and finds himself at the collaborator headquarters after curfew. Lucien is accepted by them and given drinks, prestige, money, and fine clothes especially after inadvertently turning in the school teacher who had previously rejected him. Taking to this newfound prestige, Lucien uses his power over a Jewish tailor and his family to court the tailor's beautiful daughter, France, and holds the fact that he can turn them in anytime he likes to force them to accept him and to woo France. Lucien is such a misfit that he has no concept of family and thinks bullying his way into their lives will make them accept them. In a strange way, they begin to grow on each other. The tailor even says, "No matter how hard I try, I find it difficult to dislike you." to him. Even in his very limited way, Lucien grows to care about them but can only go so far as he is completely devoid of emotion when consoling France and forces her into sex after she becomes hysterical about her father being sent away. This film conveyed what is the most troubling about this period of history which is that the people who collaborated were regular people who only cared about getting prestige even though it was temporary and it was hollow and devoid of any integrity. They dance, drink, laugh it up and listen to both the German and English news and "split the difference" in order to get a semblance of the truth. One aspect of these scenes was the Great Dane. The way the dog is filmed it was as though he is subtly performing. Sitting quietly, leading Lucien up the stairway and offering a consoling paw to an upset France. The other intriguing character is that of the hotel maid. A homely looking woman whose face shows a life of hardship, reveals upon initiating Lucien into losing his virginity that she is biding her time until the Americans win which is a certainty, only to hurl anti-semitic insults at France upon seeing her with Lucien. This hatred was not borne of any nazi sympathies but rather her frustration at the fact that France has beauty, youth and is treated as an equal for the party and most of all she has Lucien's affections. Despite the maid's strong feelings for Lucien, he has no feelings for her or most people. His show of affection is throwing money at them whether it is his concerned mother or the Tailor's family after being hurt by him. Up to a tragic conclusion that is merely mentioned in text on the screen, the film is powerful in its' simplicity whether it is in the main character or the seemingly peaceful scenery. The most powerful scenes are between Lucien who is a brute with clout and the tailor who tries to cling to his civilized, bourgeoisie ways despite having lost all prestige and status and is very trepiditious around this boy brandishing this power over him and his family that could destroy them so that he can be accepted by them. I am still thinking about this movie 2 days after watching it, very chilling indeed especially since the young actor, Pierre Blaise would die in a car accident with two companions (Time Magazine, Sept. 1975) a year after the film's release.

Moral ambiguities abound

[bandw · 10/10 · 22 June 2007]

I think you could read history books about what it was like to live in southwestern France in 1944 and never come to as complete an understanding as you get from this film. It takes a look at French collaboration with the Nazis and concentrates on how a young farm boy, Lucien Lacombe, ends up collaborating with the Gestapo. Through Lucien's experiences we come to understand the intense moral complexities of the time. I am sure that this tale opened some old sores for a lot of people.

It's hard to pigeonhole Lucien. In the early going we see that he takes pleasure in killing animals - birds for fun and rabbits for fun and food - but he is also shown to display much tenderness for a horse that has died. These paradoxical qualities manifest later in more significant ways.

When Lucien finds himself stuck mopping floors and emptying bedpans in a local hospital he feels the need to escape that dead-end. First he tries to join the French Resistance and is rejected because he is too young (or perhaps because he is not thought clever enough). Then, due to a random set of circumstances, he winds up being taken into a hotel that is home base for a large group of collaborators. They recognize his potential value and get him drunk and plumb him for knowledge about the Resistance. Feeling some importance at being paid some attention and being attracted to the upscale surroundings, Lucien drifts into the fold of the collaborators. Depressingly Lucien falls in with the collaborators more out of circumstance than political commitment - he is simply enticed by being given some authority (sometimes exercised brutally) and comfortable surroundings. The most disturbing thing about Lucien is that, although he has some charm, where passion or thoughtfulness should reside there appears to be nothing. He never seems to weigh the morality or consequences of his acts.

