''Monsieur Klein'' ( eng, "Mr. Klein") is a 1976 mystery

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blacklisted ...

, produced by and starring

Alain Delon Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (; born 8 November 1935) is a French actor and filmmaker. He was one of Europe's most prominent actors and screen sex symbols in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor for h ...

in the title role. Set in

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its t ...

, the Kafkaesque narrative follows an apparently

Gentile Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym fo ...

Parisian art dealer who is seemingly mistaken for a Jewish man of the same name and targeted in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, unable to prove his identity. The film is a French and Italian co-production, and premiered at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. It received widespread acclaim from critics and won three

César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Mi ...

;

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, Best Director (Joseph Losey), and Best Production Design (

Alexandre Trauner Alexandre Trauner (born Sándor Trau; 3 August 1906 in Budapest, Hungary – 5 December 1993 in Omonville-la-Petite, France) was a Hungarian film production designer. After studying painting at Hungarian Royal Drawing School, he left the c ...

). Alain Delon was nominated for

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to the ...

Plot

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, January 1942.

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

is occupied by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

. Robert Klein, apparently apolitical and amoral, is a well-to-do art dealer, Roman Catholic and Alsatian by birth, who takes advantage of

French Jews The history of the Jews in France deals with Jews and Jewish communities in France since at least the Early Middle Ages. France was a centre of Jewish learning in the Middle Ages, but persecution increased over time, including multiple exp ...

who need to sell artworks to raise cash to leave the country. One day, the local Jewish newspaper, addressed to him, is delivered to his home. He learns that another Robert Klein who has been living in

, a Jew sought by police, has had his own mail forwarded to him in an apparent attempt to destroy his social reputation and make him a target of official anti-Semitism. He reports this to the police, who remain suspicious he may be reporting this scheme to disguise his own true identity. His own investigations lead him in contradictory directions, to Klein who lives in a slum while having an affair with his concierge and to Klein who visits a palatial country estate where he has seduced an apparently Jewish married woman. When the art dealer cannot locate the other Klein, authorities require him to offer proof of his French non-Jewish ancestry. While waiting for the documentation to arrive, he struggles to track down his namesake and learn his motivation. Before he can resolve the situation by either means, he is caught up in the July 1942 roundup of Parisian Jews. The film offers no clear resolution of its contradictory evidence and blind alleys. It ends as he is reunited with Jews who once were his clients as they board boxcars for

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

Cast

Symbolism and allusions

Although Losey integrates historical elements (such as the infamous

Vel' d'Hiv Roundup The Vel' d'Hiv' Roundup ( ; from french: Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv', an abbreviation of ) was a mass arrest of foreign Jewish families by French police and gendarmes at the behest of the German authorities, that took place in Paris on 16 and 17 July ...

) into the film, it is more than a reconstruction of the life and status of the Jews under the Vichy regime. The relationship of the film with the works of the writer

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...

has often been noted, for example: ''

The Metamorphosis ''Metamorphosis'' (german: Die Verwandlung) is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, ''Metamorphosis'' tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himsel ...

'', telling of the brutal and sudden transformation of a man into an insect; '' The Castle'', which describes a search for one's own identity by way of getting to know "the other"; '' The Trial'', which sees an accused man become an outlaw of society. According to

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

, the filmmakers "are not as interested in the workings of the plot as in matters of identity and obsession".

Reception

The film has an approval rating of 100% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 16 reviews.

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' who saw the film at the 68th Street Playhouse in 1977, had criticized the role of

as Mr. Klein, saying that eis neither interesting nor mysterious enough to hold a film together.

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival but lost to ''

Taxi Driver ''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying ...

''. However, ''Monsieur Klein'' did win the

César Award for Best Film The winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Film ( French: ''César du meilleur film''). Winners and nominees 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s See also *Lumières Award for Best Film *Louis Delluc Prize for Best Film * ...

while Losey won the

César Award for Best Director This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Director (French: ''César du meilleur réalisateur''). History Superlatives Winners and nominees 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins and nomination ...

won the César Award for Best Production Design,

was nominated for the César Award for Best Actor, and in addition the film was nominated for Césars in three other categories.

Restoration

A restored version was released by Rialto Pictures in 2019.

References

External links

*
''Mr. Klein''
an article by Christopher Weedman, a
''Senses of Cinema''

''What Cornelius Gurlitt Could Have Learned from Monsieur Robert Klein''
an article by Karen Loew, a
''Forward''
{{Authority control 1976 films Best Film César Award winners César Award winners Films about identity theft Films directed by Joseph Losey Films produced by Alain Delon Films whose director won the Best Director César Award Holocaust films The Holocaust in France French mystery drama films French historical drama films French psychological drama films Italian mystery drama films Italian historical drama films Italian psychological drama films French World War II films Italian World War II films 1970s French-language films 1970s Italian films 1970s French films