Lacombe, LucienWhat is it that teenage boys want? Is it the freedom to do what they want? Is it a chance to exercise power once it's within their grasp? Is it sex? Not being talked down to? Respect? Fear? All of the above? For Lucien Lacombe (Pierre Blaise), growing up during the occupation of France by the Third Reich in World War II means less to him than it might to boys. Lucien is not predisposed toward thinking much about politics; instead, he fills his time whiling away the hours hunting for rabbits and thinking about pretty girls. There is a war happening under Lucien's nose, but it's not his war...not yet.
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Lucien is an enigmatic protagonist; he's hard to read, and even harder to clearly pin down on the "good guy/bad guy" spectrum. In a lot of ways, Lucien is a jerk. From the earliest, he shows no remorse in tagging an oriole with his slingshot, and does not seem phased to end the lives of the livestock on his farm. To his defense, this is his responsibility, and neither does he seem apprehensive to carry it out, nor does he appear to take any pleasure in it--it simply is. Lucien knows that in France, circa 1944, there is the resistance, and there are the collaborators, but if you were to ask him, he probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It's not that Lucien is stupid, but politics were far from his curriculum in his small village school. After hearing about the resistance and a modicum of prestige mentioned by M. Laborit (Jacques Rispal), the proprietor of Lucien's farm--and, presumably the lover of Lucien's mother (Gilberte Rivet)--Lucien approaches his schoolmaster to join...only to be told he's "too young". Seeing as one side didn't want him, Lucien ends up signing on with the collaborators--albeit inadvertently as a result of stumbling across their base, a rather nice, "repurposed" chateau. They give him liquor, pleasant company, and his mentor, Jean-Bernard (Stéphane Bouy) even helps him get his first suit from a Jewish tailor named Albert Horn (Holger Löwenadler) through an arrangement they have. And he gets to carry a gun and a badge; "neat!" would be the kind of response I expect Lucien represses under his cool facade. Under "Jean-B's" tutelage, Lucien's indifference is trained toward cruelty and the rewards of exploitation and thuggery are made evident to him. The scene where they connive their way into the house of a resistance doctor on holiday has a moment where a young man--perhaps two years Lucien's junior--tells him about the boat he has built by hand over the course of a year, a replica of "The Wandera", a large steamship. As the other members of the "German police" interrogate the resistance member, Jean-B shows how he can get away with destroying the boat to gain power over the boy. He is rewarded for his cruelty with recognition and spoils of war, just as it was hunting rabbits.
When Lucien goes to pick up his suit from Albert, he discovers that the tailor has a beautiful daughter named France (Aurore Clément). Lucien begins to find reasons to intrude into the Horn apartment, while trying to impress France with varying degrees of futility. Lucien manages to combine a boorishness with awkwardness, which seems somehow perfectly natural for the inexperienced boy in his attempt at the courtship of the girl. When he invites--forces--her to come with him to a party at the collaborators' headquarters, Lucien stands up for France when a drunk party-goer gets fresh with her while dancing, and then later as she is harassed for being a Jew by a former jealous lover of Lucien's. Perhaps it was out of a mutual sympathy, or maybe more, but Lucien and France make love, and in the morning, France asks Lucien to help her get her father out of France and into Spain. This resolution does not go over well with France's father--for many reasons--but Lucien remains undeterred in his affections for France--or oblivious to his tactlessness--and calls him and France "friend". Is Lucien a sociopath? I don't believe so, but I do believe that he should have been raised better than he behaves at times. He is a young boy playing at being a big man, and making all the inevitable mistakes that come with it. He also happens to have the bad luck of being at that age during the most devastating war in history. Lucien is ignorant to the warnings offered to him about his fate in the service of the German police, that one day, "they'll shoot him". It's a threat posed by the resistance, trying to recruit him into their legion, now that he is a threat. A comparison can be sensed in Lucien's earliest visits to the collaborators' HQ, when he spies a Great Dane standing guard on the staircase. The dog may look a little dopey and amiable, but it remains at attention, and one senses that if necessary, it would clamp its powerful jaws around the leg of any unfortunate fellow who didn't heed its presence--pleasant and menacing, not unlike Lucien's hosts and new employers. Although time has revealed much regarding the atrocities of the Holocaust, for those living in those times, this was not a visible thing, and all the propaganda spread by both sides only had the effect of cancelling one another out, unless you consciously endorsed one side or another. It is no small coincidence that Albert's daughter is named "France", and Lucien pines for her so fervently. Just as World War II in 1944 was a battle for France as a nation, Lucien's war is a metaphor for that struggle, as he tries to win France over with romance, force, and later, even his own resourcefulness. Lucien's struggle to understand France necessitates his own process to "grow up" and to be accountable for his actions. Regrettably for Lucien, by the end he has made too many poor decisions in a hard spot in history; whether his ultimate lesson is justified remains as inscrutable as the young man himself.
