There is no doubt that Louis Malle while making the movie Lacombe Lucien wanted the eyewitness to feel uncomfortable when watching it. In the film we have to judge for ourselves but at the same time try to understand what leads people to do things that they choose to do. Louis Malle attempted to tell a 'real' story of 'real' people, rather than the good vs evil caricature. Possibly Malle wanted us to feel discomfort while watching the movie so that we identify with the individuals more and in some way, very minor, experience the feelings they experienced which due to the times they lived were very complex and uneasy. He wanted to manipulate the medium of film in order to make the audience reconsider their preconceptions and because the film acts upon the conscious mind far more than any other form of art he managed to achieve his goal effectively. In the movie there are many scenes in which the audience can feel uncomfortable. Whilst it begins we see Lucien cleaning the floors in a hospital. As he walks towards the window, he sees a singing bird. Making sure that nobody is looking he takes out his slingshot and shoots the bird dead. When we see a close up shot of his face, Lucien seems rather proud of himself. << We don’t know whether to laugh at boy’s mischief or to be horrified by a cold blooded killing. >> Despite the fact that the bird is dead, Django Reinhardt’s joyful music is starting to play in the background. This is one of the first times when the audience gets a feeling of discomfort as we wonder why this music was chosen for the particular scene. At the same time we are aware it definitely was not a coincidence. Despite Lucien’s previous reaction, few scenes later he is shown as moved by stroking a dead horse whic...
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...is can cause people to feel uncomfortable as they can come up with a few different conclusions with regards to themselves.
Works Cited
Altman, Charles F. “ Lacombe Lucien: Laughter as Collaboration,” The French Review, Vol. 49, No. 4, American Association of Teachers of French, (March1976), pp. 549-558.
Baker, Charles A. “Review: Two Views of Vichy France, ” The French Review, Vol.51, No. 5, American Association of Teachers of French, (April 1978), pp. 763-764
Hewitt, Leah D. “Salubrious Scandals/Effective Provocations: Identity Politics Surrounding Lacombe Lucien,” South Central Review, Vol. 17, No. 3, Cinema Engage: Activist Filmmaking in French and Francophone Contexts, John Hopkins University Press, (Autumn 2000), pp. 71-85
Lacombe, Lucien (The Criterion Collection), 2006. Video recording. Directed by Louis Malle, France : Optimum World Releasing
In the piece “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism,” Jean Luc-Comolli and Jean Narboni define the critic's job as the discernment of “which films, books and magazines allow the ideology a free, unhampered passage, transmit it with crystal clarity, serve as its chosen language” and which films “attempt to make it turn back and reflect itself, intercept it, make it visible by revealing its mechanisms, by blocking them” (753). Through their examination, seven film categories are outlined. Clue falls into the “E” category, which is defined as “films which seem at first sight to belong firmly within the ideology and to be completely under its sway, but which turn out to be so only in an ambiguous manner” (75...
To summarize the book into a few paragraphs doesn't due it the justice it deserves. The beginning details of the French and Ind...
Greene, Naomi(1999) Landscapes of loss: The national Past of Postwar French cinema (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press)
Cobban, Alfred . "Historians and the Causes of the French Revolution." Aspects of the French Revolution. New York: George Braziller, 1968.
Hanning, Robert and Joan Ferrante. The Lais of Marie de France. Eliduc. Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1978.
Before undergoing the recovery process, French society needed to know what kind of transformation needed to occur. Chrastil emphasizes that many, after the conclusion of the war, believed that postwar recovery called for a political transformation. Therefore, “recovery from the war thus entailed a rejection of rule by one man and the embrace of the republic” (Chrastil 38). Chrastil argues that Republicans strongly believed that the establishment of a republic would recover France from its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. On the other hand, Chrastil introduces the Men of Letters, “who were more likely than politicians to promote the revanchiste cause, also were more inclined to point to the moral shortcomings of their fellow citizens for the causes of the war and its upheaval” (45). It is important to note that the “revanchiste cause” was essentially a retaliation, specifically to regain lost territory. Therefore, unlike the Republicans, the Men of Letters claimed that France, as a nation-state, had to undergo moral change rather than political, to recover. Within Chapter two, where Chrastil presents the two options, political or moral transformation for recovery, she provides many sources of journalists and authors as evidentiary support of what each side was arguing. Yet, neither option of political or moral transformation persuaded the French citizens that the state could meet the needs that France required for recovery. Thus, in Chapter Three and Four Chrastil illustrates that French citizens began to have a profound effect on what occurred in France, in both in relation to France under German occupation and commemorative acts in putting dead soldiers to
Jackson, Julian. The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
New York: Barnes & Noble, 1969. Print. The. Kreis, Steven. A. A. "Lecture 12: The French Revolution - Moderate Stage, 1789-1792.
The French people were quick to blame the government for all the misfortune they possess, yet ignored the potential evil or crisis the social body was heading towards within themselves. Because of the rapid sequence of horrific events in the beginning of the French revolution, it prevented the subversive principles to be spread passes the frontiers of France, and the wars of conquest which succeeded them gave to the public mind a direction little favorable to revolutionary principles (2). French men have disgraced the religion by ‘attacking with a steady and systematic animosity, and all it is there that the weapon of ridicule has been used with the most ease and success (2). Metternich was not in support of the French
The Vichy Regime was the French government that came after the Third Republic in the year 1940 (Editors, 1). Many historians say Vichy France was a very dark and unfortunate time. Vichy was a wartime government in a town south of Paris called Vichy. It was established by Marshal Philippe Pétain after France surrendered to Germany on June 22, 1940 (Editors, 1). On the same day, France was divided into two zones: one to be under German military occupation and one to be left to the French. There were, however, a few zones of France unoccupied (Holocaust). Not too long after the new government was made, Pierre Laval joined it and soon became the main architect of the regime (Editors, 2). Laval was the man who granted Petain to create a new constitution so he would have full legislative and executive powers in the French State (McMahon). Petain was a beloved hero from World War II. Even though the Vichy government lasted four years, there was never a new constitution (McMahon, 1). Vichy France, known as the “French State”, would rule the south and most of France’s oversea colonies would remain loyal to Vichy.
In our discussion in class, Jean Baptiste Poquelin, also known as Moliere, is introduced as one of “The Dramatists” along with Pierre Corneille and Jean Baptiste Racine. Born on the 15th of January 1622 and died on February 17, 1673 due to lung complication because of hypochondria. He is known to be humorous and his satire. In 1643, Moliere and actress Madeleine Bejart joined the Illustre Theatre. After two years, their troupe collapsed and Moliere was put to jail because of debt. Luckily, in 1658 Moliere returned after some time of being gone and his troupe went back to Paris.
Nardo, Don. A. The French Revolution. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999. Print.
Stokes, Melvyn. "Race, Politics, and Censorship: D. W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" in France, 1916-1923." Cinema Journal 50.01 (2010) 19-38. Web.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Dir. Michel Gondry. Perf. Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet. Focus Features, 2004. DVD.