Female Agents: Girl power, World War II-style
The title may not be hugely inspired, but you must give Female Agents credit for doing precisely what it says on the tin - the tin being designed in the middle of the 20th century and containing Gauloises cigarettes.
In 1944, five French women are recruited by the SOE, an intelligence service overseen by Winston Churchill, to rescue a British agent.
These are, in ascending order of grit and resourcefulness, Gaelle (Deborah Francois), Suze (Marie Gillain), Maria (Maya Sansa), Jeanne (Julie Depardieu) and Louise (Sophie Marceau).
What follows is a sort of taut, intellectual version of Charlie's Angels with added torture, as each woman shows amazing courage in thwarting the efforts of Colonel Heindrich, the head of Nazi counter-intelligence, to find out crucial information regarding the upcoming landings on the Normandy beaches.
It's based on a true story and, while you can't help feeling that the original characters would not have been quite as unusually attractive as the women playing them, you can't help admire the authenticity of the period detail and the urgent, slush-free narrative which captures the live-for-the-moment aspect of the character's lives.
The sole sour note comes from the English officers, who seem to hail from an entirely fictional British Isles, only ever seen on screens and not since at least 1975.
In 1944, five French women are recruited by the SOE, an intelligence service overseen by Winston Churchill, to rescue a British agent.
These are, in ascending order of grit and resourcefulness, Gaelle (Deborah Francois), Suze (Marie Gillain), Maria (Maya Sansa), Jeanne (Julie Depardieu) and Louise (Sophie Marceau).
Gritty and intelligent: a French Charlie's Angels
What follows is a sort of taut, intellectual version of Charlie's Angels with added torture, as each woman shows amazing courage in thwarting the efforts of Colonel Heindrich, the head of Nazi counter-intelligence, to find out crucial information regarding the upcoming landings on the Normandy beaches.
It's based on a true story and, while you can't help feeling that the original characters would not have been quite as unusually attractive as the women playing them, you can't help admire the authenticity of the period detail and the urgent, slush-free narrative which captures the live-for-the-moment aspect of the character's lives.
The sole sour note comes from the English officers, who seem to hail from an entirely fictional British Isles, only ever seen on screens and not since at least 1975.
Verdict: An urgent, gratifying unsentimental portrait of life during wartime
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