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Λακόμπ Λυσιέν

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Το σενάριο της ταινίας του Λουί Μαλ γράφτηκε σε συνεργασία με τον Πατρίκ Μοντιανό.

Τον Ιούνιο του 1944, στη Νοτιοδυτική Γαλλία, ένα δεκαοκτάχρονο χωριατόπαιδο θα μοιραστεί διαδοχικά τη ζωή μιας ομάδας Γάλλων συνεργατών των Γερμανών που δουλεύουν για την Γκεστάπο και, στη συνέχεια, την παράξενη οικογενειακή ζωή ενός Εβραίου ράφτη από το Παρίσι.

Περισσότερο από απεικόνιση της Γαλλίας κατά την περίοδο της Κατοχής, είναι η ιστορία ενός αγοριού ο οποίος, μέσα στην αφέλειά του, αδυνατεί να διακρίνει το καλό από το κακό και με τη λαχτάρα του για ζωή πέρα από κάθε ιδεολογία, θα μπορούσε να είναι ένας σημερινός νέος.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

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232 people want to read

About the author

Patrick Modiano

139 books2,123 followers
Patrick Modiano is a French-language author and playwright and winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature.

He is a winner of the 1972 Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française, and the 1978 Prix Goncourt for his novel "Rue des boutiques obscures".

Modiano's parents met in occupied Paris during World War II and began a clandestine relationship. Modiano's childhood took place in a unique atmosphere: with an absent father -- of which he heard troubled stories of dealings with the Vichy regime -- and a Flemish-actress mother who frequently toured. His younger brother's sudden death also greatly influenced his writings.

While he was at Henri-IV lycee, he took geometry lessons from writer Raymond Queneau, who was a friend of Modiano's mother. He entered the Sorbonne, but did not complete his studies.

Queneau, the author of "Zazie dans le métro", introduced Modiano to the literary world via a cocktail party given by publishing house Éditions Gallimard. Modiano published his first novel, "La Place de l’Étoile", with Gallimard in 1968, after having read the manuscript to Raymond Queneau. Starting that year, he did nothing but write.

On September 12, 1970, Modiano married Dominique Zerhfuss. "I have a catastrophic souvenir of the day of our marriage. It rained. A real nightmare. Our groomsmen were Queneau, who had mentored Patrick since his adolescence, and Malraux, a friend of my father. They started to argue about Dubuffet, and it was like we were watching a tennis match! That said, it would have been funny to have some photos, but the only person who had a camera forgot to bring a roll of film. There is only one photo remaining of us, from behind and under an umbrella!" (Interview with Elle, 6 October 2003). From their marriage came two girls, Zina (1974) and Marie (1978).

Modiano has mentioned on Oct 9, 2014, during an interview with La Grande Librairie, that one of the books which had a great impact on his writing life was 'Le cœur est un chasseur solitaire' (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter), the first novel published by Carson McCullers in 1940.

(Arabic: باتريك موديانو)

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5 stars
22 (14%)
4 stars
49 (33%)
3 stars
48 (32%)
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20 (13%)
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Makis Dionis.
558 reviews156 followers
November 12, 2017
Βάζει το δίσκο στο γραμμόφωνο, γυρίζει προς την μεριά του Λυσιέν , φέρνει το δάχτυλο στα χείλη του. Το γραμμόφωνο παίζει το Fleur d'ennui ,του Τζανγκο Ράινχαρντ. Η ατμόσφαιρα και η μουσική δημιουργούν μια αίσθηση ερήμωσης και μελαγχολίας...
Γαλλία 1944.... Τι ατμόσφαιρα...Ο ρομαντισμός ακόμα και σε τραγικούς καιρούς με έντονες αντιφάσεις!!
Profile Image for Trish.
1,422 reviews2,710 followers
May 27, 2016
Louis Malle and Patrick Modiano collaborated on a screenplay about the lives of a few individuals in 1944 during the German occupation in France. What is so remarkable about this small book is how so few words or body movements depict the devastating complexity of lives torn by war.

The screenplay opens with a seventeen-year-old boy, Lucien, diligently and thoroughly doing menial labor cleaning in a charitable nursing home. Our judgment of the boy changes much in the process of the play but this impression will be one we will be reluctant to divest.

Lucien comes from a small town in southeastern France that is a hotbed of resistance against the occupation. One day, standing on a limestone plateau with a flock of sheep, Lucien sees the wider world stretch out below him. He is just at the age when he realizes he can turn his bicycle in a different direction from the town where he works to seek out a different experience.

The world is full of danger, and one must be constantly vigilant not to fall into a trap, even though ultimately we cannot escape. The ease with which Lucien kills a small bird with his slingshot and leaves it lying in the courtyard is how, at the end, we view this work by Malle and Modiano. Filled with banality, tragedy, and senseless death, we recognize the underlying truth of war and the human condition.

