Mr. Klein. 1976. France/Italy. Directed by Joseph Losey. Written by Franco Solinas, Fernando Morandi, Costa-Gavras (uncredited). With Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, Michel Lonsdale. DCP. Restored in 4K from the original negative by Studiocanal at Hiventy laboratory, with support of the CNC. In French; English subtitles. 123 min.
Occupied Paris, 1942: Alain Delon’s eponymous art dealer has got it all—until the delivery of a Jewish newspaper to his doorstep sets in motion a nightmarish search for the other “Monsieur Klein” and for his own Catholic and Aryan identity. Criticized for its depiction of French collaboration, it still went on to win three Césars: Best Film, Best Director, and Best Production Design, the latter by Alexandre Trauner, whose four decades of credits included Marcel Carné’s Children of Paradise, Jules Dassin’s Rififi, Orson Welles’s Othello, and Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. “The emergence of Mr. Klein will be an event to match that of another fierce appraisal of Occupied France, Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows, which finally arrived on American screens in 2006, 37 years after it was made. All good films come to those who wait” (Anthony Lane).