To complicate matters Lucien is taken by the collaborators to the Jewish tailor Albert Horn (Holger Löwenadler in a great performance) in order to get him out of his peasant's clothes and into something more befitting one who works for the Gestapo. When Lucien sees Horn's daughter, France, he is immediately taken with her. This is where things get really interesting. Independently of any moral or political considerations the movie offers us some great character studies, not only of Lucien, but also of Albert and France. Lucien uses his authority to intrude into the Horns' lives and it is not long before France recognizes some of Lucien's charm. There is palpable tension among the three, but also attraction - the interplay is fascinating. Each has something to offer the others and they all use their bargaining powers with each other. At one point Albert says to Lucien, "It's very strange. Somehow I can't bring myself to completely despise you," and Lucien says he considers Albert a friend. Albert, who hates the German occupation and the fact that Lucien is taking up with his daughter (has an actor ever more poignantly projected such abject sadness as Löwenadler does in several scenes?), sees Lucien as providing a possible escape to Spain and also uses Lucien's authority to confront his landlord when it is convenient for him to do so. In spite of being afraid of Lucien, France is attracted to him and is not immune to the excitements he can offer.

It is no accident that Albert's daughter's name is "France." It is by way of Lucien's love of this woman that a more mature personality emerges in the final scenes.

The most dispiriting message is how drab the whole business of collaboration was. You get the feeling that many of the collaborators were rather ambivalent about their choice, or, even worse, that they had not thought enough about things to have made a choice at all. In one telling scene a woman functionary, whose job it was to open letters from informants, complains about her having broken a fingernail while reading through the mail. You get the feeling that in peacetime these collaborators would be ordinary people in ordinary jobs. Wartime forces people into making choices - if not active choices, then passive. It was hard to resist the little perks of collaboration - even Lucien's mother had few qualms about taking money from her son, knowing where it came from.

While the story is absorbing, one has to be impressed with Malle's artistry in its telling and his choice of actors. I think I have never seen more effective use of close-ups to capture emotion. Malle also uses background images and light and shadow to augment the impact of many scenes. This is a master practicing his art.

There are a couple of bothersome things. The Django Reinhardt track used as background music for the opening credits I thought a little odd. It does not set the appropriate mood for what is to come, enjoyable as it is. And Albert's abrupt personality change toward the end is puzzling - he goes from being cautious (even referring to himself as "fragile") to boldly entering the den of the collaborators, wanting to talk with Lucien. His presence there is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

Minor quibbles aside, in this movie you have a history lesson, a captivating story, fine performances, first-rate cinematography, intense character studies, and the examination of complex moral issues. I would hope that that would be enough to draw you in.

Moral complexities abound in "Lacombe Lucien"...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 24 October 2007]

PIERRE BLAISE is the young man who plays the title character in LACOMBE LUCIEN, the story of an unhappy youth who becomes a Nazi collaborator during WWII in France. It's a fictional account and the young actor was a non-professional chosen for the role who met an untimely death a year later in an auto accident.

He plays a French peasant who falls in love with a Jewish girl while working for the Gestapo. It's an engrossing story dealing with a lot of unpleasant, unsavory situations including scenes of torture and animal cruelty, moving unpredictably through a whole gamut of scenes which give a strong impression of what it must have been like for the French during the war.

For a non-actor, Blaise gives a commanding performance in a film he is forced to carry since the whole story revolves around his behavior, close-up and personal. Malle has to be commended for getting a natural, unforced performance from young Blaise and good work from all the cast members.

Summing up: Although it has a rather abrupt ending, it's a realistic look at Franco/German relations during WWII. The central characters are an interesting lot and the story moves swiftly through its two hours and fifteen minutes time span with gorgeous shots of the French countryside.

The Banality of Evil

[Varlaam · 10/10 · 22 August 1998]

Hannah Arendt's famous phrase sounds custom-made for this film. Young Lucien wants to join the French Resistance, but he's too immature. No problem, the Gestapo's hiring, and it can get so boring during wartime in a small, provincial town.

This film shocked France with its taboo subject of collaboration. They say that anyone can become a torturer. That is where this film's power lies -- Louis Malle lets us confront our heart of darkness. Devastating and unforgettable.

A focus

[Polaris_DiB · 7/10 · 7 August 2006]

Apolitical, amoral, and pretty much apathetic, Lucien is one of those stunning heroes of cinema in that he, even at his most despicable, is an engaging enigma--even to the filmmaker who creates him.

