Hi Everyone -
New York's Walter Reade Theater is currently showing a retrospective of films made by the famous French (later American) filmmaker Louis Malle. Among them is Lacombe Lucien, which is the story of an awkward teenager who never seems to fit in anywhere until he stumbles into joining the Milice.
I saw the film last Sunday and am quite interested to hear the opinions of others who have seen it. Do you think it accurately portrays the Milice? Are there other films out there that do a better job? I have heard that this was the first (or one of the first) French films made about collaboration. Oddly, most of the film's lead actors were dead within three years of its release, including Pierre Blaise, who plays Lucien.
Best regards,
George
A Question for our French Friends
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George Lepre
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As far as I am aware Lacombe Lucien does not portray the Milice but rather a French Gestapo unit. Although not the first French film to be made about collaboration it was the first not to take an overt moral line on the rights & wrongs of what the collabos did. If I remember rightly most of the controversy centred on the fact that Malle showed a black member of the Gestapo unit (based on reality) and that the main character tries first to join a resistance unit but is turned down, implying the motivations of both collabos and resistance fighters were similar. Actually, I think the whole film was based on a true story.
If you are interested in French post-war cultural reactions to collaboration and resistance there is an excellent book called The Vichy Syndrome (sorry, can't remember the author's name) that covers that area.
Where did you get the information about the film's leading actors dying?
If you are interested in French post-war cultural reactions to collaboration and resistance there is an excellent book called The Vichy Syndrome (sorry, can't remember the author's name) that covers that area.
Where did you get the information about the film's leading actors dying?
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Klar zum Gefecht !
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Hi George,
I haven't seen "Lacombe Lucien", but I know it is said to be a very good & also controversial movie here in France, where a certain past is -in my opinion- often left unspoken. Therefore, I doubt that most of the french people could express a pertinent judgement about the historical context of the movie and its accuracy, since they don't really know much about the milice (and are happy to ignore it).
Your post makes me think of two recent movies who don't portray the milice per se, but are set in the context of the french collaboration and post WWII years.
Un héros très discret is about a guy who hasn"t done anything special during the war but starts an amazing career as an impostor. Pretending to be a great "resistant" hero, he ends up being captain in the french army occupying germany.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118020/
93 rue Lauriston is a TV movie made last year by the french channel Canal Plus. It portrays what has become known as "the french gestapo". In fact a gang of ex gangsters & dirty cops who were serving as auxiliaries to the germans in Paris but were also making a lot of shady-black market dealings. (they were more opportunists and marginals than politically convinced collaborationists). Even if it's a Tv movie, it's pretty high standard and has a cast of well know french know big screen french actors.
I know those two movie are not about the milice but the reason I mention them is because they are among the rare french movies that depict the war years in a "complex" way without merely demonizing the collaborationists and showing them as the "evil" sidekicks of the even more evil germans.
Hope that was of some help to you.
(By the way congratulations on your book!
)
I haven't seen "Lacombe Lucien", but I know it is said to be a very good & also controversial movie here in France, where a certain past is -in my opinion- often left unspoken. Therefore, I doubt that most of the french people could express a pertinent judgement about the historical context of the movie and its accuracy, since they don't really know much about the milice (and are happy to ignore it).
Your post makes me think of two recent movies who don't portray the milice per se, but are set in the context of the french collaboration and post WWII years.
Un héros très discret is about a guy who hasn"t done anything special during the war but starts an amazing career as an impostor. Pretending to be a great "resistant" hero, he ends up being captain in the french army occupying germany.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118020/
93 rue Lauriston is a TV movie made last year by the french channel Canal Plus. It portrays what has become known as "the french gestapo". In fact a gang of ex gangsters & dirty cops who were serving as auxiliaries to the germans in Paris but were also making a lot of shady-black market dealings. (they were more opportunists and marginals than politically convinced collaborationists). Even if it's a Tv movie, it's pretty high standard and has a cast of well know french know big screen french actors.
