Mr. Klein (1977)

Best movie ever!

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I always assumed director Joseph Losey was British (he was a blacklisted American). To further confuse matters (and me) 'Mr. Klein' is in French and it offers a profound and disturbing glimpse into 1942 France, sliding into semi-totalitarianism. Not a pretty picture; rather a blandly terrifying or terrifyingly bland one. The film is frequently and aptly described as Kafkaesque. It raises questions that it deliberately does not answer. Another reviewer pointed out thematic similarities to Bergman's 'The Serpent's Egg'. I agree, and both are very good. To be honest, I need to see 'Mr. Klein' again but it is upsetting enough that I have to defer that awhile. And probably after another viewing I'll still be confused. Delon at 41 is beginning to lose his looks in this but it's an excellent performance. Recommended though somber and not easy.

Alain Delon is "Mr. Klein," a man profiting off the misfortune of French Jews during World War II in this 1976 film directed by Joseph Losey.Robert Klein is man buying art work at severely reduced prices from desperate Jews, and for him, it's just business. When he receives a Jewish newspaper addressed to him, however, he becomes concerned, less he be suspected of being Jewish himself. His investigation leads him to another Robert Klein, who lived in reduced circumstances, supposedly resembles him, and whose new address has been given as Klein's own.This is a fascinating film about how, in the end, we all become victims of prevailing injustice. There is a great deal of symbolism throughout; Delon's Klein becomes obsessed with the other Klein, and their lives become inextricably entangled.After this film, you'll be left with many questions, for which there are probably several answers. Thus is the beauty of "Mr. Klein," a wonderfully directed and acted film. Delon, as an arrogant and confused man, has rarely been better. He is one actor who, due partially to a nice long life, has been able to extend his range beyond staggering good looks and play interesting, challenging characters; he is a producer of this film.This is highly recommended and certainly a credit to the filmmaking skills of Joseph Losey as well as the taste and talent of Alain Delon.

Exquisite, excruciating existential thriller from director Joseph Losey. (Spoilers follow.)On the simplest level, Mr. Klein is a story of mistaken identity and a powerful indictment of fascism...but it is much more than that. The abiding mystery here is the relationship between a man of mediocre virtue and his doppelganger, who appears to be everything Mr. Klein is not. Mr. Klein at first fears his double, then becomes fascinated by him, then comes to deeply admire him. At the end of the movie, the comfortable bourgeois Paris of Mr. Klein has become a moral cinder, utterly corrupt, and Klein--who only moments before declared, "This has nothing to do with me!"--chooses to follow his double into the boxcar of death.On the level of surface story, this is a paranoid thriller with a gloomy ending; on the level of fable, it is a story of self-discovery and transcendence, as the two Mr. Kleins, who never meet, nonetheless merge. The best Losey films gives us more than we bargained for and take us to places we did not expect, and this is one of his best and most complex movies.

Paris art dealer in Vichy France (Alain Delon) who has a small but significant part in the heist of European works of art finds that he is under suspicion after he begins to investigate another man with his name who has a subscription to a government sanctioned Jewish newspaper. Of course, the police have the names and addresses of all the paper's readers, and are also busy organizing for the expulsion of the entire Jewish population of Paris, many of whom are forced to sell their cherished paintings for near nothing, which are then auctioned off to eager buyers. The auctions are formal affairs, dressed up to legitimize the robbery that took place. At the same time, Delon's curiosity about this other man with his name and appearance (Robert Klein) becomes an investigation for him to prove his own identity and roots. In the midst of it all is a brilliantly and subtly portrayed decay of society, especially in a memorably filmed anti-semitic cabaret scene, where German officers mingle with the French upper middle-class, laughing along to an incredibly insulting act.