Mr. Klein [DVD]

I recommend it

Actually very good stuff

For those who have seen all of Joseph Losey's significant films, MR. KLEIN is the greatest after THE SERVANT. Some even call MR. KLEIN Losey's finest achievement. It's telling of our fragmented film culture that such an accomplished work of art remains unknown, even to many serious film buffs. For years, we had to settle for an English-dubbed, panned & scanned VHS tape. But the greatness of MR. KLEIN showed through even that medium.Now the film is available on a high-quality DVD from Home Vision (which manufactures Criterion DVDs). The transfer is very fine, with the broad color pallette ringing out. And the widescreen aspect of the film can be appreciated by many who have never seen it look so good.MR. KLEIN is a work of which its director should have been proud. It's intelligent, intriguing, moving, funny, and beautiful. Like THE SERVANT, it has at its center an ambiguous hero by whom one is, at turns, repelled and attracted.This may also be the greatest acting achievement of Alain Delon. The charismatic French actor's still-stunning good looks sometimes can distract from appreciating his genuine talent. Delon probably never gave a bad performance in any film. But MR. KLEIN provides him with a wide range and depth that he is more than capable of handling. It's mostly a quiet performance, with few outbursts. Delon is required to react, which he does brilliantly at several points, or to express the meaning of scene through posture and facial expression alone. One subtle example is the scene early on, where the mistress is on the bed in the background, wondering if she should get up. Delon is seated at his desk, half-listening to her trivialities. He has far more pressing issues on his mind. The actor perfectly conveys the ambivalent, trapped situation through small body gestures and tone of voice. When he finally rises to address the mistress's concerns, his forced tone is also exactly right for the moment. Later, Delon plays Klein's mixture of desperation and arrogance with so much conviction, it's easy to forget he is, after all, acting.MR. KLEIN is a film of rich interiors, and eye-catching, but not ostentatious, location shooting. It looks tremendous on DVD and it can leave the viewer devastated, but undeniably impressed by the genius of Joseph Losey and Alain Delon.A trailer for MR. KLEIN is also included

While less famous than his collaborations with Harold Pinter, "Mr. Klein" may well be director Joseph Losey's best work. A chilling parable that tends to leave viewers speechless, it offers a brilliantly sustained vision of life in a decadent, futureless society. Perhaps most importantly, this is a film about the Holocaust that does *not* focus on its horrors. Instead, these are taken as a given that surround the central story, smothering all concerned in a blanket of complicity.The most remarkably insidious aspect of "Mr. Klein" is the clever way we are put in a position of sympathy with a basically unlikeable, corrupt character, as he struggles to prove he is not Jewish. Because we know what the consequences of failure in the effort will be, viewers too are implicated in the situation, forced to confront how *we* would behave in similar circumstances. Instead of the easy moralizing encouraged in most treatments of this subject, the film presents a thoroughly political, unblinkered examination of guilt and denial.Like most of Losey's work, the film is slow-moving, distinctively designed and more than a tad opaque. In his less ambitious efforts, that opacity can often irritate. Here, with a real subject worthy of his talents, the director's famously menacing atmosphere seems absolutely right, the only way to tell this story. Losey's penchant for implying something nasty under the surface makes sense when we know that at any moment a jack-booted member of the SS may appear from off-camera. It is this threat, this constantly over-hanging possibility, that generates the fear which is the real subject of the film.All concerned are working in top form. Delon manages the awkward task of making us care what happens to Klein, even as we are repulsed by his actions and attitudes. Gerry Fisher's cinematography is the opposite of beautiful: cold, clammy, it superbly conveys a sense of dank decay. And special mention should be made of Egisto Macchi's spare, dissonant music. If only Hollywood understood such understatement!The transfer for this tape is adequate, but I profoundly wish this superb film were available on DVD.

What is in a name? This question has profound implications during an anti-Semitic regime. The surname is a precursor to identity: Klein implies French Catholicism or Dutch Jewish ancestry. Seeking to correct a simple case of mistaken identity becomes a Kafkaesque journey. Exploration of the doppelganger is rarely more personal. A well-scripted, riveting intellectual thriller.

