Introduction to Mr. Klein's Story

Introduction to Mr. Klein's Story | Appreciation | Reflection

1976 color film120min

Produced jointly by French Fowles/Lira /Atelier Film Company.

Director: Joseph Lossi Screenplay: Franco Solinas Joseph Lossi Photography: Alexander Trona Main actors: alain delon (as Mr. Klein), jeanne moreau (as Florence), Michel lonsdale (as Pierre) and Julio Berto (as Janina).

This film won the Cesar Award for Best Film and Best Director in 1976.

abstract

1942, German fascists were frantically carrying out the plan to destroy Jews, and French Petain, who had become a collaborator of German fascists, was also cooperating with the Germans to exclude Jews. Suspected people are forced to go to the hospital for examination to confirm whether they are Jews. In the diagnosis room of the hospital, a middle-aged woman is being examined by a doctor. She was thoroughly examined, from hair to heel, from forehead to buttocks. The doctor told her that the test results would be sent directly to her by the police station. A corridor with power is crowded with waiting rooms and people who come for inspection. On one wall of the corridor, there is a standard portrait of marshal petain, the French head of state. In another corridor, a middle-aged woman met her husband, who also came to check. They asked each other if there were any questions, and both of them replied that they were fine. The woman reluctantly smiled at her husband, but could not conceal her inner anxiety.

Early in the morning, robert klein's home. Klein's beautiful young mistress, Janina, is lying in the bed in the bedroom with sleepy eyes. Mr Klein is receiving a Jew in the living room. Klein is an antique dealer, especially oil paintings. At the moment, the Jews want to sell Klein an oil painting by a17th century painter, which is a portrait of a Dutch nobleman. Klein was only willing to pay a very low price for the painting, and the struggling Jews had to agree to the deal because they were eager to get rid of it. When Klein opened the door to see the guests off, he found a copy of Jewish News on the doormat in front of his house. At first, he thought it was accidentally dropped by the guest, but the guest obviously had the same newspaper in his hand. The postman left the newspaper at the door. He thought it was the postman who delivered it by mistake, but the address of the newspaper was accurate and the recipient was obviously "robert klein". After seeing the guests off, Klein stood at the door with a newspaper in his hand. He didn't subscribe to this newspaper and had nothing to do with Jewish organizations. Perhaps, there are two Mr Klein in this city, and both of them are named robert klein? Or was someone setting him up? He has no way of knowing. But he knows what it means if he is suspected of being Jewish, and at this moment, there is a shadow of fear in his eyes.

Klein's friends advised him not to take it too seriously, but Klein insisted on finding out whether he was a Jew or not and whether there was another Jew named robert klein in this city. To this end, he began to run around. He first came to the Jewish News, and after explaining his purpose to the editor-in-chief, the editor-in-chief asked him if he had a friend to book one for him, without letting him know. Klein denied this possibility and asked the editor not to send him any more newspapers. The editor told him that Klein didn't realize the seriousness of the matter until the Paris police headquarters sent back the order, because all the subscriber lists were in the hands of the police headquarters. Then he went to the police headquarters. When the police officer told him that there really was a robert klein with the same name in this city, his nervousness relaxed a little. He wanted to know the address of another Klein, but he was refused.

Klein found himself getting more and more dangerous and felt it necessary to change his residence, so he came to Abesai Street to find a house for rent. As luck would have it, he came to a small building marked "House for Rent". It happened that two policemen came here to ask the landlady about a man named Klein. The landlady saw Klein coming. Although she was not sure, she pointed to Klein and said that he was Klein. Klein said to her, "I'm sorry, I'm not Mr. Klein." But you can't blame the landlady entirely, because the Mr. Klein in her impression looks like this Mr. Klein. The landlady told the police that Mr. Klein had moved away from here, but sometimes his letters and newspapers would arrive here. Klein thinks these letters will reach his home sooner or later.

Klein invited some friends to his home for a party, including his good friend, lawyer Pierre and his wife Nicole. Nicole is both Pierre's wife and Klein's lover. She was jealous when she saw Klein and Janina dancing intimately. Klein told Pierre about his recent experience, saying that a Jew named Klein must be setting himself up.

One day, Klein received an invitation letter from a castle outside Paris. Out of curiosity and in order to find out the identity of another Klein, he went to the meeting. This is an invitation from Klein's other mistress Florence. Klein saw here that Florence and the Jews around her were hiding in the castle and living in a festive atmosphere of forcing a smile to hide their restless mood. At the same time, he learned from Florence that there really was a Jew named Klein, and he probably hid himself for revenge.

