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| LACOMBE, LUCIEN (1974) |
Long before he directed the classic American films “Pretty Baby” and “Atlantic City,” French director Louis Malle was a well established and respected film maker in Europe and his native country.
He made an auspicious debut with the 1958 thriller “Elevator to the Gallows” (available on DVD through the Criterion Collection, click here) and followed it with a string of successful films that included his 1971 coming-of-age drama “Murmur of the Heart” (also available on DVD through the Criterion Collection, click here).
But perhaps Malle’s greatest achievement came in 1974 with “Lacombe, Lucien,” the story of a teenage peasant boy in World War II France who, unwittingly at first, joins the French Gestapo – gaining immediate power and respect from Germans occupying the nation.
