Les Femmes de l'ombre

I saw this film at this years Seattle International Film Festival, and other than the bizarre choice of "Female Agents" as the English title, I loved it. I think a more direct translation of the title as "Women of the Shadows" or some such would have been much more evocative.

The film itself is a gritty WWII espionage drama in the classic mold, with the team of misfits being assembled to do the job that only they can do. Only in this case, they are women. The film does not shrink from the grittiness and danger of the mission, especially when it extends to several gutwrenching interrogation scenes. There is no chivalry in this war. Moritz Bleibtreu is especially effective as an SS Colonel who believes himself to be a decent man, doing only what he must, yet in reality committing atrocity after atrocity.

Special effects are well used to give us occupied Paris in great detail, and the whole look of the film is quite stylish. A recommended film!

This is a very exciting and effective film about female espionage agents of the British S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) during World War II. It is ironical that it is the French, not the British, who made this film, in which only a few sentences of English are spoken. The English subtitles are really too rapid, I must point out. Apart from a few scenes set in England, the film effectively all takes place in Nazi Occupied France under the revolting Vichy Regime in 1944, where all the dangerous missions in the story take place. As the film proceeds, we realize that the underlying threat is that the secrets of the D-Day Normandy landings are in danger of being betrayed, thus destroying their surprise value and enabling the Nazis to win the War. So the stakes could not be higher. According to titles shown at the end of the film, this story is in many respects true, and the lead character played with tremendous, bitter panache by Sophie Marceau only died as recently as 2004 at the age of 98! As she was a French woman, though working as an agent for the SOE (and her brother worked for De Gaulle's Free French in London), that must explain why her story was known in France, and why it was French producers who decided to film it. The story as filmed contains countless inaccuracies of procedure and plot which could never really have happened, and some details are ridiculous (a sister and brother sent on the same mission together!?). So the story has been greatly hyped-up to 'Hollywoodize' it, by the French Hollywood, which we might perhaps call by the name of Tuileriewood-en-Seine, or Tile-Town as opposed to Tinsel-Town ('a night out on the tiles' being a good description for some Paris evenings). The film starts rather slowly, and one is not certain that it is going to work at first. But when it gets into its stride, it is gripping and coherent. There are many grisly scenes of torture by the Gestapo, which take a strong stomach, and seeing Nazis savagely and maniacally beating up women and nearly drowning them in water tanks, even pulling out their finger nails (this is done to the delicately beautiful actress Deborah Francois, who appears as fragile as the petals of a fluttering chamomile flower on a windy day), is more than merely upsetting. However, it was obviously decided by the producers that these pretty young women were to be treated with as much grit as men, both in their actions and in the depiction of their fates. It is no bad thing to remind viewers of how the Nazis behaved, and that they really did these things. There are some detailed touches which add to the horror of it all: a Gestapo woman clerk sits impassively at a small wooden table making notes, wholly unmoved by the agonized shrieks and screams of the women being tortured in front of her. As for the Nazi SS colonel supervising all of this and trying to get the information out of them, he could not be more bored and oblivious to the suffering and the screams, which to him are merely tedious. To the Nazis, torturing human beings was no different from stepping on ants. If it accomplishes nothing else, perhaps this film will make a few young people think for a moment about a War which to them is now 'long ago and far away', and why should they be interested. Just seeing a screen title informing us that the Gestapo's Paris Headquarters was in Avenue Foch is enough to precipitate a mild attack of hysteria. That is where all the billionaires now live in luxury. I have been in a couple of their grand houses, and all I can say is: 'Nom de Dieu!' And to think that it was in those surroundings, where the super-rich now besport themselves with their vintage Cristal champagne (I must admit it is delicious, but no one really needs it), that the Gestapo pulled out the finger nails of beautiful girls in their early twenties and thought nothing of it, merely finding their screams of pain a bore! Do see this film, if only to be horrified and appalled, but also to admire the courage of the women, not only the men, who gave their lives to defeat the greatest evil that befell a much-accursed earth during the 20th century, the regime of the monstrous instruments of Evil who dared to call themselves a Master Race.

I started watching this movie rather sceptical, because I was expecting a french patriotism flick, since french history usually gives you the impression that the whole of France was in "La Resistance". But I have to say, that I was surprised about the interpretation of occupied France. The story is well written, the actors fit the roles mostly (I love Moritz Bleibtreu but an SS officer doesn't really suit him in my opinion) and they do a good job. Overall a good thriller set in the Third Reich. The true core of the story is of course really small. The events presented in the movie didn't take place. But its good entertainment.

There are many positive things about this film that for me anyway make any negatives irrelevant. I know it isn't 100% accurate but the acting of all the cast is quite superb in my opinion.

Sophie Marceau as Louise stands out in this film, her acting is superb and although she is clearly a beautiful woman she does not seem to mind looking less than glamorous throughout. Her range or emotion was truly gripping. Julien Boisselier as her brother Pierre is a tortured soul who has a coldness about him that was probably necessary to carry out the tasks they had to. Julie Depardieu as Jeanne, Maya Sansa as Maria,are all good as is the stunning Marie Gillain, but Déborah François as Gaëlle,did an amazing job showing her characters naiveté and youth and some really strong and convincing emotions especially when captured. Colonel Heindrich is played by Moritz Bleibtreu who has had some criticism on here but in my opinion he carried it off perfectly. Many SS were ruthless and clinical and yet at the same time gentlemen and family men. A lot of this film is unrealistic and no doubt done for dramatic effect but the more you watch the more you get drawn in. I would highly recommend this film and would watch it again I am sure.

Female Agents is one of the very few war films that concentrates on women as soldiers rather than wives waiting for returning men.

Based around the SOE operations towards the end of WWII this is a very well-made and well thought out offering.

Very well shot and lit, with good detailing in both set and costume, this is really a character piece as well as an action film; Sofie Marceau shines as the level-headed leader determined to carry out her mission and the rest of the cast are up to her standard.

It doesn't have a Hallmark moment in it, but chooses bleakness and some harrowing (But not horrific) scenes that mean it remains a good tense war film.

Recommended.