Mr. Klein

It’s 1942, World War II is raging and the Nazis have occupied France. Robert Klein is an art dealer who’s becoming rich by buying the possessions of the persecuted Jewish people for degrading prices. He does not harbour any political beliefs and seems indifferent to what’s happening around him. Everything changes, however, when a Jewish newspaper accidentally arrives at his house and Klein discovers that there’s another Robert Klein living in Paris, a Jew. The authorities can’t track down his namesake and suspicions fall on him. In 1976, Joseph Losey, in exile from the US, takes on a script, which may not be an adaptation of a Kafka story but is clearly inspired by his complete works. A war/political thriller that also serves as a condemnation of the collaboration of the French authorities with the Nazi conqueror, “Monsieur Klein”, with unsurpassed performances by Alain Delon and Jeanne Moreau, was screened at the Cannes film festival, where it lost to Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” in the Palme d’Or race.

Original Title: Monsieur Klein

Director: Joseph Losey

Screenwriter: Franco Solinas, Fernando Morandi

DoP: Gerry Fisher

Music: Egisto Macchi Pierre Porte

Editor: Marie Castro-Vazquez, Henri Lanoë, Michele Neny

Principal Cast: Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, Francine Berge, Juliet Berto, Jean Bouise

Country: France, Italy

Year: 1976

Running Time: 123'

Language: French