"I'll be back". Mr. Klein
☆☆☆☆☆ Masterpiece
Monsieur Klein - Mr. Klein (1976) is a film that leaves you questioning your identity and who controls it.
Directed by Joseph Losey.
Starring Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau and Francine Bergé among others.
This is my first Losey directed film and I must say Joseph surpasses Alfred Hitchcock's theme of mistaken identity in North By Northwest (1959) by a wide margin. Losey does not answer or resolve the dilemma faced by Alain's character instead you're left with unanswerable questions. Joseph takes us on a complex Kafkaesque journey with an superb, unfathomable existential ending that leaves you questioning your identity and who controls it.
I discovered that Losey left the USA rather than respond to a subpoena from the House Un-American Activities Committee. Mr. Klein centers on the horrific events of La Rafle (The round-up), when on July 16, 1942 thirteen thousand French citizens of Jewish descent were arrested and put into the Vélodrome d’Hiver, or Vél d’Hiv.
Losey stated, “I’ve always detested naturalism,” and he divided the shoot into three “visual categories”: Unreality, Reality, and Abstract. The scene below is of a much larger scene that brilliant captures the three visual categories that Joseph incorporated into Mr. Klein. Watch how at the end Delon longing looks at his prized painting that he got for pennies from a Jewish client desperate for funds to flee the impending doom that now he himself is facing. Alain Delon like Cary Grant was blessed with an inner natural, instinctive talent that surpassed their matinee idol exteriors.
Trivia - The film compares with the works of the writer Franz Kafka.
Note - If you would like to view Monsieur Klein - Mr. Klein to rent or buy please click on the link below the comments. It is sponsored by Google, so it is the safest and most secure way to get a copy for your film library.
