Five Questions.


1. Why did he voluntarily went into the train. He was able to avoid this, telling them that his lawyer is over there holding his documents.

2. What happened to the other Klein?( He was taken by the police, so he should be in one of these trains sent in Germany )

3. What was the primal purpose of the other Klein? Why did he transmitted the location of the newspaper or that happened accidentaly?

4. How's Natalie connected to the story?

5. What was that at the end... Someone was buying some picture like in the beginning.

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1. He becomes fascinated with the other Klein to the point that he wants to share his fate.
2. The other Klein probably is on the train, and this may be why our Klein behaves as in point 1.
3. The other Klein has some connection with the political left and the Resistance (that song sheet Klein finds in his flat is the Communist song the Internationale). Perhaps the newspaper being sent to our Klein is an accident but their fates have been tangled in this way.
4. I don't know who Natalie is. There is no Natalie in the credits that I can see.
5. It is the sound track of Klein buying a painting at a low price from a desperate Jew, as at the start of the film. It is as though it has come back to haunt him.



1. I don't know about the "sharing his fate" part, but I agree. He has become so fascinated with him that he wants to see his face. The way I understand it though, since he tells his lawyer "I'll be back!", he had no clue where he was headed.



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Natalie was the name of the woman on the train to Marseilles (or the name on the passport she shows him). She was also known as Isabelle, Cathy, and Françoise. Did she have something to do with the bombing of the Gestapo station (where the guy died whom Klein saw at the morgue)? I didn't quite follow that.

At the end, behind Klein in the same car of the train headed for concentration camps, was the Jewish man from whom Klein bought the Ostade painting at the start of the film.

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I don`t think she had something to do with the bombing. Primarily she was one of Klein`s (the unseen one) lovers.

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1. I agree with the first one, but I think he just wants to meet the other Klein and hope to find out why he set him up.

4. Originally, he gave up the hope of finding the other Klein, because he thought he is dead (The dead body he saw). However, on the train, Natalie told him, the other Klein was in the train station (He is not dead!). Our Klein suddenly figure out the other Klein has been in the same apartment and just mailed his letters to our Klein’s place to pretend that he has gone for good.

5. I felt that the ending scene is being ironic (and really fantastic). Because he exploited that Jew at the beginning, he ended up with the same ending like the poor Jews (sold his property, tried to escape, and then was treated like them). He said that “I have nothing to do with this.” He thought it will never happen to him. Thus, he lives his luxurious life and exploits other people at the same time. Then, at the end, he was in the same situation like those who he exploited.

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I believe question 1 can be answered in light of question 5.

The persecution that begain in the movie is that of the 'jewish' people, to which Mr. Klein has no objections, indeed, he is profiting. He easily embraces the denigration of the group, at the theater, with the police, and is disgusted by the newspaper. However, as one moves through the film, the idea of who makes up this persecuted group is shown for what it is: a convenient lie.

How do you define jewish?

Is it physical features? The woman at the beginning of the film was shocked that doctor would call her jewish, one does not choose one's gum-line. Is it behavior? The cruel, absurd play that Klein and his mistress see shows a gold obsessed charicature. But if it is behavior, then Mr. Klein is guilty while so many 'jews' are not. Is it faith? The other Mr. Klein is an atheist, yet he is persecuted because of his heritage and subscription to a newspaper. Is it lineage? How does one control the birthplace of one's great-grandmother? And why do any of these things matter politically?

While it may look like Klein walked onto the train under his own power, I believe it is symbolic. The push of the crowd, the indifferent, cruel hands of the police directed him there. He is swept up in the momentum, the insanity, as much as anyone with the wrong nose, the wrong name, wrong faith, or wrong grandmother. He is a casulty. They all are.

If he doesn't belong there, no one does (and no one does, obviously), but from his own experiences he remembers that will mean very little to those with power and something to gain. He had the opportunity to make profit off of people's misery, and France's police force believe they can gain something off of cooperating with the Gestapo. He remembers the opening dialogue at his house where he profitered off another's situation because he recognizes that his indifference to the plight of others makes his own hope for deliverance hypocritical, and unlikely.

Then again, I might be taking this too symbolically.

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Skindili, I really liked your analysis.

This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

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~~~~~The persecution that begain in the movie is that of the 'jewish' people, to which Mr. Klein has no objections, indeed, he is profiting. He easily embraces the denigration of the group, at the theater, with the police, and is disgusted by the newspaper. However, as one moves through the film, the idea of who makes up this persecuted group is shown for what it is: a convenient lie.~~~~~

I think this puts it quite well. Notice though that exploiting people isn't exceptional, French/bourgeois/European societies operate on the principle of expropriation; the existence of the nazi regime creates a variation on a theme that's all. That's one reason why he exploits the plight of the people at the start - it's business as usual. Gradually the tables are turned on him and he gets sucked into the whirlwind because he can't conceive of the possibility that these 'things' can happen to him (i.e. that he can't stop it by saying who he is, a privileged member of society).

