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Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clement, Holger Loewenadler, Therese Giehse, Stephane Bouy ... see more see more... , Loumi Iacobesco , Rene Bouloc , Jean Bousquet , Pierre Decazes , Jacques Rispal , Gilberte Rivet , Jean Rougerie , Jacqueline Staup , Holger Löwenadler

With a superb music score by Django Reinhardt, this is a Louis Malle film about the German occupation of France. Based on his own experiences in France during the occupation, Malle's film does not pai... read more read more...nt a pretty picture of the French Resistance and eventually he emigrated to America because of the critical reaction to this film. Essentially the tale of a young boy who wants to join the Resistance but is shunned by them because of his youth, he joins the Gestapo. Unfortunately, he then falls in love with a young Jewish girl. Push comes to shove and he suddenly has the unsympathetic Resistance and the Gestapo hot on his trail. Not a pretty picture of either side. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

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83% liked it

1,667 ratings

Critics

100% liked it

5 critics

R, 2 hr. 16 min.

Directed by: Louis Malle

Release Date: January 30, 1974

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DVD Release Date: March 14, 2006

Stats: 97 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (97)

  • gator681
    January 21, 2009
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]In "Lacombe Lucien," it is 1944 in Southwest France where Lucien(Pierre Blaise) works in a nursing home. Given five days off, he returns home to his mother(Gilberte Rivet) and finds things radically changed with his father in a German prison camp. Bored, he... read more tries to sign up with the French resistance but is denied by Robert Peyssac(Jean Bousquet) as being too young. Having no other options, he returns to the nursing home but his bike gets a flat causing him to arrive after dark when he is drawn to a party at a hotel which turns out to be Gestapo headquarters. The German police take a liking to the youth after he turns in Peyssac and is taken to get his first suit.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]Directed by Louis Malle, "Lacombe Lucien" is a chilling look at occupied France where there is a compulsion for the populace to inform on each other. While there may be some easy answers as to why some people would collaborate with the Nazis such as anti-Semitism and anti-Communism(There is a Gestapo member who is black and I would have loved to have heard his story.), Lucien is another matter entirely as his alliance with the Nazis is a matter of circumstance. Apparently, he lacks a conscience and gets a little drunk on whatever power he has. However, as one character puts it, Lucien is somehow not entirely despicable. On the other hand, he is not likable, either.[/font]
  • smootysveen
    May 26, 2010
    smootysveen
    Rich absurdities abound.
  • vkelman
    February 5, 2011
    vkelman
    This is a good movie, perhaps - a very good movie, but really sad.
    According to Wikipedia, film critic for The New York Times Vincent Canby said that film center character, "must remain forever mysterious, forever beyond our sympathy". While there hardly could be any sympathy ind... read moreeed, I don't see much of mystery in Lucien. Louis Malle showed us enough to see this undeveloped but sadistic character. He is not hopeless, he could become closer to norm, but on the other side, at this age person must already responsible for himself. Lucien Lacombe fails to be responsible.
    A reviewer at IMDB said something about "innocence corrupted by war". Oh, no. It's not innocence, it's a brutal under-development. War didn't teach Lucien to kill birds. And I hope a reviewer would never encounter such "innocent" luciens on his way. I served in Russian army and I saw such characters...
  • TheJuniorEbert
    December 7, 2009
    TheJuniorEbert
    The kid in this film is definitely a top contender for the Most Sociopathic Youth award. I was sufficiently entertained by this film but it isn't great. It's incredibly plodding at times and it tends to dead-end or simply leave certain points unended altogether. Lots of blank sta... read moreres and quiet moments. I don't necessarily mind both or either, except that this film takes them to new extremes. It feels like a robot made this film; there is next to no emotion. I realize that most of these points of contention were, in fact, the point of the film itself; I simply feel that they don't mesh well together at the end of the day.
  • xmkatx
    January 17, 2009
    xmkatx
    The only thing that I cared about this film was that it's really easy to kill rabbits and chickens with your bare hands. I guess I already knew that about chickens, but not rabbits. I really didn't find the story interesting and was bored to death.
  • benjaminguilbert2
    February 12, 2008
    benjaminguilbert2
    The film is interesting in the sense that for once we see the other side. Here no courageous resistant, just a bunch of idiotic, violent fascists. But the film is really not good. The camera work dramatically lacks imagination, the characters are dull and the story has next to no... read more interest.

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Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy
June 30, 2011
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

This coolly detached WWII chronicle, which is critical of the French Resistance, is one of Louis Malles' strongest and most personal films. Full Review

Jay Antani
August 17, 2010
Jay Antani, Cinema Writer

Malle's absolute faith in his skills as a storyteller and in the inherent power of this true story puts Lacombe, Lucien in the company of the best humanist portraits ever filmed. Full Review

Andrew L. Urban
August 29, 2009
Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile

Superbly evocative of the period in both imagery and mood, Lacombe Lucien is a character study of a young man during a dark chapter in French history Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
October 25, 2007
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

A controversial WWII drama about the German occupation of France that has a young French Gestapo policeman romance a young Jewess. Full Review

Peter Canavese
March 27, 2006
Peter Canavese, Groucho Reviews

The collaborationist anti-hero finds Malle instantly broaching a cultural taboo, compounded when the traitorous young man forces himself into a sexual relationship with a not-entirely unyielding girl ...

February 23, 2012
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

Joe Morgenstern
July 23, 2011
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Click to read the article Full Review

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