Movie Reviews by Edwin Jahiel

MR. KLEIN (France, 1977)

Joseph Losey, one of America's most intelligent, educated and socially-conscious film directors, was blacklisted in the days of HUAC and moved to England where he had a brilliant, new career that included major collaborations with Harold Pinter. He then made three films in France. In Europe Losey was considered one of the great masters. "Mr. Klein" is set in 1942 when, on 16 July, in Paris the French police rounded up some 13,000 Jews (most of them refugees from Nazi persecution) at the Vel d'Hiv (the bicycle-racing arena) then moved them to the camp of Drancy near Paris, from which they were sent to German death camps. The film is particularly appropriate today as a few days ago, France's new President Jacques Chirac, made an unexpected apology for such wartime crimes committed by the French against the French and against the guests of France during the Occupation. Mr. Robert Klein (Alain Delon) is an art dealer who does not mind taking advantage of the Jews who have to sell their possessions, in the hope of surviving. He is actually not a true villain, but a believable, self-centered and conscienceless character. He gets, in mysterious ways, mistaken for another Robert Klein, a Jew, so that the dealer starts a search for him and for means to identify himself as a non-Jew. But the more he investigates the more he sinks in quicksand, until he identifies himself with the other man, and the Jewish victims. This is a simplification of the story which is complex, truly Kafkaesque. There are some arty sequences near the beginning, namely those that involve Jeanne Moreau who is listed as co-star but has only a small role. Beyond this, the movie becomes gripping in a non-Hollywoodian way and also paints a devastating picture of the French authorities and the wealthy bourgeoisie in those horrible days. The film was not too well received in the US, perhaps because it was uncommercial, un-entertaining, elliptical and alien to the American experience in lifer or in films, though some mature critics ought to have known better. Actor Alain Delon, because of too many undistinguished films, some scandals, his ties with the underworld and other considerations, has often been dismissed as just a pretty boy or a tough, but this beclouds the several excellent performances he has given, as in "The Leopard" and in "Mr. Klein." Strongly recommended.