Mr. Klein

This unique vision of war-torn France under the Occupation mixes political thriller and surreal fable in a heady brew.

A masterpiece of identity crisis - a mesmeric cat-and-mouse played out in dreadful, ever-lengthening shadows.

[Director Joseph] Losey has created a wholly admirable work of art.

Moody, elegantly disturbing and impeccably made by a master director, this story of blurred identities and casual immorality in German-occupied Paris benefits from what might be the best performance of star Alain Delon's long career...

Both a work of history, unstinting in its concrete depiction of political hatred and fear, and a portrait of the metaphysics of tyranny-a classic of doppelgänger paranoia that gathers the theme on a single string and pulls it into modernity.

The miracle of the film is that Losey had the imaginative guts to probe his own fears and failings.

"Mr. Klein" is a haunting film for the reflexive dichotomy it shares between the dystopia of World War II France, and the totalitarian existence we experience today.

The icy gaze of Alain Delon suggests a predator on the verge of extinction, a primordial hierarchy blinding him to his own mortality, and the actor’s inherent coldness furthers the sense of distaste framing the characterization.

Joseph Losey's French drama, Mr Klein (Monsieur Klein) is a quietly understated WWII thriller which features a powerful-yet-subdued performance from Alain Delon in the title role.

Losey's attention to detail is acute, whether it's the dark spaces on a wall where art work, now sold, once hung, his use of mirrors to capture the micro-expressions of Delon as he considers his own "double" or the seamless use of colour...