Paris, World War II. Robert Klein is an art dealer living at 136 Rue du Bac, earning a fortune by cheaply buying valuable paintings from Jews who are looking for fast cash to escape the totalitarian dictatorship and Nazi persecution. One day, Klein finds a newspaper for Jewish news, Informations Juives, even though he is not a subscriber. Investigating, he finds out another Robert Klein, an anti-Nazi resistance member, is using his name. Klein finds his namesake's empty apartment and obtains a photo of his associate, a woman called "Isabelle", "Kathy" and "Françoise". Since the authorities are suspicious of his heritage, Klein orders a record of his family's history confirming none of them were Jewish. Klein decides to sell all his paintings worth 10 million francs, while his lawyer Pierre gives him a fake passport so that he can flee abroad. Klein meets Nicole in train, his namesake's associate, and decides to return back to Paris to meet his namesake. Klein and his namesake, and all the Jews, are all arrested by the police, gathered at a fenced detention center, and then further sent to sealed-off trains into the unknown.
American director Joseph Losey made an excursion into France by directing this critically acclaimed film that depicts the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews during the Nazi-German occupation of Paris in a subtle, indirect, even allegorical and abstract manner, incorporating surreal and mystery elements from Franz Kafka's "The Trial". The latter is the films biggest weakness: too much symbolism used in the protagonist's search for his namesake, a Jewish underground resistance member, as well as too many unanswered questions in the end, take away and distracts too much from the main topic of the Holocaust, which should have been shown in classic fashion without this kind of artistic obfuscation. Nonetheless, it is a slow-burning, powerful, intelligent and ambitious film with an excellent leading role by Alain Delon as Robert Klein. The opening sequence is extremely powerful: a middle-aged, overweight woman stands naked in a clinic while a doctor is measuring her head ("Naso-labial space normal. Septum slightly flattened. Lower lip fleshy. Jaw typical for non-European races."), trying to determine if she is Jewish or not. In one simple situation, "Mr. Klein" already establishes the context and feeling of the society during that time.
As Klein tries to find his namesake (who is never seen in the entire film), he attracts suspicion of the authorities, causing only more and more problems for him. Even though Klein is not Jewish, but Catholic, he is still provisionally given the same restrictions as other Jews, causing his protest in front of the police officers who came to raid his home ("My painting... I'm not allowed to buy or sell. No more bars, no restaurants, no cinemas, nothing! Everything's forbidden! They say I can't go anywhere, even to a public piss-house! Just because my grandmother's birth certificate is missing"). The anxiety, paranoia and that feeling of dread and helplessness as Jews (or anyone suspected of having Jewish heritage in family) had their human rights shrinking from day to day, are the strongest points of "Mr. Klein", without having to spell everything out in heavy-handed messages. And this works better than the symbolism which comes across as staged and too artificial (for instance, the dog that follows Klein on the street even though he is chasing him away, because the dog's owner was Klein namesake). Losey directs the film conventionally, but he has a strong story, and some scenes are clever, nonetheless (the scene at the train station where Klein is saying farewell to his lawyer Pierre, while his namesake is right behind him, his back turned towards the camera, saying farewell to his associate Nicole in the train). Some moments are more entrenched in the subconscious than the logical (why would Klein suddenly decide to return to Paris, to seek his namesake, despite the danger?), but the finale is so devastating and disturbing, while staying perfectly calm all the time, that the viewers will not be left indifferent.
Grade:+++
No comments:
Post a Comment