Louis Malle's film is something of a parable of the relationship of French people during the German occupation, revolving around the character of a young man who joins the Gestapo. He's pretty much heartless, but something of his stern apathy seems telling of... something. This boy we follow as he sells out his own school teacher, gets his hands on his hope of power (the ultimate phallic symbol, a gun), and tries to woo France (the girl whose name sets up an obvious metaphor for the country itself).

The metaphor works from Lucien's perspective, as the love, hate, and sometimes sardonic relationship the two have entirely encompasses the disassociation a lot of the French must have had at the time, but it doesn't work so much as a roundly developed character from France's perspective. This movie is largely a character study of Lucien, but it misses out on the character of his chere, the girl who is even hidden from the camera's view when she doesn't have use for Lucien's development. Again, as a symbol she works, but as a woman she doesn't. I'm sorry, but I don't buy anyone falling in love with their one-time rapist.

On the most part, the movie is an effective and engaging look at something many of the French wanted to simply demonetize and denounce. If it weren't for some strange character development in France and some holes in the editing (especially during the end, when things seem to just happen with no explanation except that they're supposed to happen), it would have been a masterpiece.

--PolarisDiB

One of Malle's finest comes to DVD

[cassreino · 10/10 · 18 December 2005]

Of all of the hundreds of foreign films I've seen through my 42 years, one has stood out in mind – a film I first saw in 1979 and again in 1980. "Lacombe, Lucien," director Louis Malle's searing, powerful film of innocence lost and how power corrupts, is one of the great films in French cinema. That the French themselves criticized the film on its initial release is amazing. That this film has gone for so long without a proper DVD release is unforgivable. The drought of its release to home video is about to end. The Criterion Collection is releasing "Lacombe, Lucien" as part of a three film box set retrospective on Mallle's French films ("Au Revoir Les Infant" and "Murmus of the Heart," two great Malle's features in their own right). "Lacombe, Lucien" also will be available separately by itself. Either way, modern American audiences will finally be able to see this film. And they won't be disappointed. Malle's film tells the story about a young French boy who joins the Nazis and snubs the French Resistance during the German occupation of France. From the powerful performances all the way to Malle's meticulous production design that beautifully recreates period France, this film is unbeatable. As much as I enjoy watching Truffaut films, nothing compares to the genius of Malle. From his French films to his American productions, Malle truly was a genius of the cinema. I suggest you buy the three-film retrospective. Or at the least, but "Lacombe Lucien."

Despicable Collaborationist

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 12 October 2011]

In 1944, in the southwest of France, the teenager Lucien Lacombe (Pierre Blaise) works in a nursing home and returns to his hometown Souleillac for vacation. His father is a German's prisoner and he finds that his mother is living with her master Mr. Laborit (Jacques Rispal). Lucien seeks out the local schoolteacher and leader of the French Resistance Mr. Peyssac (Jean Bousquet) to join the group, but the man tells that he is too young and will not be accepted.

Lucien returns to his job riding a bicycle and he has a flat tire. He arrives late in town and the German police bring him to a hotel and Lucien snitches Mr. Peyssac that is arrested and tortured. Lucien is invited to join the police by the Chief of Police Mr. Tonin (Jean Rougerie) and takes advantages of his new position. When Lucien visits the Jewish tailor Albert Horn (Holger Löwenadler) to make new clothing, he sees his beautiful daughter France (Aurore Clément) and forces her to date him. Later Albert is arrested and when France and her grandmother Bella Horn (Therese Giehse) are hold by the Germans, Lucien kills the German soldier and flees with them to the countryside.

"Lacombe Lucien" tells the fictional story of a despicable collaborationist in World War II. The brainless Lacombe Lucien is an alienated and wicked teenager without any sense of patriotism, morality, emotion, love or respect, and uses his power to hurt people. I do not recall any other film with a collaborationist in the leading role.

The wooden Pierre Blaise keeps the same expression along the whole film and I do not know whether this is intentional to show how alienated his character is or whether he is simply a ham actor. The conclusion is very disappointing. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Lacombe Lucien"

Great film? I don't think so!

