the ending
I missed the end of the movie after Lucien and France were escaping to Spain. What happened to Lucien and France?
shareI'm not sure what happens to France, but Lucien is caught and done away with.
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MovieChat Forums > Lacombe Lucien (1974) Discussion > the ending
After they escape, they spend a time in a wooden shed in a forrest. Nothing really happens, but it seems like France and Lucien are having a good time. Then suddenly the end credits appear saying Lucien was arrested in october 1944 and was sentenced to death
Really trange movie though...
Could be... Who knows...share
You forgot the scene where she's above him holding a rock as he wakes up in a meadow.
You missed, in my opinion, the best part of the film. A quiet, eery sequence consisting of Lucien, France and Bella (the grandmother) hiding out in the woods à la Badlands.
shareFunny you should mention Badlands, because that's exactly what I thought of, too, when watching the ending sequence of this movie. (Badlands came out a year before Lacombe, Lucien, BTW.)
shareI wonder if Albert Horn died after being sent on the train to Toulouse...how likely was that, considering when WWII ended?
shareI guess the grandmother died too. We see France making a pile of stones as one would a grave. We also see Lucien laying in a field and it seems as if France is standing over him holding a stone just before another shot of Lucien smiling and being told his fate (teh shot being an epitaph of sorts). France is an opportunist, which caused friction with her father, so I wonder with dad and grandma gone, did she seize an opportunity and bash Lucien before turning him in?
Gene(points at his arm pit:Get a waft of that,man stink. See if that doesn't moisten your gusset!
While it's true there is a quick scene showing France holding a rock above a resting Lucien, it's followed closely by another scene in which she's going through the woods desperately calling his name - while he sits in a tree above her, watching her with detached interest but not bothering to answer. This is followed by another scene in which she bathes in a stream in front of him with a lack of self-consciousness that suggests she looks on him as her husband, or something close to that - and it's after this particular scene that the audience learns of Lucien's fate. These sequences convey the paradox that is Lucien; France can see what an unpredictable (and possibly dangerous) individual he is, but she also feels safe with him and recognizes he represents her best hope of survival.
I seriously doubt France either bashed Lucien or turned him in. She was too aware of the debt she owed him to do the former, and was smart enough to realize he was already a marked man for collaborating with the Gestapo.
I wondered if France herself was arrested, because of her intimacy with the collaborationist Lucien. It wasn't as bad as intimacy with a German would have been, of course, but she must have been in a tricky position.
shareThis is an interesting question.
As France was not working with the Gestapo herself or actively instituting their policies, I doubt she would have been arrested. The unfortunate women who'd slept with the Germans had their heads shaved, but I don't know if the same thing happened to women who'd slept with French members of the Gestapo.
And of course, much would have depended on the people in her town knowing she'd been intimate with Lucien (and had consorted with Gestapo members at one of their parties), but it didn't appear the townspeople were aware of this. The only time France was shown in public with Lucien was when he tried to place her at the front of the line outside the shop (a privilege she refused to accept). If this was all the townspeople knew about her, I don't think she had much to worry about.
However, if they'd known about everything, would they have caused problems for her? Like I said, it's an interesting question. But with her father gone (and presumed killed) and her grandmother dead, I don't think she even wanted to go back to small town life; she may have preferred returning to Paris to resume her life there.
If that was possible.
Notice France's hair and clothing in the shot where she stands over Lucien with a rock in her hand: it shows her as she looked when she was still living in town, well-dressed and clean. The scene immediately after that shows how she looks now, surviving out in the wilderness.
The scene with the rock is not real. Lucien is imagining how France might try to kill him - he seems to have finally started to regret his horrible behaviour and realize what he has done to her and her family.
I guess that's true.
Or it's a sign of what's going on inside France's head.
I guess these images (the rock, her calling for him, her bathing in the river) are kind of metaphorical. Or are they?
Any thoughts about her searching for him?
Saw this film just yesterday and really liked it.
Anne Frank died 3 weeks before the liberation.
shareDo you think there was a real Lacombe, Lucien? The events were certainly real. The Milice (French gestapo) were real. Curious to know about the final result for France and her Father. The lack of any information reflects the reality of the wartime situation. The people involved probably would have had a hard time getting the information themselves.