Sadly the nglish subtitles are so bad that my husband & I could hardly make sense of the film. One example is: The main character's name in french is RICHARD. In the subtitles this comes out as RICHEL, a minor glitch but one that continiuosly threw us off as we tried to figure out who this was. My husband speak some French and he felt that many of the translations were done by someone not really a fluent English speaker; they were of stilted usage. Visually the film is excellent.

One of the great movies of all time it is entertaining and tragic, black humor and elegant, and its based on fact. I confess to be leery and perplexed by Delon - he has made so many bad B-flicks from gigolo to cop to gangster to cowboy. But when all is said and done, he is still alive and contradictory, there is Purple Noon and Mr. Klein. I cannot help from wondering about his sexuality under-neath his personae. Is he a bisexual or closet gay? If he is then Mr Klein is even more amazingly relevant. In denial to the bitter end - and where has it gotten Mr Klein? I think besides this it is a classic.

Enjoyed the movie. It is expressive and well done. I would purchase more movie via this venue, as it is covenant.

AAA+++!!!

I thought this was the new release with bonuses. It's just the un subtitled French version.

This film has been hard to find on physical media. Criterion does a beautiful job with the transfer of the film. Very interesting story of an art dealer caught up in the fury of WW2

Film réalisé en 1976 par Joseph Losey ( The servant, La truite... ), produit par Alain Delon, ce film est un des meilleurs films de Joseph Losey et peut-être le meilleur rôle d'alain Delon ( Avec " Le samouraï ", " La piscine " et " Plein soleil " ). Robert Klein ( Alain Delon ) affairiste de guerre alsacien rachetant aux juifs des oeuvres d'art à vil prix se retrouve confronté à un autre Robert Klein, sans doute juif et certainement résistant communiste ( Francine Bergé jouant au piano sans la reconnaître une partition musicale trouvée chez l'autre Robert Klein se trouvant être L'Internationale ) qui utilise son identité. Petit à petit, l'affairiste se retrouve piégé dans un univers administratif kafkaïen à être obligé de justifier qu'il n'est pas juif ( ceux qu'il spolie ) tout en recherchant frénétiquement son double, quête devenue obsessionnelle qui va le mener jusqu'à la rafle du vélodrome d'hiver qui dans le film a lieu à l'hiver 42-43 ( effet dramatique voulu par Losey ) alors qu'elle survint en juillet 1942. Je ne dévoilerai pas la fin du film pour ceux qui n'ont pas vu ce chef d'oeuvre mais c'est l'occasion de retrouver avec plaisir de grands acteurs. Le grand Louis Seigner et son phrasé si particulier ( Grand-père de Mathilde et Emmanuelle Seignier ), Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon, Juliette Berto, Francine Bergé, Michael Lonsdale ( crédité sous le nom de Michel Lonsdale ), Jean Bouise, Etienne Chicot... Un film à voir ou revoir absolument et une fin assez inattendue. Attention, les premières minutes du film ( l'examen médical ) sont à déconseiller aux âmes sensibles.VU en DVD ( belles couleurs ) et son 1.0 restauré. Pas de sous-titres. Un minimum de bonus ( Bande-annonce, filmographie de Losey, Delon, Moreau ) - STUDIOCANAL.

Magistral. Le portrait de la France occupée, ses combines, ses policiers pressés d'arrêter les suspects désignés par l'occupant, ses nantis repus et affairés, la menace, les traques - et le charme discret des dénonciations... L'un des meilleurs sur cette époque abjecte : il faut voir le ballet des tractions avant sur le sol luisant des cours de préfectures, les ciels plombés, les rues désertes du Paris occupé... C'est peut-être chez Losey que Delon est à son meilleur, débarrassé de ses tics, admirable par sa façon d'occuper chaque plan, même lorsqu'il ouvre une porte. Les autres acteurs, Jean Bouise (poignant), Suzanne Flon, Francine Bergé, Jeanne Moreau sont mieux qu'inspirés : habités, à l'instar de Michel Lonsdale. Une œuvre d'art étrange et sombre, dérangeante, et riche d'enseignements.