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 4/10 · 8 April 2011]

Sometimes so-called great movies fail with certain audiences no matter how much we put ourselves into the experience and how many brilliant things we heard about them. Ingmar Bergman didn't like "Citizen Kane"; Robert Altman didn't like "Titanic", and I tried with all my best to appreciate the acclaimed "Lacombe Lucien" but it simply didn't work for me.

The story: Pierre Blaise plays the title character, a French 18 year-old boy who joins the German police and the Nazis after being refused to work along with the French Resistance during WWII. Here's a guy with an ambition whatever that might be in his case, lots of initiative but no brain, no heart, no consideration for politics and his part in his country, doesn't fully understand what he's doing by betraying his own nation. And amidst of that he gets involved with a Jewish family, the father who works as a tailor, the mother, and the young daughter for whom Lacombe has a sexual relationship (don't even think on reading reviews out there saying that he's in love with her because he's not. She's the only cute girl in town, and he gets near her because of that but that doesn't mean he loves her. Nothing in the movie says he's in love with her, he likes her, uses his power over her to not say a harsh word about his acts but to like someone doesn't always means you love someone).

How come we could possibly care about someone who doesn't have any trace of idealism? How could I care about an ignorant, obnoxious, heartless, animal killer (for real, by the way), traitor of his country who didn't even bother of showing us why he does the things he does? I couldn't care at all! The whole time I expected something to happen, something that would reveal how wars change people for good and bad, and a possible reason of why Lucien is the way he is, but nothing happened. The only good soul of this film (and the great performance too) is the tailor played by Holger Löwenadler, he's the only wise guy here, the only one who isn't naive or ignorant to know what's going on, he managed to survive the war with his skills with clothes requested by the French who collaborates with the German police. But even his wisdom failed when he needed the most and things go wrong with him.

Can we call Lacombe of innocent? I don't think so. His father was arrested by the Germans, the situation at his home wasn't good, he tried to be part of the French resistance and end up being a German officer, getting paid for that. He knows that there's a war, things are hard but he shouldn't be dumb enough to join the other side. If he wanted to do something about things he should act alone without taking sides, after all he had a gun. The only innocence move about Lucien is that he thought that killing rabbits would make him part of the Resistance, and that didn't work. When I was at Lucien's age, and even younger, I was fully aware about political conscience, what moral stands for and all but what Malle gives us here makes you wonder about this: if we were on Lucien's position would we be doing the same things? Only for a little bit of money, power and some life experience? It's intriguing.

I watched "Lacombe Lucien" in a completely state of bewilderment in the sense of trying to discover what was the problem with this kid, I wanted motivations, reasons for what and why he did things. A voice-over would be nice, more dialogs of him, even if he had to talk with himself about things, something! Since the main actor followed a script and director's instructions I can't complain about his natural and realistic acting, after all he lived enough to make this film only, dying after a few months of the release.

This is the first time that I disapprove a film directed by Louis Malle, he could make so much better here but we can't always like everything in the world. 4/10.

A powerful film about a grim historical period.

[michael-blank · 30 March 2006]

I think this film was the one that really opened my eyes as to just how horrible life was in France under the German occupation and led to my great interest in almost any film depicting the era, or even better, newsreels.

A young man develops the power of life or death over others by "accidentally" joining the Gestapo-even the French police are forced to defer to him. We see the casual brutality of the French Gestapo, the tell-tale denunciation letters, the deportation of Jews.

An excellent portrait of how unpleasant everyday life could be under the occupation-a fascinatingly horrible historical period.

Realistic portrayal of human weakness

[zimmer-17 · 9/10 · 9 July 2006]

Louis Malle is a master of representing human behavior in a believable manner. By avoiding stereotypical characters, the director maintains a more intense level of suspense due to the unpredictability of the main protagonists. All the performances are excellent especially Pierre Blaise and Aurore Clement as Lucien and France. In my old age, I find French and Italian films present women in a much more interesting and appealing manner than American films where they tend to be little more than eye candy or character studies with minimal sensuality. Virginia Madsen's portrayal of Maya in Sideways is one of the few American performances that can compare with Aurore Clement as France or Jeanne Moreau in Le Notte. Male European directors undoubtedly have a better and more mature understanding of the female psyche. The untimely death of Pierre Blaise shorty after the completion of this film only adds to the importance of this work since he displays a unique talent which was tragically cut short. Weaknesses in the film are a limited portrayal of the resistance fighters and a truncated ending which did not segue well with the final scene.