Blade Runner has a similar conceit.

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

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I find it interesting that no one has mentioned the book Moby Dick, both Kleins were reading it which also explains why he follows Klein to death.

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You were clearly not paying much attention.

1 & 2: Delon spotted the other Mr. Klein in front of him when he raised his hand when the name "Robert Klein" was called. Delon went after him for similar reasons to why he wanted to meet him alone.

3. The other Klein was most likely in the resistance though that is not important to the story. He did indeed do it on purpose to get the heat away from him.

4. I don't recall any Natalie and no one is listed under that name in the credits.

5. WTF? Did you seriously not get that or is this a joke? To answer it seriously - It's a playback from the opening showing how he practically stole from the jews. It was just to state that he deserved what he got.

Somebody here has been drinking and I'm sad to say it ain't me - Allan Francis Doyle

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I am responding to this some 3 years later - with regard to #4.

Spoilers ahead:
Nathalie was the girl on the train. She was talking to a gentleman while Alain/Klein was getting on board with his new passport. He recognizes her from the pic that he had of so-called brunette with the other Mr. Klein on the motorcyle which he circulates at the metro to a group of women - the blonde tears it up. This girl that Alain/Klein is trying to find ends up having several names which he rattles off to the girl on the train - Isabelle, Francoise, (Cathy), and she says wrong person, her name is Nathalie. He gives her the impression that she's the other Klein's friend. She then gives him some crucial information that she regrets afterwards and slaps him. She tells him that Mr. Klein was at the station (the man she was talking to) - so right there he knows he was not killed in the explosion. She then tells him the landlady at Pigalle apartment or the concierge is in love with him and protects him like a kangaroo. So he gets off the train, returns to Pierre's, figures out the other Klein is staying at that rathole of an apt (it was never for rent) and then calls him and they arrange to meet. Pierre calls the police w/o Alain/Klein knowing and the other Mr. Klein is arrested securing his fate. The landlady is heard crying. So at the end, both Messrs. Klein and the Jewish man seen at the beginning trying to sell the Dutch painting are all being seized and turned over to the Germans.

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As I understood it the other Mr. Klein was the Jewish man more or less robbed by the Alain Delon character in the beginning of the movie. Remember that the Jewish man refused to say his name? There are other hints as well, like the way the disappeared tenant was described.
So the Alain Delon character was the victim of a clever revenge plot. That's why the robbed Jew was standing behind the Alain Delon character in the train.

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That thought crossed my mind, too, but I disagree. Rememeber that all through the film, people tell Delon that the other Klein looks just like him. The Jewish man doesn't resemble him at all.

When the loudspeaker says "Robert Klein" a man in a very distinctive-colored coat raises his hand. Delon is chasing that man, who we assume is the other Klein. The Jewish man you mentioned is visible in several shots from about 1:57:00 onwards, not wearing the suit we see on "Klein," and not in the same position. He, of course, does end up standing right behind Delon as we re-hear the dialog from the art sale scene.

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Sorry but I believe the commenter above you is correct, and I'm not sure what the confusion is.

Losey's use of the dialogue from the first scene with the Jewish man right at the end, and the same man standing quite prominently behind Delon in the train is no mere coincidence. That is the man who set up Delon's Mr. Klein character. There is no other inference to make from this very unambiguous moment at the very end of the last scene of the film.

Plus, that man is the only "victim" of Klein that we see in the film (presumably there are many others Klein profited from, but this is the only one we are shown). He's the only one in the film who has some motive to harass or harm Klein. The "Robert Klein" who raises his hand at the end is most likely a red herring, a device created by the writer to lure Klein to his fate at the end. Presumably "Robert Klein" was a pretty common Jewish name in wartime France and there were a lot of Robert Kleins.

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cad8080--Your theory is neat but wrong.

The Jewish newspaper is on Robert Klein's doorstep with his name and address on the label PRECISELY when the Jew we see at the beginning is leaving, having JUST finished negotiating and selling his painting. That man had his own newspaper still in his coat pocket, and no opportunity to conceive and execute a harassment scheme involving a third party (the newspaper publisher) in that interval.

It's far likelier that a previous forced seller of art was the one responsible for that newspaper and the subsequent attentions from the police. The dialogue repeated at the end of the last scene reminds you why Klein was not an innocent victim, suggests some of the many enemies he must have made along the way, and points up the irony of his being forced into the same position as the people he was exploiting.

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No, though it may indeed have been a clever revenge plot. the other Mr. Klein was NOT the man we saw at the beginning. Here's why:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074916/board/thread/29828493?d=197733618&p=2#197733618

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Link doesn't work as of 12/2021

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