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Female Agents [2008] [DVD] |
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Staring:
Sophie Marceau, Deborah Francois, Julie Depardieu, Marie Gillian, Maya Sansa
Director:
Jean-Paul Salome
Average Customer Rating: 
List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £3.04
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 Fact and loose with the facts but entertaining, 2010-01-07
This film is probably the most mainstream French film that I have seen. "Saving Private Ryan" ushered in a new generation of War films that set the benchmark extremely high, so I was somewhat surprised to find out that this effort was very much in the vein of many 1960's war films that I enjoyed as a kid such as "Where eagles dare." An even bigger surprise was the epilogue of this film which suggested that these characters were real as this seemed to be total escapism for me - it didn't feel at all historically accurate. That said, this film rattles along at a cracking pace and the shoot outs are particularl exciting. The plot does look at some more complex issues like divided loyalties and the story interesting enough to raise the film several notches above the more mundane and uninspired war films of the past. Whilst this is entirely popularist and any beard-stroking types should stay away from this, it kept me amused for a couple of hours and evryone I know who has borrowed the DVD has enjoyed it.
 Excellent Film: Gripping to the End !, 2010-03-06
I bought this DVD having seen a short excerpt of it on the charity compilation of military films "Heroes".
I had pretty mediocre expectations of it, thinking it would be perhaps a bit along the school-boy adventure lines of "Where Eagles Dare" or "The Eagle has Landed".
Instead, I was very pleasantly surprised indeed.
Yes, the action sequences are exciting, filmed partially in a hand-held camera, almost documentary, style that makes them all the more involving.
However, I found the plot fascinating: Would the team of female agents achieve their mission, would they survive ? And I thought the characterisation of the actors, including the German "opposition", was excellent, very convincing.
Please be aware: The sound track of the film is in French, supported by English sub-titles. Like other positive reviewers on this page, I didn't find this at all off-putting.
Is the film historically accurate ? Probably not at a detailed level. But in terms of atmosphere and sentiment, certainly real enough for me. I don't think members of the French Resistance combined with the German Gestapo in WW2 to make documentary films of their actual activities ?
I will certainly watch this film a second time. It is one of the most exciting, gripping and under-publicised films I have come across. The title "Female Agents" really doesn't do it justice; it sounds a bit too much like "Charlie's Angels".
By the way, I bought the two disc edition of the film. I found the second disc, that contains a description of the making and some cut scenes, very interesting in itself. It makes one appreciate the complexity and planning that is involved in making this type of film. Hence I recommend the two disc set.
Finally, I am surprised at some of the negative reviews I see on this page. Perhaps I am too easily pleased ? If so, I consider that that is my good fortune, and the bad luck of the detractors !
 Disappointing, mish-mash., 2009-11-21
This is a film which has recieved positive reviews and the plot outline has bags of potential, but it doesn't deliver on anything that it promises.
The cover shows tanks, planes and a sky lit up with explosions. Well you don't get any of that. This is more hollyoaks behind enemy lines.
We are told this is based on true events, but I didn't find any of it to be believable. It would have been good to have had some extras to explain the historical basis of the plot.
The characters were never properly developed, and this left me feeling cold towards them. Above all they all seem far too calm. The nervousness and exitement of being in enemy territory was missing. Even during the torture scenes everyone was playing it cool.
If you are looking for an action film, this is not for you. As a thriller it is weak and there is no comedy, romance or intrigue. In spite of this there is enough going on to hold your attention and so it just about deserves 3 stars.
 Ou Babes Audace (Where Chicks Dare), 2010-01-21
While French title Les Femmes de l'Ombre may aspire to Jean-Pierre Melville, English translation Female Agents is closer to the mark, though this surprisingly well reviewed but increasingly hokey story of a quintet of French SOE agents in occupied France might have been more accurately called Ou Babes Audace. Its group of poorly defined stereotypes led by Sophie Marceau at her most coldly unlikeable are sent to rescue a British geologist on whom the success of D-Day depends from a German army hospital in Normandy, which they manage with unlikely ease with a couple of nurses outfits, a striptease show and a lot of unlikely machinegun fire and explosions, but it turns out the gals have been misled by Marceau's estranged brother and superior in the SOE Julien Boisselier. They're also expected to assassinate a German SS officer with a severe case of vertigo (the Hitchcock kind - he's searching for a double of the French girl who jilted him at the altar and ran off to England), and wouldn't you know it, team member Marie Gillain isn't just a dead ringer for her, she actually is his ex. From then on, what had been a fairly handsomely mounted, efficient but not terribly exciting potboiler becomes an increasingly absurd mess of increasingly moronic and unconvincing contrivance and coincidence-prone hokum that loses most of its relation to reality and sheds IQ points by the reel. Naturally, the girls keep on fudging their mission for no other reason than to kill off another member of the team until it has become so nonsensical that it's threatening to outstay what little welcome it has left.
There's not much room for characterisation until the last third, which is leaving it a bit late for us to care about anyone. Moreau is at her most determinedly disagreeable, something the script does at least briefly try to address by having one character note that "Pity isn't your strong point. Try to be a little bit human for once." Unfortunately when she does it simply shows up her limitations, putting you in mind more of Frasier Crane's ex-wife Lilith than the likes of Odette Sanson or Violette Szabo, though she has more to work with than the clichéd dilemmas facing the other characters. Will the one-time collaborator sleep with her ex or kill him? Will cynical death row whore Julie Depardieu discover idealism? Will the nice Catholic girl Deborah Francois commit suicide to avoid torture? Will a CGi-resurrected Anton Diffring and Ferdy Mayne turn up for old clichés sake? These people simply act like they're in an old war movie rather than real people, going through scenes designed as would-be movie setpieces rather than convincing or involving drama. Small wonder that Moritz Bleibtrau's German villain is the closest the film has to a convincing character: he at least behaves as if he belongs in the time and place more often than not.
There's some cynicism thrown in along the way to try to make it all seem less clichéd - it's the De Gaullist in the group who cracks instantly under the threat of torture and betrays them while a black marketeer is neatly derided: "Start with the Germans, end the war with the Brits. How French can you get?" But at times it feels more cynical itself, with just enough tits and Tommy guns to help sell a few more tickets - director Jean-Paul Salomé even makes sure that one girl is given a gratuitous full frontal nude suicide scene. When a final caption informing us that 'this film is dedicated to the women who fought against Nazi barbarity' comes up you almost expect the words 'and got their tits out doing it' to appear. Not too many pluses - the action scenes aren't very convincing, though a scene on the Metro almost works despite its unlikeliness - but at least Maya Sansa makes an impression in the film's most underwritten role. The 2-disc DVD (but not this single-disc version) included Deborah Francois' semi-improvised audition scene that hints at a more interesting film that could have been made if co-writer-director Salomé had been more interested in exploring the characters, but the film he ended up making is at best overlong hokum.
Now that was great, 2010-07-02
Just a short review i felt that this was one of the most balenced films i have watched in a long time.
Read everyones elses by all means, but i felt it ruled
great action sequences some excellent acting adn some nice plot twists.
better than Inglorious bast'rds?
hell yeah
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Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Binding: DVD
EAN: 5060018489858
Format: PAL
Label: Revolver Entertainment
Manufacturer: Revolver Entertainment
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Revolver Entertainment
Region Code: 2
Release Date: 2008-10-06
Running Time: 112
Studio: Revolver Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 2008 |
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