tenebrisis 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.

Rodrigo Amaro 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 Nazists after been 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 means 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 (I really shouldn't say that, sad but truth, but nature claims what you do in taking real innocent lives. Quid pro quo, give and take).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

Ilpo Hirvonen Louis Malle earned three Oscar nominations during his career and Lacombe Lucien was a nominee for the Best Foreign Language film. But somehow Malle and his films have remained quite unknown. The destruction of innocence and the influence of war on youth were common themes for him; alongside with Goodbye, Children (1983), Lacombe Lucien is to my mind one of his finest films and one of the finest anti-war films made; but there's much more to it than just that.In 1944 during WWII an 18-year-old Lucien Lacombe wishes to join the resistance in France. After getting turned down he starts working for the German police. He enjoys his small does of power and authority but things start to get complicated when he gets infatuated by a girl, who is a daughter of a Jewish tailor. After a series of misfortunes Lucien tries to save the girl by escaping to the countryside. When Americans come to France they sentence Lucien to death for working for the Nazis.Louis Malle often tested the audiences he pushed the limitations of cinematic expression. The Lovers (1958) was a description of a woman bored with her bourgeois life and it quite courageously showed sexuality on screen, which got the film banned in many countries and for instance; an American distributor called it pornography and denied to distribute it. Murmur of the Heart (1971) was a bold film about sexual awakening which portrayed an incest relationship between a mother and her teenage son. Lacombe Lucien was also a brave film with regards to WWII and Nazis, who are often seen as soulless monsters in films. Discussing about the controversy of the trial of Nurnberg was quite a taboo in 1970's - and still is; Nazis committed a crime against humanity, but the Allies weren't saints either but Germans remained the only ones culpable. It's quite hard to have sympathy for Nazis and Louis Malle doesn't ask for it, but what he does is show the flip side of the truth: portraying a youngster who doesn't know on whose side he actually is and in the end gets sentenced to death.The film is also a film of strong contrasts: it starts with a sequence in the countryside, beautiful landscapes and sounds of locusts - a place where Lucien is at his most juvenile. Then we're thrown to the city, narrow alleys and gray buildings where Lucien works for the German police and tries hardly to be at his most mature. The countryside represents peace, adolescence and innocence on the contrary the city represents war and adulthood. In the countryside the violence is towards animals and in the city it is towards Jews. In the end when we are taken back to the countryside the viewer is given the last clue about Lucien's naivety and ignorance when he plays around with the girl.Lacombe Lucien is also a portrayal of the destruction of innocence and how war influences youth; people who are still searching themselves and have no idea about life - they're easy to exploit. It's a film about the evil in us all, it's a growth story. The severe aesthetics and the subtle narrative worked very well and Louis Malle's decision of giving sympathy for Lucien in the end fascinated film. A brilliant film against war, everything that takes innocence away from the youth, a story about the influence war has on us and how power and naivety should never be mixed.

MartinHafer 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.