1974 French film
Lacombe, Lucien
[lak??b
ly.sj??]
is a 1974 French war drama film by
Louis Malle
about a French teenage boy during the
German occupation of France in World War II
.
Lacombe, Lucien
received an Academy Award nomination for
Best Foreign Language Film
, a Golden Globe nomination for
Best Foreign Language Film
, and the U.S. National Board of Review Award as one of the Top 5 Foreign Films of the Year.
Plot
[
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]
In June 1944, as the
Allies
are fighting the Germans in
Normandy
, Lucien Lacombe, a 17-year-old country boy, tries to join the
Resistance
. The local Resistance leader, the village school teacher, turns him down on grounds of age. Lucien travels back to the town where he works by bicycle and stumbles on the hotel that is the headquarters of the
Carlingue
, the French auxiliaries of the
Gestapo
, and is taken into custody. Under the influence of alcohol, he betrays the teacher, who is brought in and tortured. Seeing that Lucien could be useful, the Carlingue recruit him into their lawless regime of extortion and terror.
He enjoys his new power and position, but falls in love with France Horn, a beautiful French-born Jewish girl living in seclusion with her father Albert, a tailor, and her paternal grandmother Bella, who left Paris in fear and are trying to cross the border into the safety of neutral
Spain
. Their sophistication stands in contrast to Lucien's uncouth nature and lack of education. Forcing himself into a relationship with the girl, Lucien comes to be protective of the very people targeted by his superiors. He is warned that the Allies are winning and that as a
collaborator
he will be killed.
Albert goes to Carlingue headquarters to see Lucien to discuss his relationship with his daughter man-to-man but is taken into custody by the head of the Carlingue and turned over to the Germans. After members of the Resistance attack the hotel, the inhabitants of the town are rounded up in retribution. Lucien and a German soldier arrest France and Bella but Lucien decides to kill the soldier. He takes the women by car toward Spain but the vehicle breaks down and they go on by foot until they find shelter in a secluded and abandoned farmhouse.
A text
epilogue
states that Lucien Lacombe was arrested on October 12, 1944, tried and condemned to death by a military tribunal of the Resistance, and executed.
Cast
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]
Production
[
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]
Malle wrote the screenplay with novelist
Patrick Modiano
. Originally, they titled the script
Le faucon
("The Falcon") and intended to set it in present-day
Mexico
, but Malle was not allowed to shoot in Mexico (nor in
Chile
), so he rewrote the script, giving it a wartime French setting. The script was retitled
Le milicien
("The
Milice
Man").
The film was shot in the
Lot
and
Tarn-et-Garonne
departments, specifically in the communes of
Figeac
,
Arcambal
,
Montauban
and
Senaillac-Lauzes
.
[4]
Reception
[
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]
Critical response
[
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]
Lacombe, Lucien
has an approval rating of 100% on
review aggregator
website
Rotten Tomatoes
, based on 9 reviews, and an average rating of 8.9/10.
[5]
Vincent Canby
, film critic for
The New York Times
,
gave it a positive review. He wrote, "
Lacombe, Lucien
is easily Mr. Malle's most ambitious, most provocative film, and if it is not as immediately affecting as
The Fire Within
or even the comic
Murmur of the Heart
,
it's because?to make his point?he has centered it on a character who must remain forever mysterious, forever beyond our sympathy."
[6]
Pauline Kael
wrote of her admiration for Malle's expressive camerawork and visual capabilities. Behind Lucien's blase, almost empty visage, Kael saw a world of dialogue: "Malle's gamble is that the cameras will discover what the artist's imagination can't, and, steadily, startlingly, the gamble pays off. Without ever mentioning the subject of innocence and guilt, this extraordinary film, in its calm, dispassionate way, addresses it on a very deep level."
[7]
Film critic Dan Schneider liked the film, especially Malle's casting of Blaise. Schneider wrote, "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
... Yet, not that far behind has to be Louis Malle's decision to cast 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."
[8]
Film critic
Wheeler Winston Dixon
discussed why the film was controversial: "Louis Malle's drama
Lacombe, Lucien
is one of the most effective films about the capitulation of France to the Nazis during World War II, and one of the most controversial .... Louis Malle's film was daring for its time for suggesting that not every member of the French public was a member of the Resistance; that indeed, many were willing accomplices to the Vichy government, and the sting of the film remains to this day."
[9]
Accolades
[
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]
Wins
Nominations
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
a
b
c
"Lacombe, Lucien (1973)"
.
UniFrance
. Retrieved
31 October
2021
.
- ^
"Lacombe Lucien"
.
filmportal.de
. Retrieved
31 October
2021
.
- ^
JP.
"Lacombe Lucien (1974)- JPBox-Office"
.
www.jpbox-office.com
.
- ^
"Montauban. "Il etait une fois Lacombe Lucien" avec le club des cinephiles"
.
La Depeche
(in French). 27 February 2022
. Retrieved
25 February
2024
.
- ^
"Lacombe, Lucien - Rotten Tomatoes"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
.
- ^
Canby, Vincent
(September 30, 1974). "Lacombe, Lucien".
The New York Times
.
- ^
Kael, Pauline
(2011) [1991].
5001 Nights at the Movies
. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 403.
ISBN
978-1-250-03357-4
.
- ^
Schneider, Dan
.
Unlikely 2.0,
film review, 2008. Accessed: August 20, 2013.
- ^
Dixon, Wheeler Winston
.
Allmovie by Rovi
, DVD/film review, no date. Accessed: August 20, 2013.
- ^
a
b
"1974 Award Winners"
.
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
. 2017
. Retrieved
27 April
2017
.
- ^
"The 47th Academy Awards (1975) Nominees and Winners"
.
oscars.org
. Retrieved
August 20,
2013
.
External links
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