World War II · Film · 1974
Lacombe, Lucien
Turned away by the Resistance in the summer of 1944, a 17-year-old farm boy drifts into the service of the French Gestapo and falls for the daughter of a hiding Jewish tailor.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 1 places.
Stop 1: Figeac and the Lot countryside
Key location
From a hotel turned police headquarters, Lucien enjoys his sudden power and forces his way into the lives of a Jewish family waiting to flee to Spain.
What really happened
In occupied France thousands of French men served the German police as auxiliaries, informers and gunmen, from the Carlingue, the so-called French Gestapo, to Vichy's Milice, founded in January 1943 to hunt the maquis. After D-Day the maquis rose across the southwest, and German units answered with reprisals such as the massacres at Tulle and Oradour-sur-Glane in June 1944.
Malle wrote the story with Patrick Modiano and shot it in the Lot around Figeac. His portrait of a collaborator who is neither villain nor victim, only indifferent, caused an uproar in France, where the myth of a nation of résistants was just being questioned. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- Lacombe, Lucien
- Directed by
- Louis Malle
- Countries
- France, Italy, Germany
- Languages
- French, German
- Released
- 1974
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Home front
- Resistance
