Lacombe, Lucien
“A KNOCK OUT. A MAJOR WORK. MALLE SUCCEEDS TRIUMPHANTLY.”
DramaWarRomance
In Louis Malle's lauded drama, Lucien Lacombe is a young man living in rural France during World War II who seeks to join the French Resistance. When he is rejected due to his youth, the resentful Lucien allies himself with the Nazis and joins the Gallic arm of their Gestapo. Lucien grows to enjoy the power that comes with his position, but his life is complicated when he falls for France Horn, a beautiful young Jewish woman.
VIBE
A stark, unsentimental look at a young man's descent into moral compromise. It feels uncomfortably intimate, observing the casual cruelty and desperate desires that bloom in wartime. The atmosphere is heavy with a quiet, chilling inevitability.
bleakunsettlingcynicalmelancholiccandidsteadynaturalisticperiod dramacharacter studyarthousecollaborationloss of innocencemoral ambiguitypower dynamics
war crimesfrench gestapomaquischildren in wartime