This classic work of literature packs so much humanity into a glance, a phrase, a movement of the arm that it becomes the essential reading experience. It is only 100 pages, short enough to be read in an afternoon or evening, and yet its effects last forever. This is the way to describe people in extremis. It happened just like this.

Re-published by Other Press and due out this week, this is a book you must read to get a glimpse of how great literature manifests.
Profile Image for Alice.
20 reviews
February 12, 2025
Ich hab sehr lange keine Screenplays gelesen, dieses habe ich zufällig gefunden und gelesen, weil ich etwas auf Französisch lesen wollte. Mir hat das Stück sehr gut gefallen. Vor allem wenn man an der Thematik interessiert ist, ist das Stück weiterzuempfehlen. Eine Sache, der Protagonist Lucien soll ein moralisch grauer Charakter sein. Also wenn man das Stück nicht mag nur weil man den Charakter nicht mag, finde ich es bissl weird, weil das ist ja irgendwie der ganze Sinn der Sache.
Profile Image for mafi.
45 reviews1 follower
November 3, 2024
watched the film and now finished the screenplay for one of my classes but i think i'll have to rewatch the film i fear
Profile Image for Liesl.
Author 14 books29 followers
February 9, 2016
I didn't read the novel version of this, I read the Other Press version, which is of the SCREENPLAY "Lacombe Lucien", by Louis Malle and Patrick Modiano-not out til May. So this isn't really a review, it's just an appreciation. It's rural France, 1944. Lucien Lacombe is a bluff, brusque 17-year-old who goes wrong in that poignant Auden way-- like the children "who did not specially want it to happen." His father's gone in the the war, his mother's taken up with what amounts to a local seigneur, so there's no place Lucien belongs. Seeking some kind of affiliation, he tries to get into the Resistance; when that effort fails, he gloms on to a group of venal, fatuous and (some of them) brutal Nazi collaborators. Soon he starts harassing a prosperous Jewish tailor, Monsieur Horn, though it is not clear that Lucien has any objective beyond looking like a tough guy. And then he falls for the tailor's daughter. Lucien does not seem to understand the consequences of his actions with the Horns or of his allegiance to the Nazi collaborators. He is a jerk, but he's also confused, neglected, unripe—and mixed up with vile company. You feel sympathy for him, even as you sense that he is unsalvageable. Intriguing moral gray zone. I look forward to reading the actual Modiano novel; but this screenplay is graceful and potent, reminded me a bit, actually of Irène Nemirovsky (Suite Française).
Profile Image for Shaun.
530 reviews26 followers
June 6, 2017
Odd little screenplay. There were times when I wanted to throttle Lucien Lacombe for his naivete and down right arrogance. And then there were times when he was a sympathetic, but stupid, character. Don't get me wrong here; anyone who worked for the German police or Gestapo in the French countryside during World War II rounding up Jews deserves nothing but hatred, contempt and spite. But the character Lucien Lacombe was an immature ass when he chose to start working with the German police doing that very thing because the Underground Resistance would not accept him. Lucien's father had abandoned his family to work for the Resistance. Lucien's mother then became a sexual slave of sorts for the property owner the Lacombe family rented property and worked. The Lacombe nuclear family was torn asunder due to the vagaries of war. Nevertheless, Lucien's rejection was complete. So he did the only thing he thought he could do here and still survive, much like the rabbits he poached to eat and live. Yes. War does terrible things to our humanity. Terrible.

The takeaways from this screenplay are: 1) that I need to rent this movie and watch it; 2) Louis Malle was a pretty good screenwriter and, presumptively, a great film director; and 3) Patrick Modiano writes with such incredible delicacy and depth that this will assuredly NOT be the last book of his I read. On the contrary, if anything this screenplay will make you want to read the original story and then more of his work. Alot more of his work!

Thanks to my "goodreads" friend Trish for turning me on to this writer and this particular book. There be many layers to this screenplay and this writer. I am glad I was exposed to Patrick Modiano's work when I was.
Profile Image for January Gray.
727 reviews20 followers
April 5, 2018
Loved this book. I stayed up too late reading it. I simply could not put it down.
Profile Image for Anne.
332 reviews22 followers
August 13, 2017
I haven't read a screenplay in a long time, but figured I'd pick this up because it was a) around and b) nominated for a BAFTA. What could go wrong? So many things.

This is a case where the story contained a lot of elements that I don't enjoy as a reader; so I struggled to engage with the plot or the characters. It's set during World War II (a period I obsessed over as a kid and now don't have much of a desire to read) in Nazi-occupied France. The protagonist is a young boy named Lucien who tries to join the resistance but is turned away, and ends up helping the Germans instead. He's clearly seeking a place to belong and a role to play in the war that has taken over his country, but he also wants to hold a gun and feel like a powerful man. There are definitely smart themes at work here that deal with masculinity, violence, and childhood. But I couldn't help feel as though Lucien was kind of a snot-nosed punk trying to play with the big boys. He falls for a Jewish girl (though their relationship frequently seems far from consensual, especially given the fact that he could turn in her entire family), and while he had moments where it seemed like he was a good person deep down, ultimately he wasn't redeemed in my eyes. He continues to be a guy who is so incredibly insecure that he must exert power over the people around him to feel important. If anyone dares to question him, he just pulls out his trusty revolver.

