«Mr. Klein» (1976)

We've been French and Catholic since Louis XIV!

1942, Paris. Unscrupulous art dealer Robert Klein makes desperate French Jews to pay peanuts for priceless objects of art. He is quite content with his life until he is mistaken for a Jewish namesake. From that moment, he desperately needs to prove his non-Jewish heritage or the consequences will be horrific.

During the Nazi occupation, the French people retained, for the time being, some civil rights (or, at least, the resemblance of it). Frenchmen, who was not engaging in some subversive activities, were left alone by the Nazis. Still, one slip (such as contact with the undesirable) – and the person could end up in the collaborationist French police or, even worse, in the Gestapo.

In the post-war West Germany, all the blame was shifted to the SS, and Wehrmacht was portrayed as noble descendants of the brave knights, who were honorably doing their job. Post-war France adopted another legend – the French society was actively resisting occupation and collaborationists were just a few renegades.

Still, the reality was far from this fiction. During the film, there is almost no German character, and most of the dirty work is done by the Frenchmen (police officers, unscrupulous dealers and etc.). Parisians are trying to lead an ordinary life and, the most despicable among them, is trying to make a profit from the plight of others.

Any dictatorship and totalitarian regime always seek to brand certain categories as enemies. It could be a social class, a race or something else. Such people are completely cancelled. First, they’re stripped from their rights, secondly, they’re completely excluded from society and, finally, they’re stripped from their freedom or, even, from their life. Such process starts on a mere suspicion and when Robert Klein is suspected in being Jewish, his life starts to disintegrate.

What aides dictatorship? Collaborationism? To a certain amount, yes. Dictatorship is aided most by apathy and indifference. The plight of the oppressed is accompanied by the silence of the rest. Those who retain some resemblance of dignity will stay silent, those who don’t have scruples will take advantage of the cancelled person.  

Will Robert Klein prove that he is French and Catholic? Watch and find out the answer. «Mr. Klein» is a powerful story about the triumph of evil in an apathetic society. See this film and think carefully about the message.