Performing the Nation in the Mode Rétro

The mode rétro has played a crucial role in the postwar historiography of the Occupation years in France. This article looks at three films of the 1970s, Lacombe Lucien, L’Affiche rouge, and Monsieur Klein, in order to consider the importance of performance and theatricality, and their interaction with the performatives of Frenchness and nationality. It identifies the fault-line of French and not-French as an important dimension of these texts, and suggests that their power to fascinate French audiences may stem from their mobilization of contemporary interests and anxieties.