Monsieur Klein
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Ce ne serait pas la première fois, surtout en ce moment, que quelqu'un se montre pour mieux se cacher." --Monsieur Klein (1976) "Invaded both by the police and by his double (who, it becomes more and more apparent, is a left-wing member of the Resistance), Klein is forced into history—partly by default and by accident, partly by his own active participation in seeking out the mysterious other Mr. Klein." --The Altering Eye (1983) by Robert Kolker |
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Monsieur Klein (1976) is a French-Italian film directed by Joseph Losey, produced by and starring Alain Delon in the title role. The script was by Franco Solinas.
Set in Vichy France, the Kafkaesque narrative follows an apparently Gentile Parisian art dealer who is seemingly mistaken for a Jewish man of the same name and targeted in the Holocaust, unable to prove his identity.
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Plot
Paris, January 1942. France is occupied by the Nazis. Robert Klein, apparently apolitical and amoral, is a well-to-do art dealer, Roman Catholic and Alsatian by birth, who takes advantage of French Jews who need to sell artworks to raise cash to leave the country.
One day, the local Jewish newspaper, addressed to him, is delivered to his home. He learns that another Robert Klein who has been living in Paris, a Jew sought by police, has had his own mail forwarded to him in an apparent attempt to destroy his social reputation and make him a target of official anti-Semitism. He reports this to the police, who remain suspicious he may be reporting this scheme to disguise his own true identity.
His own investigations lead him in contradictory directions, to Klein who lives in a slum while having an affair with his concierge and to Klein who visits a palatial country estate where he has seduced an apparently Jewish married woman.
When the art dealer cannot locate the other Klein, authorities require him to offer proof of his French non-Jewish ancestry. While waiting for the documentation to arrive, he struggles to track down his namesake and learn his motivation. Before he can resolve the situation by either means, he is caught up in the July 1942 roundup of Parisian Jews.
The film offers no clear resolution of its contradictory evidence and blind alleys. It ends as he is reunited with Jews who once were his clients as they board boxcars for Auschwitz.
Cast
- Alain Delon as Robert Klein
- Jeanne Moreau as Florence
- Michael Lonsdale as Pierre
- Francine Bergé as Nicole
- Juliet Berto as Jeanine
- Massimo Girotti as Charles
- Magali Clément as Lola
- Louis Seigner as Robert's father
- Jean Bouise as The seller
- Suzanne Flon as The concierge
- Michel Aumont as The civil servant
- Roland Bertin as The editor
- Jean Champion as The coroner
- Étienne Chicot as 1st policeman
- Pierre Vernier as 2nd policeman
- Gérard Jugnot as The photographer
- Hermine Karagheuz as The working girl
Symbolism and allusions
Although Losey integrates historical elements (such as the infamous Vel' d'Hiv Roundup) into the film, it is more than a reconstruction of the life and status of the Jews under the Vichy regime.
The relationship of the film with the works of the writer Franz Kafka has often been noted, for example: The Metamorphosis, telling of the brutal and sudden transformation of a man into an insect; The Castle, which describes a search for one's own identity by way of getting to know "the other"; The Trial, which sees an accused man become an outlaw of society.
According to Vincent Canby, the filmmakers "are not as interested in the workings of the plot as in matters of identity and obsession".
See also
- Doppelgänger
- Hide in plain sight
- Mistaken identity
- Nazi plunder
- Kafkaesque
- Klein
- Adriaen van Ostade
- The Internationale
- Fantastic film