Cruelty, love, and survival in Provincial France, WWII

[secondtake · 9/10 · 4 February 2011]

Lacombe, Lucien (1974)

A disturbing and sad movie about surviving the Nazi occupation in France. It's unlike any other film of its type, turning from tender to ruthless in a breath, and from joyous to ghastly just as fast. And though the Nazis are behind the violence and fear, they play a mostly indirect role in the cornering of a small Jewish family in the countryside. This is a tale about French and French, about the Resistance against collaborators.

And it's told from the point of view of the collaborators, a gang of opportunistic thugs who have taken over an old hotel and who terrorize, with German supplied documents, ordinary citizens. The title character is Lucien, an utterly heartless but somehow, at times, sympathetic boy who gets pulled into the lure of these thugs. But he shows a scary detachment from all feeling, even from love at first, and certainly from respect for life. There is a hint that he grew to think human life was cheap from his days hunting and killing animals without a flinch as a youth, but it could be the movie is showing that he had almost a disorder, something that made him unfeeling even for the most ordinary, harmless, vulnerable things. I think the former is more accurate, though, because his hunting rabbits and killing a chicken with his hands were probably (and still are) part of country life where rabbit and chicken were part of the cuisine.

But it's people who will eventually be his target, and he is not like his older counterparts. He doesn't want the spoils of war, not money or finery, resisting at first even the suit the Jewish tailor is ordered to make for him. It is here the movie gets to what matters. Lucien is ignorant enough to not quite see why this Jewish man is any different than other men, but he catches on when others around him make clear the Jew is only alive and in hiding as their choice. I guess they need a good tailor, and they need the man's money (the tailor pays when he makes the suits, it seems). The complication of a beautiful (and very French looking) daughter takes some of the expected turns, but not completely, because this very young man doesn't really know how to behave, or how to fall in love.

The director, Louis Malle, is a legend of French cinema, and later even of American cinema. He depends on location shooting, natural light, and naturalistic acting to give every scene a believability that is both beautiful and at times uncanny, especially combined with violence to animals. The lead actor, Pierre Blase, is almost too convincing in his cool and relatively mindless determination. The tailor, played by Holger Löwenadler, a Swedish actor, is a model of patience and continual assessment, trying to play the game with the thugs for his survival. His daughter is less fully realized, with Aurore Clement playing this charming and innocent girl withheld from normal life by the war. But she does in fact learn to love Lucien in her own way, and he responds in his own way.

Needless to say, the end is tragic and rather perfect. And the whole troubling two hours getting there will leave you moved, for sure, but also enlightened. The problem of loyalty and survival takes on new light here.

Good film

[Cosmoeticadotcom · 7/10 · 14 September 2008]

Every so often a director makes an inspiring casting choice to not hire a real actor for a role, but go with an unknown, an amateur. Perhaps the best example of this was in Vittorio De Sica's 1952 film Umberto D., wherein he cast Carlo Battisti, a retired college professor from the University of Florence, as the lead character. Yet, not that far behind has to be Louis Malle's decision to caste the lead character for his 1974 film, Lacombe, Lucien with an amateur named Pierre Blaise. No actor would likely be able to capture the natural ferality that Blaise brings to the role of a none too bright French farm boy who unwittingly, at first, becomes an accomplice and collaborator with the Gestapo in the final months of Vichy France, in late 1944.

He is not evil, even though the film abounds with moments of animal cruelty that seem to delight both the actor and character to such a degree that separating the two of them is nearly an impossible task. Then there is the utter grunting stolidity that Blaise brings to the role. Any real actor would likely have gone over the top, trying to 'make a scene' where the film dictates the character need only be in the margins of the scene. And, the truth is that there is little to be had from each scene. The screenplay is assured but minimal, but that feels right, as we sort of wander through scene after scene of evil and violence with the same lack of bearing that Blaise/Lacombe does….In some ways, Lacombe has much in common with Stanley Kubrick's thuggish Little Alex, from A Clockwork Orange, save that he is more restrained and realistic. He also never really changes in the film- he starts and ends the tale as an impassive and predatory Sphinx who could have easily become a Resistance hero as a Vichy thug, if only his bicycle's back tire had not blown out near the local Vichy leaders' home. Perhaps this is why Albert tells him that, despite his abuse of his family, 'Somehow I can't bring myself to completely despise you.' Neither can the viewer of this film, which is why the complex and probing Malle is a much better filmmaker than the obvious and often preachy works of his New Wave rivals, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. But, I need not even state such a case, when his films do all the talking necessary. Sssh…..hear that?