I know those two movie are not about the milice but the reason I mention them is because they are among the rare french movies that depict the war years in a "complex" way without merely demonizing the collaborationists and showing them as the "evil" sidekicks of the even more evil germans.
Hope that was of some help to you.
(By the way congratulations on your book!
)During the Occupation people circulated this joke :
Two guys brandishing police ID crashing into an appartment and shouting in very accented Marseille accent : "POLICE ALLEMANDE !!! Où SONT LES BIJOUX !!!!"
In English : German Police ! Where are the Jewels !
Since the Gestapo recruted a lot of French Gangsters it was certainly based on reality.
Two guys brandishing police ID crashing into an appartment and shouting in very accented Marseille accent : "POLICE ALLEMANDE !!! Où SONT LES BIJOUX !!!!"
In English : German Police ! Where are the Jewels !
Since the Gestapo recruted a lot of French Gangsters it was certainly based on reality.
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George Lepre
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Salut mes amis -
CGetty - Now that I think about it, you are correct that the film portrays the Gestapo. I at first thought they were Milice because one scene shows them fighting against the Maquis and some of them are wearing blue uniforms. I found the information about the actors from the outstanding website imdb.com.
Klar zum Gefect - Thank you for your kind remark regarding my book. I will try to see the other two films you mentioned.
Parisien - Welcome back to the forum! It's good to have you here again.
A question: Have you guys seen Claude Chabrol's Eye of Vichy?
Best regards,
George
CGetty - Now that I think about it, you are correct that the film portrays the Gestapo. I at first thought they were Milice because one scene shows them fighting against the Maquis and some of them are wearing blue uniforms. I found the information about the actors from the outstanding website imdb.com.
Klar zum Gefect - Thank you for your kind remark regarding my book. I will try to see the other two films you mentioned.
Parisien - Welcome back to the forum! It's good to have you here again.
A question: Have you guys seen Claude Chabrol's Eye of Vichy?
Best regards,
George
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Georges JEROME
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there is some films dealing with good collaboration characters.
i.e. "Stella" dealing with a man which became an active collaborator for the love of a wife.
"Uranus" with a good character of "idealist" collaborator.
the film "Petain" is show a good serie of characters of senior collaborators in Vichy (laval...) : quite good.
I heard that a documentary was made upon french milice " Milice film noir" by alain Ferrari in 1997.
Georges
i.e. "Stella" dealing with a man which became an active collaborator for the love of a wife.
"Uranus" with a good character of "idealist" collaborator.
the film "Petain" is show a good serie of characters of senior collaborators in Vichy (laval...) : quite good.
I heard that a documentary was made upon french milice " Milice film noir" by alain Ferrari in 1997.
Georges
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George Lepre
- Host - Foreign volunteers section
- Posts: 769
- Joined: 13 Aug 2002, 22:39
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Hello all!
I'm reviving this old thread because the film LACOMBE, LUCIEN is once again playing in New York City!
The IFC (6th Ave and W 3d St) is featuring a Louis Malle film retrospective. LACOMBE, LUCIEN will be screened on 8-10 February.
I hope that some of our members in the NYC area will get to see this most unusual World War II offering.
Best regards,
George
I'm reviving this old thread because the film LACOMBE, LUCIEN is once again playing in New York City!
The IFC (6th Ave and W 3d St) is featuring a Louis Malle film retrospective. LACOMBE, LUCIEN will be screened on 8-10 February.
I hope that some of our members in the NYC area will get to see this most unusual World War II offering.
Best regards,
George
Lacombe Lucien
Hello
About Lacombe Lucien, I know that Louis Malle wanted to make an honest film. At first he wanted to do a film about Militia, but he asked to meet ancient militians to know if his character was good and if the story was possible. He met two men who were militians then Waffen SS, one near Paris, the other in province. He went with his scenarist Patrick Modiano who took notes during the interview (I was there). In France, the journalists and other people did not like the film because, for them, a person is governed to be good or bad. They did not understand that anybody could be either Militian or Resistant.
