Lacombe, Lucien

I have no illusion that it will draw mass audiences, but those who care for quality in film should make certain of seeing it.

The picture is a knockout, and the flaws don't diminish its stature.

[Malle's film is] about a particular kind of human being, one capable of killing and hurting, one incapable of knowing or caring about his real motives, one who would be a prime catch for basic training and might make a good soldier and not ask questions.

Lacombe, Lucien is remarkable, first, because it brings to film perhaps better than ever before (including even Bergman's powerful Shame) the sense of the banality of evil.