Minority View: Monsieur Klein by Joseph Losey blog
Monsieur Klein (1975) is a French film made by an American director who was forced into exile during the McCarthy period - after having been identified as a former communist. Like another blacklisted American filmmaker who made classics in England and Europe during his exile - Jules Dassin who made a noir film in London, Night and the City (1950) and a great French heist film Rififi (1954) - Joseph Losey also worked in England and France after leaving the United States. Although Losey is better known for British films like The Servant (1963) which was written by Harold Pinter, Monsieur Klein appears to me to be a greater film perhaps because of the involvement of French actors and technicians in it.
Monsieur Klein can be broadly categorized as a Holocaust film although this may convey the wrong impression to readers accustomed to the clumsiness of films like Schindler's List and Polanski's The Pianist. For the best films about the Holocaust, one would do well to look to French cinema, films like Louis Malle's Goodbye Children (1987) and Lacombe Lucien (1973) or Eastern Europe - Andrez Munk's The Passenger (1963). What these filmmakers understand is that the Holocaust has been so widely written about, filmed and information about it disseminated in numerous ways that it is virtually impossible to make fiction films providing straightforward illustrations of its horrors - this might be even voyeuristic and exploitative. More importantly perhaps, these horrors are being used politically in the Israel-Palestine context and artists should be wary of its misuse.
Monsieur Klein is set in war time Paris and tells the story of an art dealer Robert Klein (Alain Delon) who is buying art cheap from fleeing Jews. One day a Jewish magazine addressed to another Robert Klein finds itself accidentally to his address and, after a few more coincidences the protagonist finds the identity of this unknown Jewish person gradually taking over his own. Klein tries every ruse to assert his own French-Catholic identity but to little avail. His search for the other M Klein through the streets of Paris also becomes a quest for his own identity. The search becomes so obsessive that in the final sequence, the temptation of coming face to face with the other takes precedence over his own safety and the protagonist finds himself climbing into a railway wagon bound for a death camp.
There are several reasons why Losey's film should be written about - apart from the ingenuity of the plot. The very first sequence, for instance, must rank as among the most powerful openings in cinema. Instead of something like ‘˜Paris, 1942', appearing at the bottom to establish the setting, we get a close up of an elderly woman. A pair of hands reaches up to her face and roughly pushes her lips apart. We soon see that a doctor is examining her teeth and gums for racial characteristics - she could be a Jew. The citizens of Paris have been told that it is advantageous for them to be examined and have themselves certified racially - because Jews are being marked out. A singular feature of the film is the complete absence of German soldiers and German uniforms on the streets, so central to Hollywood films dealing with the same period. The rounding up, the policing and the persecution are all done by the French police and one cannot imagine a more telling commentary on the collaboration of the French state in the extermination of French Jews.
Another aspect of the film that merits comment is the performance of Alain Delon in the central role. French cinema has given us the greatest actors in the world - Michel Piccoli, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Michel Serrault, Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu. Alain Delon, in contrast, is not the greatest of actors, being more celebrated for his fine looks. Indifferent/ poor actors are of two kinds: one kind of actor is too wooden and does too little while the other kind (a favorite with Oscar juries) tends to do far too much. Delon has, essentially, a cold screen presence, he is not versatile and his body language is inexpressive. But if he lacks a distinct persona, this characteristic of Alain Delon becomes as asset to Monsieur Klein because the film is about a man uncertain of his own identity. It is perhaps no coincidence that the other excellent performances from Alain Delon are in films where the issue of individual identity is called into question: Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai (1967) and Réné Clement's Purple Noon (1959). The last film is a French version of Patricia Highsmith's classic thriller The Talented Mr Ripley in which the protagonist is a villain who uses his uncertain identity to murder and steal another man's life. In all three films - Le Samourai, Purple Noon and Monsieur Klein, Delon's kind of ‘˜non-acting' is used effectively as an empty space or a ‘˜hole' in the narrative which means nothing in itself but the meaning of which is decided by the narrative context.
Comments( 11 )
I agree. It is very obvious from the
I agree. It is very obvious from the ambiguous characters in 'Goodbye, Children'.
The purpose was not to encourage but to
The purpose was not to encourage but to dissuade from flippant observations. We have an overabundance of film enthusiasts and very little serious study of films.
@Johnson Thanks for your encouraging
@Johnson
Thanks for your encouraging response. I asked the questions because I didn't understand the film. "Goodbye, Children is ambiguous by the strength of its characters" it seems!
@ Raghavendra
Thanks.
1. I think the restaurant sequence I
1. I think the restaurant sequence I described has some ambiguity. The German officer appears to the acting in ignorance of the 'final solution' devised by Hitler. Such 'ignorance' on the part of a German officer would not be strange in actuality but it is certainly very different from the way German officers are shown to behave in Holocaust films. Amon Goth wouldn't do something like that, would he?
