Mr. Klein is one of the few movies I've watched because of the person that wrote it. After enjoying The Battle of Algiers, State of Siege and Queimada, I had to continue watching the movies written by the spectacular politically-minded Franco Solinas. The fact that one of my favourite directors, Costa-Gavras, did uncredited work on the script, was a major draw too. I'd never heard of Joseph Losey and although I've recently discovered the beautiful, ice-cold Alain Delon through Jean-Pierre Melville's movies, I wouldn't watch a movie just because of his good looks.
So thank you Mr. Franco Solinas for a new good movie and a unique take on the Holocaust theme.
Alain Delon plays Mr. Robert Klein, a normal man who deals in art. In Nazi-occupied France, his business blooms as he buys merchandise at low cost from Jews trying to escape. Since they're at a disadvantage, Mr. Klein only profits from their business relationships. He's not too concerned with what's going on. After all he's not Jewish.
Then one day a Jewish newspaper appears at his door: it seems Mr. Klein is on the subscribers' list. That can't be since he's not Jewish. It seems there's another Robert Klein that got mixed up with him. He tries to sort out the misunderstanding with the police, but the other Klein has disappeared and our protagonist unwittingly becomes victim of an investigation and police harassment.
Continuing to believe that everything will be sorted out – he's a good Frenchman, he claims, and believes in his country's institutions – he decides to look for the other Klein. But wherever he goes he only finds mysteries and dead ends. Why is this happening to Mr. Klein? Why is the other Klein doing this to him? Who is he? These are just some of the questions our protagonist desperately wants to answer.
On the surface this is a metaphysical thriller, much in the tradition of European thrillers like Antonioni's L'Avventure, Blow-Up or The Passenger, in which facts, answers and clarity are less important than the philosophical questions that the mysteries open. Owing more to Kafka than Raymond Chandler, this is the story of how an ordinary man is caught in the bureaucratic machinery of the institutions he believes in, that replace truth with their inexorable authority. It's a prison made without walls and bars but perhaps more oppressive since it can steal even one man's identity.
The ending is truly inspired, one of the finest examples of fatalism I've ever seen in a movie. Looking back, one can't help thinking the movie couldn't end in any other way. And yet it'll come as a surprise to any viewer.
Franco Solinas, Joseph Losey and Alain Delon are all to commend for a heartbreaking movie.
So thank you Mr. Franco Solinas for a new good movie and a unique take on the Holocaust theme.
Alain Delon plays Mr. Robert Klein, a normal man who deals in art. In Nazi-occupied France, his business blooms as he buys merchandise at low cost from Jews trying to escape. Since they're at a disadvantage, Mr. Klein only profits from their business relationships. He's not too concerned with what's going on. After all he's not Jewish.
Then one day a Jewish newspaper appears at his door: it seems Mr. Klein is on the subscribers' list. That can't be since he's not Jewish. It seems there's another Robert Klein that got mixed up with him. He tries to sort out the misunderstanding with the police, but the other Klein has disappeared and our protagonist unwittingly becomes victim of an investigation and police harassment.
Continuing to believe that everything will be sorted out – he's a good Frenchman, he claims, and believes in his country's institutions – he decides to look for the other Klein. But wherever he goes he only finds mysteries and dead ends. Why is this happening to Mr. Klein? Why is the other Klein doing this to him? Who is he? These are just some of the questions our protagonist desperately wants to answer.
On the surface this is a metaphysical thriller, much in the tradition of European thrillers like Antonioni's L'Avventure, Blow-Up or The Passenger, in which facts, answers and clarity are less important than the philosophical questions that the mysteries open. Owing more to Kafka than Raymond Chandler, this is the story of how an ordinary man is caught in the bureaucratic machinery of the institutions he believes in, that replace truth with their inexorable authority. It's a prison made without walls and bars but perhaps more oppressive since it can steal even one man's identity.
The ending is truly inspired, one of the finest examples of fatalism I've ever seen in a movie. Looking back, one can't help thinking the movie couldn't end in any other way. And yet it'll come as a surprise to any viewer.
Franco Solinas, Joseph Losey and Alain Delon are all to commend for a heartbreaking movie.