Recommended for: Fans of a period piece of France at the end of the Second World War. It is not an action epic, but a meditative drama about trust and maturity, as well as love and friendship in a trying time, where ideologies are tossed back and forth, but the young man of the story is just trying to live his life like any teenager would, through that same, bumpy learning process of life.
When Lucien goes to pick up his suit from Albert, he discovers that the tailor has a beautiful daughter named France (Aurore Clément). Lucien begins to find reasons to intrude into the Horn apartment, while trying to impress France with varying degrees of futility. Lucien manages to combine a boorishness with awkwardness, which seems somehow perfectly natural for the inexperienced boy in his attempt at the courtship of the girl. When he invites--forces--her to come with him to a party at the collaborators' headquarters, Lucien stands up for France when a drunk party-goer gets fresh with her while dancing, and then later as she is harassed for being a Jew by a former jealous lover of Lucien's. Perhaps it was out of a mutual sympathy, or maybe more, but Lucien and France make love, and in the morning, France asks Lucien to help her get her father out of France and into Spain. This resolution does not go over well with France's father--for many reasons--but Lucien remains undeterred in his affections for France--or oblivious to his tactlessness--and calls him and France "friend". Is Lucien a sociopath? I don't believe so, but I do believe that he should have been raised better than he behaves at times. He is a young boy playing at being a big man, and making all the inevitable mistakes that come with it. He also happens to have the bad luck of being at that age during the most devastating war in history. Lucien is ignorant to the warnings offered to him about his fate in the service of the German police, that one day, "they'll shoot him". It's a threat posed by the resistance, trying to recruit him into their legion, now that he is a threat. A comparison can be sensed in Lucien's earliest visits to the collaborators' HQ, when he spies a Great Dane standing guard on the staircase. The dog may look a little dopey and amiable, but it remains at attention, and one senses that if necessary, it would clamp its powerful jaws around the leg of any unfortunate fellow who didn't heed its presence--pleasant and menacing, not unlike Lucien's hosts and new employers. Although time has revealed much regarding the atrocities of the Holocaust, for those living in those times, this was not a visible thing, and all the propaganda spread by both sides only had the effect of cancelling one another out, unless you consciously endorsed one side or another. It is no small coincidence that Albert's daughter is named "France", and Lucien pines for her so fervently. Just as World War II in 1944 was a battle for France as a nation, Lucien's war is a metaphor for that struggle, as he tries to win France over with romance, force, and later, even his own resourcefulness. Lucien's struggle to understand France necessitates his own process to "grow up" and to be accountable for his actions. Regrettably for Lucien, by the end he has made too many poor decisions in a hard spot in history; whether his ultimate lesson is justified remains as inscrutable as the young man himself.
Recommended for: Fans of a period piece of France at the end of the Second World War. It is not an action epic, but a meditative drama about trust and maturity, as well as love and friendship in a trying time, where ideologies are tossed back and forth, but the young man of the story is just trying to live his life like any teenager would, through that same, bumpy learning process of life.