Study in China

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 ). 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 th...

Gemma Arterton at the Quantum of Solace premiere this week I love Gemma Arterton, the latest Bond girl. Not only is she a talented actress, but she is also a stunning beauty. However, poor Gemma got it hopelessly wrong on the red carpet on Wednesday night at the Quantum of Solace premiere. She chose a bizarre purple mini-dress by Miu Miu which was slashed to the thigh but trailed at the back. She accessorised her outfit with an ugly studded belt and matching clumpy shoes, both of which were far too heavy for the flimsy fabric of her dress. The 22-year-old from Kent was wise to avoid a long, demure dress as she would have looked like lamb dressed as mutton. Sadly, she went too far in the opposite direction and chose a dress that was fussy, tarty and did her curvy figure no favours at all. Of course, she is still young and entitled to make fashion faux pas, but she would do well to learn the golden rule of red carpet fashion: expose only one erogenous zone at a time. So, ...