The response to Army Of Shadows

[searchanddestroy-1 · 10/10 · 11 April 2020]

I could not prevent myself to think about Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpiece Army Of Shadows, treating of the same period, from the other side, the resistance movement, but nearly exactly in the same manner. The lead character is the other side of Lino Ventura" one Philippe Gerbier, a very ambivalent character, not a hero, nor a good guy, a person whom the audience can hardly knows what to think about. Here, the young milician, the young "traitor" is showed in the very same way. I love this. The tale of a man whose fate is already known in advance, a fate with no hope. The story of a fight lost in advance. The tale of a tragedy. and the depiction of those who collaborated with Nazis,and who behaved with their own fellow citizens in a far worse manner, has never been evoked before. But one last thing, was there really a Black milician among the collaborators?

A dark, yet human portrait

[Dr_Lector · 7/10 · 26 May 2010]

Louis Malle's 'Lacombe Lucien' is chiefly a character study.

The title character Lucien is a troubled and confused young man in a troubled and confused time. Instead of a heroic character with conviction Malle presents us with the traitor, the Nazi collaborator. At the film's onset Lucien attempts to join the French resistance, and is rejected. Perhaps because of his wounded pride, or thirst for action he then joins the German police and turns in the resistance leader who refused him. Malle gives us this dark young man and seems to ask the question, is he human? Lucien is uneducated, uncultured, unsure, and unimportant. He does not have wit, style, or charm. Although he is a collaborator he does not seem to share the conviction of the Germans, rather his collaboration comes out of a desire for some measure of power and importance. He seems to always chose the wrong thing, and yet as one character puts it "It's strange, I can't bring myself to completely despise you". But Malle's portrait is not a sympathetic one. The viewer will hardly feel sorry, or aligned with Lucien. Despite all this he remains human. Even though he seems to move through life in a somewhat robotic and detached fashion we are left with small glimpses of his humanity. He falls for a young Jewish girl, yet his affair with her is possessive and controlling.

His fate, as revealed at the film's conclusion, is not surprising or undeserved, but in a way it is still tragic. It is tragic because Lucien was a young man who perhaps lacked the knowledge and conviction to do the right thing. Lucien is certainly what he has been made by his self and his own decisions, but he is also a product of the times. When Lucien finally does make the right choice we begin to see a laughing and more carefree and human side of him. His story is tragic because by the time he chooses to do the right thing it is too late.

Apart from Malle's distinctive style this film is quite different from his other coming of age tales, because Lucien seems to lack the kind of youthful joy which Malle captures so well. This is the film's only drawback: it is not pleasant, it is not fun. Lucien is not all that relatable. But this is because the times were not pleasant, not fun, and not relatable.

Of course anyone who is watching one of Louis Malle film's goes in looking for art, but so often his art is fun and enjoyable. This is not one of those films; it is dark and serious. But, even though the portrait Malle paints is dark, it is human and it is vivid.

Another Malle masterpiece

[zetes · 10/10 · 29 June 2009]

Fantastic WWII movie about occupation-era France. Lucien Lacombe (Pierre Blaise) is a hulking teenage farmboy nobody. When he hears about the resistance, he tries to join up with it but is rejected by the school teacher who does the recruiting. A short while later, he inadvertently gives up the teacher to a group of Frenchmen working with the Nazis. He's slightly upset at his mistake, but when he is welcomed by these collaborators, he thinks he's found a place to fit in. Plus, as one of the few French people who is pretty much free to do whatever he likes, he begins to throw his weight around. This mostly takes the form of a "friendship" he forms with his tailor, a half-Jewish foreigner over whom he has absolute power. He intimidates the man (wonderfully played by Holger Löwenadler) and openly (and threateningly) hits on his daughter (Aurore Clément). Malle's film is best when it just observes the characters interacting. It's very slow moving, but the power struggle between the characters is fascinating. It is a film where you're pretty much always going to despise the protagonist, but one can also sense the humanity in him.

