Mr. Klein

A film set in occupied Paris. Robert Klein is an art dealer. Business is good because Jews are selling their paintings in order to leave the country and he buys very cheaply. The film's first scene establishes this. A man brings in a canvas, Klein names a figure far below its value, and the man has to accept. One day a newspaper arrives at his door. It is a publication sent only to Jews and it carries his name. He goes to the police. He explains that there has been a mistake, that he is Catholic, and that his family has been French for generations. Nobody is interested. There is another man of the same name in the records and the files have been mixed. Klein starts looking for that man. From there the film is a search. A flat, a woman, a letter, a house in the country, and a person who cannot be found anywhere. What the narrative is interested in is not identity but indifference: Klein knew perfectly well at the start of the film what was happening and did not care; the narrative places him step by step inside the same mechanism. He has to prove himself. He looks for papers of descent, applies to church records, and tries to establish that he is French. The other Klein never appears. The film does not even settle whether he exists. The last section takes place during a mass roundup. Klein finds himself among the crowd and does not leave when he could. The film won three awards at France's national cinema awards, including Best Film and Best Director. Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, Francine Bergé and Juliet Berto are in the cast. Joseph Losey directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes cold, distanced, unsettling political cinema. Who it is not for: anyone expecting explanation; the narrative is deliberately uncertain and closes no question.