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Lacombe Lucien Louis Malle

Lacombelucien (2014 03 03 19_44_05 utc)

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Page 1: Lacombelucien (2014 03 03 19_44_05 utc)

Lacombe LucienLouis Malle

Page 2: Lacombelucien (2014 03 03 19_44_05 utc)

Discussion Questions• 1. This is the first film we have seen this semester that deals explicitly with the Nazi

Occupation of France in WWII. How does the film deal with the subject? How does it frame the issue of collaboration or resistance?

• 2. Like Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows or Truffaut’s 400 Blows, an adolescent male figures prominently. What similarities or differences are there between Lucien and Louis (from Elevator) or Antoine (400 Blows)? How does the use of a young protagonist shape the film’s depiction of the Occupation? How has the depiction of masculinity changed (or not) across the films we have watched so far, and what does this tell us about the evolution of post-war France?

• 3. Violence (overt and covert, implicit and explicit) is one of the central themes of this and a number of other films we have seen this semester. What types of violence are encoded in the film? How does the depiction of violence in this film compare to that of other films this semester? What types of real, historical violence are referenced in this film? What in 1970s France would have accounted for the return to the violence of this long-repressed period of French history?

Page 3: Lacombelucien (2014 03 03 19_44_05 utc)

Context• Released in 1974, was first narrative film

in French to deal with issue of French collaboration during WWII

• Based on a screenplay by Patrick Modiano, one of the foremost French writers dealing with this period of history

• Explores collaboration and resistance in Southwestern France in the year 1944 (near the end of the war)

• Widely criticized in France for raising specter of collaboration and for its detached depiction of events (which some found amoral)

Page 4: Lacombelucien (2014 03 03 19_44_05 utc)

Mise-en-scene• Film exhibits historical realism, shot on

location with period costumes, sets, props• Although set during Nazi occupation,

Nazis remain in the background, barely visible

• The sparse narrative includes characters from various classes, walks of life

• Although focused on collaboration, the film also explores motives for resistance, and the issue of side-switching

• Film contrasts dark interiors (with strong contrasts in lighting) to the illuminated sunlight of the exterior (nature vs. society)

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Settings• Countryside (farm)• Village• Schoolhouse• Hospital• Homes (the Hornes’)• Hotel (turned French

Collaborationist Headquarters)

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Power, Position, Exploitation

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Morality, Immorality, Amorality

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Social Assimilation as Acceptance of Violence, Exploitation

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Themes• Ambiguous boundaries between

innocence / guilt• Transactional nature of human

interaction• Moral choices as a matter of

serendipity• Questioning of official versions of

history / law• Holocaust as expansion of violence

that underpins everyday life