I am curious about the film because I feel like some elements that rubbed me as insincere or unrealistic in the screenplay could be captured by talented actors. The film is widely regarded as a classic, and I do think that many viewers and readers would enjoy the story told here. For me, it was just a bad match.
Profile Image for Spencer.
289 reviews9 followers
January 6, 2019
Having read quite a number of Patrick Modiano's works I have come to realize that WWII France is the home of a lot of different stories. This one is the only one I have read about the Vichy collaborators. Seventeen-year-old Lucien Lacombe yearning for a taste of war in 1944 southern France is rebuffed by the resistance, and ends up joining the despicable collaborators, only to fall in love with a beautiful 20 year old woman who happens to be a Jew. I gained an appreciation for how complex the lives of the French were during those horrible years. They continue to haunt those that lived through it, and has been an inspiration and fascination for Modiano who was born in the summer of 1945, after the war in France had ended. This screenplay has a very non-traditional ending that I did not see coming.
5 reviews
Read
March 24, 2020
picked this up at a free book fair at the beginning of the fall semester. finally got around to reading it and I just finished it. I didn’t realize until I really got into it that it’s a screenplay, so I’ll probably be watching the actual movie very soon. pretty good read, considering I’ve been picking it up for 10-30 minutes on and off these past few days.
Profile Image for Amy.
784 reviews50 followers
June 17, 2016
Lacombe Lucien: the screenplay by Louis Malle and Patrick Modiano. Other Press| May 2016| 160 pages | $14.95| ISBN: 978-159051-765-9

RATING: ****/5*

I adore books and film but I don’t often read screenplays. Lacombe Lucien is a film about the evils at play among French Nazi collaborators during WWII. It’s an early work by Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano and director/screenwriter Louis Malle. Apparently the film was quite controversial at its release as it depicted the dark underside of war, showing some French nationals doing despicable things to other French nationals. It’s harsh and raw.

Lucien Lacombe, a poor boy in Nazi occupied France, becomes involved with Fascist collaborators who join the Gestapo and inform on their fellow countrymen in horrific ways. There’s torture, murder, imprisonment. Lucien wanted to join the Resistance but his teacher rejected him. He told him he was too young. He added: “And anyway, this is serious business. It’s no lark, Lucien, like going out and poaching . . . . It’s like being in the army, you know. . . .” So Lucien joins up with the bad guys. He carried out small tasks for the Gestapo. This makes the young man feel powerful and indomitable. He’s rather content with the brusque lifestyle and its payouts until he falls for a Jewish girl named France. Will Lucien betray her and her family?

There are some callous remarks about Jewish people. Jean-Bernard: “There are some Jewish girls who are incredibly beautiful. . . . Compared to them, other women look like mares. . . . (Turning to Lucien) That’s right, old boy: mares. . . . I had a Jewish fiancée once, some time back. . . . Incredibly stacked, and incredibly wealthy. . . .” Marie: “Dirty Jew! . . . They all have the syph! . . . Do you hear that? . . . She’s going to give you a case of syph!” Then France herself, likely echoing the sentiment of those persecuted at that time: “Lucien. . . I’m so tired. I can’t stand it anymore. . . .I’m so tired of being a Jew. . . .”

Reading the screenplay definitely makes me want to watch the film. Seeing the film will add vividness. I need to see these characters interacting. The arch in which Lucien and France fall in love seems incredibly quick although I cannot judge without seeing the actors chemistry.
Profile Image for KarnagesMistress.
1,229 reviews12 followers
December 12, 2017
I didn't like Lucien. He is a despicable character with friends that are only somewhat better. Yet, the story was so well written that I wanted to keep on reading. I find this to be a rare occurrence. This is a screenplay, not a novelization of a screenplay, so if you don't like reading in that format, you won't like this book. It took me a few pages to get in rhythm, but after that, I didn't have any trouble. This book will also satisfy the 2017 Watauga County Public Library Reading Challenge categories: A Book Translated Into English; A Book Set In Europe; A Book That's Under 150 Pages; A Book With A Title That Is A Character's Name. I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.
Profile Image for Brooke.
214 reviews42 followers
December 4, 2016
I've seen the film so I knew what would happen, but it was still interesting to read the screenplay and notice things I had missed. The film follows a young man as he drifts through the early years of WWII, alternating between passion and apathy. Sometimes there are no heroes.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews

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