2. The Tailor thinks he has connections in the Gestapo since his 'son-in-law' works there. He comes there to make complaint and his Jewish identity is suddenly noticed. This is comic.
3. The courtship period between Lucien and the tailor's daughter - is also funny. The privileges associated with having a fiance in the Gestapo - jumping food lines - are also brought out in the same way.
4. I think the historical/political circumstances detailed in Lacombe Lucien are too strong and specific for the film to carry any general meaning about 'finding a place for oneself in an upturned world'
'Goodbye, Children' is ambiguous by the
'Goodbye, Children' is ambiguous by the strength of its characters. You have obviously not understood the film, Lacombe Lucien. I will leave it to the author to elaborate more on it as I completely agree with his view on the film.
Three questions: 1) How is 'Goodbye,
Three questions:
1) How is 'Goodbye, Children' ambiguous?
2) A comedy can take place only when the protagonists are unaware of the consequences of their action. Hence, how is the tailor going to the Gestapo headquarters comic? I thought it was a willing sacrifice.
3) Can you comment on the apparent 'courtship' period with the whole family?
Note: I won't argue about the other characters in the Gestapo headquarters as they seemed to be honestly deluded. The farm-boy lording over every little thing with "Police Allemand" was absurd enough. I thought a large part of the film was about the hopelessness of finding/suiting to a role for yourself in an upturned world.
Lacombe Lucien is a mordant picture of
Lacombe Lucien is a mordant picture of collaboration without - strangely enough - the collaborator being denied some sympathy. Extremely understated film with the protagonist and the various other collaborators - including the Great Dane - being comic figures because of their apparent stupidity but still tragic in some sense because they are swept away by before they can even grasp the hopelessness of their situation. The Jewish tailor coming to the Gestapo headquarters to lodge a complaint, I think, is as brilliant an episode as any in any Holocaust film. Should perhaps be seen alongside Marcel Ophuls' documentary The Sorrow and the Pity.
Goodbye Children is obviously not in the class of LL. The idea of doing a tragicomedy with the Holocaust is a very ambitious project and Malle succeeds. Another comparable film - perhaps it is Schindler's List done as a musical comedy - is Fassbinder's audacious Lili Marleen.
True. Actually, the film's 'humanist'
True. Actually, the film's 'humanist' outlook was even more frustrating for me because some of the scenes really showed the potential the filmmaker had and refused to make full use of. I also liked the sequence where the head priest delivers his parent's day speech infuriating some of the bourgeoisie parents. Later, that same priest refuses to give the holy bread to Kippelstein. He also fires the domestic help for being involved in black market activities while the students are let off with a mere warning. While it could have been due to his diminishing faith in the 'people', who he had to work for despite the apparent hopelessness of the task. I think the director simply intended to show the failings of the mythic 'leader' in such hopeless situations. I would say this much that though the film can never really be at a par with Lacombe Lucien, at least the film doesn't let go of ambiguity, an easy trap for any 'humanist' film. However, I may have been unconvinced about Malle because I came to watch Lacombe Lucien only much later, having seen only 'Zazie in the Subway' before. What did you make of Lacombe Lucien?
I completely agree that Lacombe Lucien
I completely agree that Lacombe Lucien is a much better film. Goodbye Children avoids looking at the political side and is mildly 'humanist'. Still, there is one great scene in the film that redeems it. Do you remember the scene in the restaurant in which the Jewish boy is eating with his friend's family? An elderly Jew is eating quietly by himself when French policemen come in asking to see everyone's papers. When they discover that this man - identified as an old client by the waiter - is Jewish, they want him out of there. The policemen try to intimidate the French customers who boo them and call them 'collaborators'. It happens that there are some German officers at the next table who are slightly drunk. One of them has been trying to catch the eye of the boy's friend's mother. When the booing happens, the German officer stands up, staggers up to the policeman and shouts at him to leave. The French mother privately appreciates the officer's behavior, "There are some decent ones," she says. Her son attributes the German officers behavior to his wanting to impress her. Since Malle had already demonstrated that he was capable of making a hard political film about the Holocaust like Lacombe Lucien and he probably though he could do something softer like Goodbye Children - for which the world has more of an appetite today.
I have not seen Monsieur Klein, but
I have not seen Monsieur Klein, but will try to find it out. However, I would dearly like to know what you have to say about Goodbye, Children/Lacombe Lucien. I remember disliking the former to an extent because of its apparent refusal to actually deal with the political context. However, as you say, it would have been impossible to make a straightforward narrative out of it. I would say it is a much inferior film than Lacombe Lucien.
Lino Ventura is another one of those
Lino Ventura is another one of those cold but effective actors--maybe best utilized in Melville's "Army of Shadows". Very interesting review: though Schindler's List was for me a great film, primarily for the brilliant characterization of the SS officer Amon Goth (by Ralph Fiennes).