AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

drystyx This story about aimlessly joining a group of Nazi Gestapo thugs during WWII could have been better done with better writing and directing.The unfortunate fact is that this movie has no motivation in any of the characters that is credible. It looks like a writer and director preaching their own neo Nazi ideology.That is not opinion, because the very reviews so far of this movie sustain my observation that there are people here engaging in the preaching and brainwashing. As of the date of this review, if one reads through the existing reviews, one cannot help but realize that over half of the reviews are carbon copies to the extent that it is undeniably the work of one control freak using many fake user names. The differences are minimal, and the focus is always on the same two or three minute details that don't even stand out, and some are even made up.One made up item in the reviews by the control freak is that Lucien falls in love with a beautiful Jewish girl. Laughably, the girl shows lots of skin, but pales in comparison to the knock out beauty that Lucien is supposed to be disinterested in, because of her dark hair it appears, which shows that the director is indeed preaching a neo Nazi ideology that the savage male is Nazi. No doubt, the women like this idea, out of jealousy, but no man could buy into this.So, we see no credible motivation at all in Lucien from a male standpoint, though the women want to believe it. Next, the reviews claim Lucien is ambling through it without any real evil in him. His only motivation is causing evil. The entire escapade involving the Jewish girl and her father is one that is not motivated. It can't be lust, because he has the hot hotel maid claimed, and the maid is stunning, while the woman he supposedly lusts for is just average looking at best, and exhibits no real sensuality, though again I'm sure the woman will want to disagree, the same women who want men to like the plain Ginger who needs make up and royal garb to begin to compete, over the centerfold May Ann.Every move Lucien makes is one of spurring up evil. The Jewish tailor and his daughter live in danger, but everything Lucien does is to put them in more danger, and indeed his only motivation is evil for evil's sake. Of all the Gestapo, he is the worst, and again the reviews I speak of are obviously written by one control freak, as they try to maintain Lucien has some other motivation, and is ambling along with evil men, whereas it's clear they are ambling along with the demon that controls him.The director and writer fail miserably. Their buddy writing reviews under fake user names here fails miserably. That individual probably has a relative that was part of this bomb of a movie, or has some equivalent incentive, but there is no credibility to those reviews, and unfortunately, you would have to sit through this poor movie to realize that, and I wouldn't give that control freak the satisfaction if I were you.

richard-1787 I recognize that this is a well-made movie. But I still didn't enjoy it, and had to push myself to stay with it.It is the story of an amoral, troubled young man (the Lucien Lacombe of the title) who takes pleasure in killing rabbits and other small animals, though early on we see that he had feelings for an old horse. In the last days of the Occupation of France, after the Allies have landed on the Normandy beaches, he decides to join with the Militia and the German police, the Gestapo. He takes pleasure in frightening others with his gun.He also has a romantic side, of a sort, and falls in love, or at least in lust, with the daughter of a Jewish tailor. At times he helps them out. Sometimes, he does not.We never get to understand why he is so often so indifferent to the pain of others. But we are left to understand that such a man - an adolescent, still - could become a militia man.For me, the movie was too slow and too long. I didn't find that I was learning anything new about Lucien as the film progressed, and so saw no reason to stick with it, other than a dogged determination to see the thing through. If I hadn't needed to watch it for a project, I would never have stuck with it to the end.But, as you can see, others on here loved it. It is well acted, often beautifully photographed.I just didn't care for the story or most of the characters.I much prefer this director's later movie about the Occupation, Au Revoir les Enfants, which I found deeply moving.

zetes Fantastic WWII movie about occupation-era France. Lucien Lacombe (Pierre Blaise) is a hulking teenage farmboy nobody. When he hears about the resistance, he tries to join up with it but is rejected by the school teacher who does the recruiting. A short while later, he inadvertently gives up the teacher to a group of Frenchmen working with the Nazis. He's slightly upset at his mistake, but when he is welcomed by these collaborators, he thinks he's found a place to fit in. Plus, as one of the few French people who is pretty much free to do whatever he likes, he begins to throw his weight around. This mostly takes the form of a "friendship" he forms with his tailor, a half-Jewish foreigner over whom he has absolute power. He intimidates the man (wonderfully played by Holger Löwenadler) and openly (and threateningly) hits on his daughter (Aurore Clément). Malle's film is best when it just observes the characters interacting. It's very slow moving, but the power struggle between the characters is fascinating. It is a film where you're pretty much always going to despise the protagonist, but one can also sense the humanity in him.

Susan This film invites us into its various fascinating plots--in the spirit of almost what is happening doesn't matter: a young French/Gesapo boy, Lucian, is crafted a suit by an celebrated, escaped Jewish tailor from Paris who is now living in Toulouse. The man has a nice apartment in Toulouse and he stays there with his mother and daughter.The boy falls in love with the daughter right away and ultimately demands her as his right. Things happen, The father's foolish action separates him from the family. Then, one day, the family is due to be picked up to go to the camps. The camera zooms in on the daughter and grandmother packing only one small bag eachLucien manages to kill the other man who has come to pick them up(the only barrier)--and he now escapes with the young Jewish girl and her grandmother-towards what? With what aim? Did they do the right thing? Did they take the right path? And those people in Toulouse mouthing those horrible things about the Jews--I understand that they weren't actors.What I can't put to rest here is the ending--everything here was on too grand a scale for me, alas. Let's see: If the father was sent to Toulouse by truck, then he most probably entered the transport system headed for the Belzec death camps. When the boy and girl and grandmother escape for a brief while (we are not told how long), they probably did enjoy a brief respite from life--but the movie ends there and they tell us that the boy was captured and killed. It tells us nothing of what happened to the girl and her grandmother, so we can imagine what we will.This film itself was sewn of a dream of a town and its people. But Toulouse, the town,--and its people and their attitudes--those have gone on. That I am sure of. I wonder how much they have actually changed?