In order to find out whether he is Jewish or not, Klein's father told him, "Our family has been French and Catholic since Louis XIV!" " "However, according to the new law, in order to prove that he is not Jewish more reliably, the parties concerned must issue birth certificates of three generations, and Klein must find his grandparents, parents and his own birth certificates, which takes a lot of time, because Klein's grandparents were born in Marseille.

In a nightclub theater in Paris, a poster of the German anti-Semitic film "Jewish Sushi" is posted on the wall, and an anti-Semitic drama is being staged on the stage at the moment. Klein and Janina were also in the audience. Janina couldn't take it anymore and asked Klein to leave with her. They came to a cafe to meet Pierre. Pierre suggested that Klein try to track down Klein who framed him, instead of just waiting for the relevant institutions to issue his grandparents' birth certificates. Klein would rather wait like this than tolerate others measuring his nose and ears like a veterinarian ... Speaking of which, he followed Pierre's advice and continued to inquire about the whereabouts of another Klein. He once again came to another Klein's former residence to look for clues. Knowing the name of another Klein ex-lover, he searched everywhere and found nothing.

Since Klein received the news from the Jews, he has been followed by plainclothes policemen, and he has lost his freedom of movement. The police sent someone to his house and confiscated his property according to law. The house was in a mess. All this is just because his grandmother's birth certificate hasn't arrived yet, and Klein is furious. At that time, Klein's lover Janina, his lawyer friend Pierre and his wife Nicole were also present. They comforted him and gave him advice. Pierre said that as long as he was willing to pay, he could help Klein get a perfect fake certificate and passport to go abroad. Although Klein was not interested in this, he also agreed to Pierre's suggestion.

Soon, Pierre gave Klein his passport and ticket to go abroad at the railway station. His new name on the passport is Robert de Gini. Of course, Pierre charged Klein a high price. Klein boarded the train to Nice. Gina didn't know Klein was walking so fast. When she came to the station to say goodbye to Klein, the train had already started. In the carriage, Klein met a young woman named Nadal. The woman said that she knew another Klein, who was on this train just now. Klein got the address and got off the train at the nearest station immediately.

Late at night, Klein came to Pierre's house, and Pierre was surprised. Klein dialed the phone to another Klein and met at another Klein's residence in half an hour. Pierre was puzzled by Klein's practice. When Klein arrived at another Klein's residence at 32 Abesai Street, I saw several plainclothes policemen stuffing a man into the car. Klein hid on the other side of the building and watched what was happening in front of him. Pierre is here. He walked behind Klein and said, "Robert, it has to be like this. He is a criminal ... and I feel uneasy for you. " Klein jumped on Pierre, grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the wall.

Klein came home and walked aimlessly in the messy room. At dawn, two plainclothes policemen and a uniformed policeman came to his room. One of them showed him his certificate. Klein is calm about what will happen in front of him. At dawn, two buses were parked on the Little Square, each carrying more than 30 Jews, some of whom were children. Klein got off the bus and was taken to the bus by the police. At this time, some shops are open as usual, and most people are in a hurry. The citizens near the square looked coldly at the Jews in the car. Klein is standing in the bus. Someone asked him if he knew where they were going. He replied, "I don't know, I don't want to know anything ... it's none of my business!" " He took his notebook out of his pocket, tore off a page, wrote a few words and a number, and then threw the note on the ground outside the window. A worker picked it up. The bus has started and is ready to leave for the stadium.

The stadium is surrounded by barbed wire and the entrance is closely guarded by armed police. More and more Jews were driven into the stadium, and all kinds of noises and shouts were mixed. They all crowded into the designated position of the first letter of their names. Klein was forced, too Suddenly, he heard a loud cry and got a fright. He turned around. It was Pierre calling him. Pierre has Klein's birth certificate in his hand. Klein wanted to go back, but at this time he rushed to a gate involuntarily, and then everyone was caught up by the stuffy tanker carrying livestock. Behind Klein stood the Jew who sold him a portrait of a Dutch nobleman. He looked at Klein, but he didn't see who it was. When the train started, there was a loud rumble and the crowded carriages flashed across the screen. I don't know whose face it is, but countless unknown people's heads flashed by in a hurry. At this time, with the rumble of passing trains, there is a bargaining conversation between Klein and the Jews who sold him oil paintings at the beginning of the film. ...