A little before, a documentary Le Chagrin et la Pitié had the same result. In this film, it was the first time that collaborators were interviewed (the Waffen SS Christian de La Mazière ) and they did not seemed ugly or monstruous. But this film have been forbidden a long time from TV (more than 25 ans). Lacombe Lucien is a very honest film and shows a quite good vision of life in France during the war.
The young actor Pierre Blaise is died during a car crash with the car he bought with the money of Lacombe Lucien. But I do noot know that other lead actors of this film died within three years of its release.
There are an other film like Le Chagrin et la Pitié which is Français si vous saviez where a man who was in German Police is interviewed.
Un héros très discret is a good film but far from perfection.
93 Rue Lauriston is the worst film about this subjject. There is no effort of reconstruction in uniforms of SD. Lafont in black ! and the uniforms of Algerians and Moroccans of Brigade Nord Africaine for exemple.
L'œil de Vichy de Chabrol is a very good film.
Milice film noir is a very good film also with new pictures.
Stella is not a bad film but Henri Lafont played by Jean-Claude Brialy looks like a joke.
Le devoir de Français a TV film in 2 parts relate the story of a intelligent young boy who enlisted in LVF then in Waffen SS and is shooted in Bad Reichenhall at the end of the war. An off voice tells where he is buried.
About black people in Lacombe Lucien there is an other one in Le Bon et les Méchants de Claude Lelouch which is a film about Henri Lafont and the french Gestapo. There have been black people in german army, in political french parties but of course not in the SS.
What I tell in this text interest more French people and I apologize about foreigner readers.
On this subject there is lot of things to tell.
Excuse my bad english.
Regards
About Lacombe Lucien, I know that Louis Malle wanted to make an honest film. At first he wanted to do a film about Militia, but he asked to meet ancient militians to know if his character was good and if the story was possible. He met two men who were militians then Waffen SS, one near Paris, the other in province. He went with his scenarist Patrick Modiano who took notes during the interview (I was there). In France, the journalists and other people did not like the film because, for them, a person is governed to be good or bad. They did not understand that anybody could be either Militian or Resistant.
A little before, a documentary Le Chagrin et la Pitié had the same result. In this film, it was the first time that collaborators were interviewed (the Waffen SS Christian de La Mazière ) and they did not seemed ugly or monstruous. But this film have been forbidden a long time from TV (more than 25 ans). Lacombe Lucien is a very honest film and shows a quite good vision of life in France during the war.
The young actor Pierre Blaise is died during a car crash with the car he bought with the money of Lacombe Lucien. But I do noot know that other lead actors of this film died within three years of its release.
There are an other film like Le Chagrin et la Pitié which is Français si vous saviez where a man who was in German Police is interviewed.
Un héros très discret is a good film but far from perfection.
93 Rue Lauriston is the worst film about this subjject. There is no effort of reconstruction in uniforms of SD. Lafont in black ! and the uniforms of Algerians and Moroccans of Brigade Nord Africaine for exemple.
L'œil de Vichy de Chabrol is a very good film.
Milice film noir is a very good film also with new pictures.
Stella is not a bad film but Henri Lafont played by Jean-Claude Brialy looks like a joke.
Le devoir de Français a TV film in 2 parts relate the story of a intelligent young boy who enlisted in LVF then in Waffen SS and is shooted in Bad Reichenhall at the end of the war. An off voice tells where he is buried.
About black people in Lacombe Lucien there is an other one in Le Bon et les Méchants de Claude Lelouch which is a film about Henri Lafont and the french Gestapo. There have been black people in german army, in political french parties but of course not in the SS.
What I tell in this text interest more French people and I apologize about foreigner readers.
On this subject there is lot of things to tell.
Excuse my bad english.
Regards