Lacombe, Lucien

Lacombe, Lucien

Year: 1974

Runtime: 138 mins

Language: French

Director: Louis Malle

WarDrama

In occupied rural France during World War II, the film follows Lucien Lacombe, a restless teenager yearning to join the Resistance. Rejected for his youth, he allies with the German occupiers, becoming an informant for the French Gestapo. He revels in his new power, but his world unravels when he falls for France Horn, a young Jewish woman.

Dark
Sad ending
Emotionally heavy
High intensity
Steady pacing
Simple story

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Timeline & Setting – Lacombe, Lucien (1974)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Lacombe, Lucien (1974). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

1944

The events unfold in the mid-1940s during World War II, with German occupation of France overshadowing daily life. In June 1944, the Allied advance threatens the regime, heightening the sense of danger for anyone associated with resistance or collaboration. The clock is ticking as arrests, torture, and executions reshape loyalties in a town under occupation.

Location

Normandy, France, Spain

Occupied Normandy in 1944 provides the backdrop of the story, where a quiet rural town hides the brutal reach of the Carlingue and Gestapo. A hotel serves as their headquarters, symbolizing the everyday life tainted by fear and extortion. The journey to the neutral border of Spain hints at escape, while the surrounding countryside—fields, roads, and remote farmhouses—conveys a claustrophobic atmosphere under occupation.

❄️ War-torn 🗺️ Occupied France

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 14:36

Main Characters – Lacombe, Lucien (1974)

Meet the key characters of Lacombe, Lucien (1974), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Lucien Lacombe (Pierre Blaise)

A seventeen-year-old country boy who seeks to join the Resistance but is rejected for being underage. He is drawn into the Carlingue, where he enjoys power and status, yet his new role places him in a moral crossfire as he falls in love with France Horn. His actions—especially his betrayal of a teacher during torture—show how quickly ambition and fear can corrupt judgment. The darkness of his choices culminates in arrest, trial, and execution by the Resistance.

🚧 Ambition 🧭 Moral conflict

France Horn (Aurore Clément)

A beautiful, French-born Jewish girl living in seclusion with her father and grandmother, trying to cross into neutral Spain. Her presence becomes a focal point of Lucien's protective impulse, pulling him toward a danger-laden romance under occupation. She embodies vulnerability and resilience amid fear and persecution. The relationship tests loyalties and humanizes the cost of war.

❤️ Love 🎯 Targeted

Albert Horn (Holger Löwenadler)

A tailor and France's father who attempts to steer his daughter's fate away from danger but is pulled into the carlingue's web. His confrontation with the regime foreshadows the peril his family faces as collaborators threaten the safety of all they hold dear. His decision to confront the regime shows the fragility of small acts of courage in a occupied town.

👨‍👩‍👧 Family 🛡️ Courage

Melle Chauvelot (Jacqueline Staup)

The village schoolteacher who leads the Resistance and initially rejects Lucien for his age, becoming a symbol of integrity and resistance. Her courage contrasts with the regime's brutality, and she becomes a target of torture after the hotel attack. Her presence anchors the town's moral pull between collaboration and defiance.

🕊️ Resistance 📚 Education

Mère de Lucien (Gilberte Rivet)

The mother figure in Lucien's life, representing family ties under pressure. Her concern and protective instincts highlight the personal stakes behind each political choice in a town where fear can drive even loved ones apart. Her perspective emphasizes the human cost of occupation.

👪 Family 🧭 Fear

La Grand-mère (Therese Giehse)

The paternal grandmother who accompanied the family to safer grounds, embodying memory and resilience in the face of danger. She shares the burden of escaping to Spain, illustrating how generations bear witness to the era's peril. Her experience adds depth to the home front's struggle during the occupation.

👵 Family 🗺️ Escape

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 14:36

Major Themes – Lacombe, Lucien (1974)

Explore the central themes of Lacombe, Lucien (1974), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🤝 Collaboration

The film examines how power, fear, and opportunism push a young man toward the regime's system of extortion. Lucien climbs the ranks of the Carlingue, mistaking control for belonging while complicating his relationships with those he should protect. His choices reveal how collaboration corrodes personal ethics and can bind him to deadly consequences.

💘 Forbidden Love

Lucien's relationship with France Horn destabilizes his role as a collaborator and exposes him to personal risk. Love in a climate of fear becomes a catalyst for moral conflict, forcing him to protect those targeted by the regime. The romance intensifies the clash between personal desires and political duties.

⚖️ Moral Consequences

The narrative culminates in a reckoning with responsibility, loyalty, and guilt. Lucien's trampling of ethics leads to his arrest, trial, and execution by the Resistance, underscoring the harsh penalties of those who choose the wrong side of history. The epilogue invites reflection on memory and accountability in a town scarred by occupation.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 14:36

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Movies about moral collapse in wartime like Lacombe, Lucien

Ordinary people making monstrous choices when power is up for grabs.If you appreciated the exploration of collaboration and moral decay in Lacombe, Lucien, you'll find similar themes in these movies. These films delve into the complex choices ordinary people face during conflict, often revealing the dark side of human nature when survival and power are at stake.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative typically follows an unremarkable individual who, feeling powerless, is presented with an opportunity to gain influence by siding with an oppressive force. The story charts their descent into corruption, as they betray their community and lose their innocence, leading to an inevitable, tragic conclusion.

Why These Movies?

These films are grouped together because they share a focus on the psychological corrosion of characters in extreme situations. They create a grim, oppressive mood by examining how systems of power reveal the darkest aspects of human nature, making the audience complicit in uncomfortable moral questions.

Bleak coming-of-age stories like Lacombe, Lucien

A young person's painful awakening to the brutality of the adult world.For viewers who were captivated by Lucien's brutal loss of innocence in Lacombe, Lucien, this collection features similar grim coming-of-age narratives. These films follow young protagonists whose formative experiences are defined by trauma, moral quandaries, and the oppressive realities of a broken world.

grimsomberbrutallonelyanxiousoppressivetragic

Narrative Summary

A young, often restless protagonist seeks belonging or purpose but finds it within a destructive system. Their initiation is not a positive rite of passage but a descent, where they are shaped by the cruelty around them. The journey is linear and straightforward, emphasizing the inevitability of their tragic awakening.

Why These Movies?

These movies share a specific, somber tone for the coming-of-age arc. The similarity lies in the combination of a young protagonist, a steady pacing that builds a sense of doom, a dark tone, and a heavy emotional weight that results from the irreversible destruction of innocence.

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Lacombe, Lucien Summary

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Lacombe, Lucien Summary

Lacombe, Lucien Timeline

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Lacombe, Lucien Timeline

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