Distinguish and appreciate

Mr. Klein was well received when it was released in France and other European and American countries, and won the best film and best director awards in the second French film César Awards held in 1976. This film describes persecution, selfishness, duality of human nature and fascism. But the complexity of its performance is far more than that, which makes it difficult for analysts to judge. The causes of various events in the film, the relationship between characters, their behavioral motives, etc. It's all vague. The whole story comes from this:1one morning in March, 942, a small Jewish newspaper was placed on the threshold of Mr. Klein's house, and this newspaper alone was enough to affect the whole fate of this person. This Alsatian, who was still living a comfortable life and deeply believing in Catholicism during the occupation, experienced indecision, anxiety and inner panic from his arrogant selfishness, and finally gave in after a futile resistance.

Director joseph losey has repeatedly stressed: "In my opinion, directing art is also a way of understanding, which is no different from that adopted by scholars and philosophers. First of all, we must face up to reality before we can reproduce it. " Therefore, for him, all kinds of styles are suitable: reality and unreality, fantasy and abstraction, Kafka-style atmosphere and psychoanalysis, plot and potential inner distress similar to detective films can be used by him. For example, in order to fully express the feelings of the French during the occupation, it is not enough to describe oppression, hunger and persecution. There is also a feeling that cannot be ignored, that is, humiliation. Loser felt this very clearly, so he arranged such an unbearable scene at the beginning of the film: a woman who is not very young, naked, standing there, using the rough hands of any official doctor to judge whether she is Jewish or not.

This drama not only sets the tone of the whole film in content, but also in form, and the realism of losers finally flows into Kafka-style world. In a sense, Mr Klein is similar to Kafka's The Trial. The reality of characters' life is not only a one-way time scale environment, but also illusory, as elusive as a mystery, and even unknown. The contiguous names are Kafka-style, because the protagonist in Kafka's works is often a person named "K", who is lonely and desperate, pessimistic and world-weary, far from reality, mysterious, illusory and even absurd. The world during the occupation period is also absurd, and the individuals living in it are destroyed by the inhuman ruling forces in the animal-like tyrannical society. After an irritating and disgusting "physical examination", the woman knew that she was still a suspect and found her husband who came to the physical examination together. She assured him that everything was fine and her husband comforted her. However, anxiety is always in their hearts, which will undoubtedly ruin their happiness and even their lives. In the form of expression, the film author did not make too much fuss about the drama of the theme itself, and regarded the film as a detective film, but paid attention to depicting the psychology of the characters and revealing the environmental atmosphere, making it a powerful, exquisite and delicate film.

On the surface, Mr. Klein is just a mysterious and absurd drama depicting a mercenary, but for Lose, the first thing is to make the film into a social drama: France and its unfortunate people during the German occupation. When talking about the creative process of the film, Loser once said: "When I started this film about the occupation period and how to treat1July 942, I read those documents and historical materials, and I couldn't believe my eyes. It is unbelievable that human beings are so cruel and heartless ... ". The film is really set in real historical events: 1942, 16 In July, Vichy police in France rounded up13,000 Jews and drove them into concentration camps.

This tragic road is also Mr. Klein's road. At first, he pampered himself, bought Jewish art at unreasonably low prices, and forced those unfortunate people to make receipts expressing satisfaction with the price. Finally, after intense introspection, he involved his fate in these Jews. This detail is unrealistic, but it has a very real background: behind Klein, people saw the Jew again. At the beginning of the film, Klein bought a portrait of the Dutch aristocrat painted by Atrion von Osta from him. This painting is both fascinating and a witness to his doom. It is illogical for these two people to meet like this. However, this symbolic reunion gives the film another new explanation: people can think that Klein's misfortune is due to his own careless private visit, but the appearance of the seller will overturn this idea. It is not impossible for Klein, a Jew, to pretend to be Catholic in order to save himself or cover up his terrorist actions. Or, the exploited seller set this trap for the despicable mercenary, who wanted desperate satisfaction: to see Klein exiled and destroyed like himself.

This ambiguity is also reflected in other characters. For example, Mr. Klein's lawyer friend may have hijacked the ship while Klein was bankrupt, ostensibly protecting his client, and secretly took the opportunity to get a ticket. As Klein's mistress, the lawyer's wife is undoubtedly the most jealous woman. Didn't she drive her lover to follow the imaginary Klein absurdly for revenge? Not only is every role ambiguous and unpredictable, but every situation is also ambiguous. Is Klein's trip to the Jewish News naive or duplicitous? The purpose of his going to the newspaper is to know why he received the newspaper that bound him. However, the official who received him made him understand that every subscriber card must be reported to the police headquarters, which deepened this suspicion and Klein's fear. The other letter is an invitation letter. After receiving the letter, he went to the castle and met the Jews living in a festive atmosphere. They forced a smile to hide their anxiety. They seem to be desperately trying to reverse the hour hand, which is heading for disaster. He had a strange conversation with another Klein mistress here and even had sex with her. However, the man driving a motorcycle who appeared in the dark saw the young woman coming towards him almost without Klein in the yard. Coincidence or conspiracy? Or do you want to make sure the trap works?

