If the film were set in 1940-1942, then for sure I can see a kid joining up but in June of 44? Pretty stupid. But from the opening scene in which he kills a bird with a slingshot, we can see Lucien is a sadist.
share[deleted]
It dovetails with the "banality of evil" theme. Who knows why these people did what they did? The line between right and evil seems very thin. He joined the "German police" almost accidentally, and then got captivated by the power that he had.
Perhaps Lucien was offended when he was turned down by the Resistance leader. He didn't like when people "talked down" to him.
And, yes, cruelty to animals is a danger sign for cruelty to human beings. I remember this being discussed during the rash of school shootings in the U.S. in the late 1990's.
You are asking this question with the benefit of historical hindsight, which is something that the characters in the film all lack. Besides, this is part of the tragedy - that France was so close to being liberated and that this youth inadvertantly found himself on the wrong side of history.
Remember, Lucien's becoming a Nazi collaborator is more accidental than intentional - he literally stumbles into it when he happens upon the hotel where the Vichy officials hold court. Once they realize who he is (and more importantly his potential for information), Lucien is plied with alcohol and coaxed into informing on his fellow townspeople without knowing who his inquisitors are and what will happen to those he is talking about. It is only after his schoolteacher is arrested that he realizes that the people whom he has fallen in with have power and (perhaps more importantly) value him, unlike the members of the resistance who snubbed him. He is more or less obliquely seduced and recruited into it, as many others around him were.
Is Lucien a betrayer? Perhaps, but it doesn't matter - more than anything Lucien wants to belong, to be recognized as a man and acknowleged for who he is. When one side fails to do so, he inadvertantly falls in with the other.
Thank you for your explanation (especially the last part)
But I still don't understand... Did Lucien wish to revenge (because resistance movement rejected him)?
He tried to join the resistance and then the Nazis, so he didn't care about the politics, or about betraying his own neighbors. So I doubt he would care who was winning the war at the time.
shareHe's a peasant boy who works in a nursing home with no home life to speak of. I doubt he'd even know what was really going on. As Malle points out by having that Gestapo cop listen to both the Vichy AND Radio London and say "you have to listen to both and split the difference." Would Lucien know to do this? I doubt it. When the Nazis show interest and wine & dine him, this is the best he's ever been treated in his life and since he's apolitocal and amoral, no wonder he joins. As for the Allies winning, who'd know that so soon after the invasion? To harp on that is just using historical hindsight.
Gene(points at his arm pit:Get a waft of that man-stink. See if that doesn't moisten your gusset!
I thought the film did a good job of stressing just how in the dark most French people were about what was going on. You have to remember that the entire media in France was under censorship by Vichy and the German authorities, so it couldn't report on Allied military advances. If Lucien had known that the Normandy invasion was successful and that France was close to liberation, I doubt he'd have joined the militia. That's one of the tragic aspects of the film. I don't find it hard to believe. I'm sure things like this actually happened.
shareYes, news was censored, Lucien is poorly educated, lives in the back of beyond of southern France and might have found it difficult to locate Normandy on a map. I am not even sure he can read (it is a long time since I saw this film). He certainly does not make overtures to the Resistance and then get recruited by their enemies out of any deeply held beliefs. The Gestapo man who was listening to Allied radio in French was actually breaking the law as it then was - Germans and non-Germans were executed for listening to "enemy" radio stations. But he wants to follow the course of the war and hopefully get out of Dodge before it's too late. Lucien cannot manage this kind of relatively sophisticated behaviour.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
Christian de la Mazière was an educated, articulate Frenchman, who joined the Waffen SS Charlemagne division "just before the liberation of Paris", and served on the Eastern Front:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_de_La_Mazi%C3%A8re
I don't know what his reasons for choosing to join the Waffen SS at that particular time might have been, but over 7,000 Frenchmen joined the Charlemagne division between July and December of 1944.
De la Mazière is interviewed at some length in the excellent documentary on France under German occupation, Le Chagrin et la Pitié (The Sorrow and the Pity):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066904/
Are you suggesting, adamwarlock, that Lucien was psychic and could predict that the war would end 11 months later so in the meantime he might as well carry on cleaning up piss in a hospice?
sharehe was a downtrodden loner who wanted to belong to something. he tried to join the resistance but they rejected him as too young and he kind of bumbled into the collaborators. they accepted him and valued his help which probably no one had done before.
shareIn some ways, it was a little boring but I couldn't understand it...
"SG"