Winner of the Cesar (the French Oscar) for Best Picture and Best Director, Joseph Losey’s Mr. Klein stars Alain Delon in one of the most challenging roles in his lengthy career.
Grade: A- (**** out of *****)
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U.S. theatrical release poster
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Delon (also credited as co-producer) plays Robert Klien, a Parisian antiques dealer who initially benefits from the War situation.
As Jews flee the Nazis in 1942, desperate to trade their paintings and other valuables, they settle for little money.
In a fatal event, a subscription to a Jewish newspaper is accidentally delivered to Klein’s door, and the Catholic Klien soon finds that he has a double, a Jewish bearing the same name and perhaps also some of his personality traits.
The distraught antiques dealer, wishing to protect himself from the Germans, and mysteriously intrigued by the existence of his doppelganger, sets out to find the “other” Mr. Klein.
His ensuing inquiry turns out to be both an existential and moral odyssey into the nature of self and identity, faith and morality, and responsibility, both personal and collective.
Narrative Structure (Detailed)
Robert Klein, an apolitical and amoral man, 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, 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 become suspicious that it’s a 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 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 when Klein is reunited with the other Jews who once were his clients, as they all board boxcars for Auschwitz.
Losey integrates some historical events, such as the infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup), but his main interest is in exploring issues of identity, not reconstructing Jewish life under the Vichy regime.
He claimed he was inspired by the works of Kafka, such as “Metamorphosis,” in telling the brutal and sudden transformation of man into insect; “The Castle,” which describes the search for one’s own identity by way of getting to know “the other,” and “The Trial,” in which an accused man become an outlaw of society.
At 41, Alain Delon was still a handsome dapper, and his good looks added a layer of complexity to an extremely well-written part, which he plays with remarkable subtlety and restraint.
There’s not a false note in his performance, which dominates the consistently compelling narrative, effective as it is as a political thriller and psychological study about identity transfer.
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
Credits
Directed by Joseph Losey
Written by Franco Solinas, Fernando Morandi; Costa-Gavras (uncredited)
Produced by Alain Delon
Cinematography Gerry Fisher
Edited by Marie Castro-Vasquez, Henri Lanoë, Michèle Neny
Music by Egisto Macchi, Pierre Porte
Release date: May 22, 1976 (Cannes); Oct 27, 1976 (France)
Running time: 123 minutes
