Joseph Losey

Mr. Klein

Mr. Klein

One of the crowning achievements of blacklisted Hollywood director Joseph Losey’s European exile, Mr. Klein is a spellbinding modernist mystery that puts a chilling twist on the wrong-man thriller. Alain Delon delivers a standout performance as Robert Klein, a decadent art dealer in Paris during World War II who makes a tidy profit buying up paintings from his desperate Jewish clients. As Klein searches for a Jewish man with the same name for whom he has been mistaken, he finds himself plunged into a Kafkaesque nightmare in which his identity seems to dissolve and the forces of history to close in on him. Met with considerable controversy on its release for its portrayal of the real-life wrongdoings of the Vichy government, this haunting, disturbingly beautiful film shivers with existential dread as it traces a society’s descent into fascistic fear and inhumanity.

Film Info

  • France
  • 1976
  • 123 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • French
  • Spine #1123

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Interviews with critic Michel Ciment and editor Henri Lanoë
  • Interviews from 1976 with director Joseph Losey and actor Alain Delon
  • Story of a Day, a 1986 documentary on the real-life Vél d’Hiv Roundup, a central historical element of Mr. Klein
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau

    New cover by Gary Kelley


Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Interviews with critic Michel Ciment and editor Henri Lanoë
  • Interviews from 1976 with director Joseph Losey and actor Alain Delon
  • Story of a Day, a 1986 documentary on the real-life Vél d’Hiv Roundup, a central historical element of Mr. Klein
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau

    New cover by Gary Kelley


Mr. Klein
Cast
Alain Delon
Robert Klein
Jeanne Moreau
Florence
Francine Bergé
Nicole
Juliet Berto
Jeanine
Jean Bouise
Seller
Suzanne Flon
Concierge
Massimo Girotti
Charles
Michel Lonsdale
Pierre
Louis Seigner
Robert Klein’s father
Francine Racette
“Isabelle”
Credits
Director
Joseph Losey
Written by
Franco Solinas
Cowritten by
Fernando Morandi
Produced by
Alain Delon
Coproducers
Raymond Danon
Robert Küperberg
Jean-Pierre Labrande
Cinematography by
Gerry Fisher
Cameraman
Pierre-William Glenn
Sound by
Jean Labussière
Music by
Egisto Macchi
Pierre Porte
Production design
Alexandre Trauner
Costumes by
Annalisa Nasalli-Rocca
Edited by
Henri Lanoë

Current

Mr. Klein: It’s All in the Name
Mr. Klein: It’s All in the Name

Joseph Losey’s sumptuous portrait of Nazi-occupied Paris sees an icy Alain Delon as an art dealer on a Kafkaesque quest for identity.

By Ginette Vincendeau