Behind the Scenes in Vichy France

[atlasmb · 7/10 · 12 May 2014]

"Lacombe,Lucien" is the story of Lucien--a young Frenchman--during the occupation of France by Nazi Germany. This is a very unglamorous story. Although it occurs during WWII, there are no dramatic battle scenes, no tales of spies or political intrigue.

Lucien aligns himself with the Germans, not because of his political persuasions, but because they allowed him to join their ranks. He is a relatively unemotional person. His approach to life seems to be purely pragmatic. Until he finds himself attracted to a young Jewish woman named France.

Bt this is not a love story. There is little passion involved. Lucien's life seems to be about trading commodities, including favors and threats. France is a weary country, occupied and insulted. The Jews who live in the small town where France and her family live try to become invisible while they eke out a meager existence.

"Lacombe, Lucien" is not a true story, but is based upon the wartime experiences of its director, Louis Malle. It might be said to sympathize with those who gravitated toward the Vichy side of things, but only because it does not condemn them. Clearly, every Frenchman was a victim. The quotidian approach of this film allows the viewer to consider a moment in French history without hyperbole.

Collaborators

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 3 October 2011]

A tragic page in the history of France is examined in this disturbing account about the rise of a young man who went to the enemy's side after being rejected to join the resistance movement. Lucien, a peasant youth with no future, is stuck as a janitor in a old folks home, which he clearly hates. At home, Lucien has to put up with the indignity of seeing his own mother who is having an affair with the landlord of the farm where they live, while the father is held prisoner by the Germans.

All along, one can witness a mean streak in Lucien. We watch him pull his sling shot to kill a small bird senselessly. He is an avid hunter, as witnessed when he goes after rabbits, something that in the war torn country comes in handy. We also see him beheading a chicken at the farm. The only way to go, in his mind is by joining the traitors that are collaborating with the invading Germans.

Jean-Bernard, one of the French collaborators, decides to show Lucien the ropes of his new chosen career. It is Jean-Bernard who is in Lucien's eyes a role model, who introduces him to a life style he was not used to. Taking Lucien to get a new suit, the young man meets Horn, a Parisian tailor, who happens to be a Jew. Horn is hoping Jean-Bernard will be able to smuggle with his older mother and his daughter France into neighboring Spain.

Lucien becomes obsessed with France Horn, a beautiful young woman, who happens to be an accomplished pianist. Realizing he can bully Horn in doing whatever he wants, Lucien moves into their apartment, beginning an affair with France, who is repulsed as well as in awe of the power Luien exerts over herself and the family. Lucien commits the ultimate sin by turning Horn over the Germans and to a sure death, but has second thoughts when a German soldier comes for France and her grandmother.

Louis Malle film, seen for a second time, still holds one's interest. The story is one of many accounts in how French citizens turned against the less fortunate French Jewish population. It is also a tale about the cruelty of a young man that enters a world where otherwise he would have never been admitted had it not been because his determination to impress his newly found friends. Lucien relished in watching the school teacher being tortured by his allies. Mr. Malle examined the life of a young man without real convictions, political, or otherwise, who became a monster that stopped at nothing to get what he wanted.

The director's coup was casting a non professional, Pierre Blaise, for the pivotal role of Lucien Lacombe. Unfortunately, the young man with a future in front of him, died tragically in an automobile accident. Aurore Clement shows a luminous quality in her way for bringing her tragic character France Horn to life. Ms. Clement was at the height of her beauty, something that comes across in her work in the film. Swedish actor Holger Lowenadler plays Albert Horn with dignity. The actor was perfect as the Jewish tailor. Therese Giehse, a German actress is seen as the older Bella Horn. The supporting cast does excellent work for Mr. Malle.

"Lacombe, Lucien" is one of Louis Malle's best films among his distinguished career in the cinema.

There's not much like it,...

