Friday, May 19, 2006
CHOICES
Today'sNYTimes Best 1176 Film was
That's last name, comma, first name.
How he intoduces himself when he does.
Louis Malle made this fulsome film about the initiation and evolution of a thug. Usually, coming of age stories are about nice things. But this takes place in the waning year of Nazi occupied France.
Our late-teen anti-hero tries to join the resistance. He is snubbed.
Almost accidentally, he is taken up by some Nazi cops who take him in as an enforcer type. His first job is................Well. It is a drama with some suspense.
Bad choices. Evil people. Ignorance. Lucien does not even know the details of sides in the War. It is only an opportunity to intimidate and kill people.
In all this, he is surrounded by beauty. Beauty of the land, beautiful people, a man who almost saves him from himself (a jew), a beautiful young woman, a loving mother.
Constant tension.
The film is fully restored by Criterion so on teevee it looks theatrical.
It was hard to watch. Anti-heroes always are. I guess because there are so many of them.
This film got an 8.0 on IMDb user ratings. That is high.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5. That is high too.