Between these scenes and other unrealistic scenes, The Loser has inserted a large section of scenes that are almost looking for Jewish historical materials. It is through this way of expression that the personal drama and the collective drama are integrated. For example, the busy scene in the police headquarters, the vigilance of the landlord in Abesai princesa, the caution of the Jews, and the posters of anti-Semitic movies in the cinema all remind the audience that Mr. Klein's fate is linked to that era full of terror. Rossetter also took this opportunity to expose the sinful ruthlessness of other French people, who were almost indifferent to the bus packed with Jews on the way to the stadium. However, there are exceptions to his criticism of selfish French people. For example, Janina, Klein's official lover, the girl who is obedient to him and listens to him completely, has an amiable and lovely attitude. Mr. Klein took her to the nightclub behind fashion and watched those poor actors perform vulgar anti-Semitic comedies. Janina turned around in disgust and asked Klein to leave with her. Loser thinks that Janina is one of the "few pure characters in this movie".

In addition, the characters and situations are more complicated because the Loser creatively launches two plot clues at the same time. For example, when Yanina left with a suitcase and regrets, hoping to get Klein's retention, Klein was reading the news in the newspaper about a robert klein who was killed in a failed sabotage operation. Two important messages are presented to the audience at the same time: in this worried world, the only person he can be close to has left, and the annoying guy with the same name has officially disappeared. Sometimes, Rosette does not hesitate to use her imagination simply. In the carriage of a train, Klein seemed to be out of danger for a moment. There was a young woman sitting opposite, and he immediately guessed that this woman was another Klein's mistress. This young woman with a puzzled smile who seems to know him like the back of her hand may be the medium of his fate and misfortune. Later events proved that this was really Klein's misfortune, perhaps on the contrary, it was just his atonement. On the surface, Loser once again left the freedom of choice to the audience. However, he showed the horror and means of persecution so clearly that it is hard for people to feel that the audience can really choose freely. Faced with such humiliation, such pain and fear, such inhuman humiliation, people need to redeem themselves! At this level, Mr. Klein can be regarded as an educational film.

"Mr. Klein" has both modern consciousness and traditional ideas. The film author attaches great importance to the philosophical connotation of the film, and this connotation is often ambiguous or even ambiguous, which requires the audience to guess and understand it carefully. Although the film is anti-fascist, the content it wants to express is obviously much more complicated. This is related to Loser's understanding of the function of movies. Loser pays special attention to the cognitive function of movies, and thinks that "the purpose of movies is the author's thinking about the world or society in which he lives, whether he wants to leave this society or fight against it." The author should reveal all aspects of society or express his own views on this society. Only in this way can his works connect with reality. " Loser doesn't emphasize the social critical function of movies very much: "If I don't like some values of this society, I won't criticize the world I live in. I just want to reveal this society and hope that my film can show a sense of responsibility to society. "

In terms of artistic skills, Mr. Klein strictly follows the traditional expression techniques. Its slow narrative rhythm, attention to details and smooth lens movement all reflect the consistent artistic characteristics of Lose's works. He is very particular about scene processing and atmosphere rendering. For example, during the occupation of Paris, he has a surreal color. The actor's performance is an important factor in the success of this film. Although jeanne moreau, a movie star of the older generation, didn't have many scenes, he added a lot of color to the film, while alain delon's performance was "never as mature as this film".

Joseph Losey (1909 ~ 1984) is an American film director who was born in Britain. He is an artist with serious creative attitude, skillful artistic skills, courage and openness. Since 193 1, he has been a stage director, deeply influenced by Brecht. In 1950s, persecuted by McCarthyism, he was forced to leave the United States and settle in Britain. In the 1970s, due to the depression of British films, he went to France to develop. Loser started as a short film and later became a screenwriter. From the late 1940s, he began to make feature films and became a prolific director. He made more than 40 films in his life, many of which were praised or praised by international film critics, such as Servant (1963), Car Accident (1967) and Messenger (65438+).