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 24 October 2007]

Lucien Lamcombe is the title character of this story about a French teen who joins the German police on a lark during the last year of WWII. A short time earlier, he'd volunteered for the Resistance but was rejected--why he so willingly joined the Nazis was tough to decipher--as were his motives apart from that as well as his inner world. In fact, the young man is like a puzzle with several missing pieces--he just exists and seems to have no depth or much personality--much like the main character in Albert Camus' "The Stranger". He IS--and that's about all you can say about this rather bland and amoral character.

Despite the war having been over for nearly three decades, this film apparently did not do well in France. Perhaps they just didn't want to be reminded that many "good people" willingly collaborated or maybe the wounds were just too fresh.

I liked the film and recommend it, though I must admit director Malle's style is quite unusual and nothing like a Hollywood product. It isn't just because the title character is so amorphous, but the entire story of the film. While there is a little music here and there, it's generally a very quiet film with many long camera shots where not a lot occurs--and seems quite "arty" as a result. Also, there is so much vagueness about the final portion of the film. It just ends very abruptly and there is a slapped on summary of what happened next--almost like they were saying "scene missing here" and instead of re-filming it they just gave a summary of would have been the final ten minutes or so. To me, this was very dissatisfying--particularly because there was no mention of what happened with the girl or her grandmother. Perhaps because the film already was quite long (about 140 minutes), they just decided to end it this way to save costs for film! Whatever the reason, this brought the film from an 8 to a score of 7. An unusual, compelling and odd film--there certainly isn't much like it out there.

UPDATE--I spoke with a friend about this film and the more we talked, the more I now realize that what I didn't like about this film (even though it is still a good movie) is that the main character is not consistent nor does he seem to have any depth. Because he is so immature and bland, I could imagine someone seeing this film and actually feeling sorry for or at least excusing his evil. No matter how "nice" he becomes later in the film, his actions are inexcusable and I didn't want to connect with him and I found this a bit disturbing. Still, it is an unusual and thought-provoking work.

No motivation

[drystyx · 2/10 · 24 July 2018]

This story about aimlessly joining a group of Nazi Gestapo thugs during WWII could have been better done with better writing and directing.

The unfortunate fact is that this movie has no motivation in any of the characters that is credible. It looks like a writer and director preaching their own neo Nazi ideology.

That is not opinion, because the very reviews so far of this movie sustain my observation that there are people here engaging in the preaching and brainwashing. As of the date of this review, if one reads through the existing reviews, one cannot help but realize that over half of the reviews are carbon copies to the extent that it is undeniably the work of one control freak using many fake user names. The differences are minimal, and the focus is always on the same two or three minute details that don't even stand out, and some are even made up.

One made up item in the reviews by the control freak is that Lucien falls in love with a beautiful Jewish girl. Laughably, the girl shows lots of skin, but pales in comparison to the knock out beauty that Lucien is supposed to be disinterested in, because of her dark hair it appears, which shows that the director is indeed preaching a neo Nazi ideology that the savage male is Nazi. No doubt, the women like this idea, out of jealousy, but no man could buy into this.

So, we see no credible motivation at all in Lucien from a male standpoint, though the women want to believe it.

Next, the reviews claim Lucien is ambling through it without any real evil in him. His only motivation is causing evil. The entire escapade involving the Jewish girl and her father is one that is not motivated. It can't be lust, because he has the hot hotel maid claimed, and the maid is stunning, while the woman he supposedly lusts for is just average looking at best, and exhibits no real sensuality, though again I'm sure the woman will want to disagree, the same women who want men to like the plain Ginger who needs make up and royal garb to begin to compete, over the centerfold May Ann.

Every move Lucien makes is one of spurring up evil. The Jewish tailor and his daughter live in danger, but everything Lucien does is to put them in more danger, and indeed his only motivation is evil for evil's sake. Of all the Gestapo, he is the worst, and again the reviews I speak of are obviously written by one control freak, as they try to maintain Lucien has some other motivation, and is ambling along with evil men, whereas it's clear they are ambling along with the demon that controls him.

The director and writer fail miserably. Their buddy writing reviews under fake user names here fails miserably. That individual probably has a relative that was part of this bomb of a movie, or has some equivalent incentive, but there is no credibility to those reviews, and unfortunately, you would have to sit through this poor movie to realize that, and I wouldn't give that control freak the satisfaction if I were you.