When this movie was released in 1974, it created a huge scandal and strong controversies because it was the first movie about the second world war to introduce a collaborator and not a resistant as a main character. Louis Malle was surely affected by these controversies and he decided to escape into the dream and imagination in his next film: the odd and underrated "Black Moon". So the main character here, Lucien Lacombe, is a member of the German police but he didn't choose this situation because he is anti-semitic or he's fond of Nazi thesis. It's simply because he is a victim of his naivety and of his foolishness and he's easy to persuade. Several times in the movie, you are under the impression that he doesn't know what he's doing or saying (for example, when he's drinking champagne with Albert Horn, a Jew tailor and his daughter France). On the other hand, the stroke is responsible of Lucien's entrance in the collaboration: the school teacher doesn't want him to enter the Resistance because he's too young, he had a flat tyre.... Moreover, the action takes place in june 1944 and it's not the right era: it's nearly the end of the war I also noticed that the collaborators were initiating him into several activities (at one moment, one of them is learning him to fire with a browning) without taking care of his opinion. With all these happenings, Lucien's behaviour is changing: he becomes rough, haughty, scornful, takes advantage of his wealthy life and committs a few errors ( Horn is under arrest due to him and he didn't want it to happen). At the end, Pierre Blaise provides a great calibre in his main rôle and thanks to this, the film is strong, powerful and remain one of Malle's best films.

Note: the movie was inspired by a real fact: during the second world war in France, a young collaborator had arrested and killed numerous resistants.

In 1944, in the southwest of France, the teenager Lucien Lacombe (Pierre Blaise) works in a nursing home and returns to his hometown Souleillac for vacation. His father is a German's prisoner and he finds that his mother is living with her master Mr. Laborit (Jacques Rispal). Lucien seeks out the local schoolteacher and leader of the French Resistance Mr. Peyssac (Jean Bousquet) to join the group, but the man tells that he is too young and will not be accepted.

Lucien returns to his job riding a bicycle and he has a flat tire. He arrives late in town and the German police bring him to a hotel and Lucien snitches Mr. Peyssac that is arrested and tortured. Lucien is invited to join the police by the Chief of Police Mr. Tonin (Jean Rougerie) and takes advantages of his new position. When Lucien visits the Jewish tailor Albert Horn (Holger Löwenadler) to make new clothing, he sees his beautiful daughter France (Aurore Clément) and forces her to date him. Later Albert is arrested and when France and her grandmother Bella Horn (Therese Giehse) are hold by the Germans, Lucien kills the German soldier and flees with them to the countryside.

"Lacombe Lucien" tells the fictional story of a despicable collaborationist in World War II. The brainless Lacombe Lucien is an alienated and wicked teenager without any sense of patriotism, morality, emotion, love or respect, and uses his power to hurt people. I do not recall any other film with a collaborationist in the leading role.

The wooden Pierre Blaise keeps the same expression along the whole film and I do not know whether this is intentional to show how alienated his character is or whether he is simply a ham actor. The conclusion is very disappointing. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Lacombe Lucien"

Lucien Lamcombe is the title character of this story about a French teen who joins the German police on a lark during the last year of WWII. A short time earlier, he'd volunteered for the Resistance but was rejected--why he so willingly joined the Nazis was tough to decipher--as were his motives apart from that as well as his inner world. In fact, the young man is like a puzzle with several missing pieces--he just exists and seems to have no depth or much personality--much like the main character in Albert Camus' "The Stranger". He IS--and that's about all you can say about this rather bland and amoral character.

Despite the war having been over for nearly three decades, this film apparently did not do well in France. Perhaps they just didn't want to be reminded that many "good people" willingly collaborated or maybe the wounds were just too fresh.

I liked the film and recommend it, though I must admit director Malle's style is quite unusual and nothing like a Hollywood product. It isn't just because the title character is so amorphous, but the entire story of the film. While there is a little music here and there, it's generally a very quiet film with many long camera shots where not a lot occurs--and seems quite "arty" as a result. Also, there is so much vagueness about the final portion of the film. It just ends very abruptly and there is a slapped on summary of what happened next--almost like they were saying "scene missing here" and instead of re-filming it they just gave a summary of would have been the final ten minutes or so. To me, this was very dissatisfying--particularly because there was no mention of what happened with the girl or her grandmother. Perhaps because the film already was quite long (about 140 minutes),they just decided to end it this way to save costs for film! Whatever the reason, this brought the film from an 8 to a score of 7. An unusual, compelling and odd film--there certainly isn't much like it out there.

UPDATE--I spoke with a friend about this film and the more we talked, the more I now realize that what I didn't like about this film (even though it is still a good movie) is that the main character is not consistent nor does he seem to have any depth. Because he is so immature and bland, I could imagine someone seeing this film and actually feeling sorry for or at least excusing his evil. No matter how "nice" he becomes later in the film, his actions are inexcusable and I didn't want to connect with him and I found this a bit disturbing. Still, it is an unusual and thought-provoking work.