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.
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.