Female Agents - Phoenix Secret Command

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Movie
German title Female Agents - Phoenix Secret Command
Original title Les femmes de l'ombre
Country of production France
original language French , German , English
Publishing year 2008
length 117 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Jean-Paul Salomé
script Jean-Paul Salomé
Laurent Vachaud
production Eric Névé
music Bruno Coulais
camera Pascal Ridao
cut Marie-Pierre Renaud
occupation

Female Agents - Secret Command Phoenix (original title: Les femmes de l'ombre , German: "The women of the shadow") is a French historical thriller by Jean-Paul Salomé from 2008. The international English-language title is Female Agents .

The European premiere of the film was on March 5, 2008 in Belgium. In Germany, the film did not go into cinemas, but was only released on DVD and Blu-ray . By Sophie Marceau played the role of Louise Desfontaines is originally from Mauritius originating SOE -Agentin Lise de Baissac modeled (1905-2004).

action

France, spring 1944: the Allied invasion of Normandy is imminent. While preparing for Operation Phoenix, a British geologist examines the beach on the French coast and is surprised by a Wehrmacht soldier . The Briton shoots him and seizes his uniform. He is later caught in an air raid by the Royal Air Force and is injured. However, the Germans are unaware of his real identity and take him to the Saint-Germain-en-Laye castle , which serves as a hospital . In order not to jeopardize the invasion plans, is in London by the British resistance movement SOE a guerrilla command compiled by the former nurse and agent Louise Desfontaines, who recently lost her husband used. This is joined by the young explosives expert Gaëlle Lemenech, who is inexperienced in the field, while the prostitute Jeanne Faussier , who has been convicted of murder, and the naive dancer Suzy Desprez are conscripted. Suzy had in Paris an affair for SS - sands leaders entertain Karl Heindrich who guessed a landing in Normandy, however, can muster no evidence for his suspicions. Desfontaine's brother Pierre takes over the management of the group.

While the British geologist betrayed himself in the hospital because of his English and was then tortured, the partisan command jumped over France by parachute . Disguised as nurses or dancers, the women manage to gain access to the hospital and rescue the seriously injured geologist. An assassination attempt by Louise on Heindrich fails. The group is then sent back to Heindrich and sent to Paris, where the Italian-Jewish agent Maria supports them. However, Pierre and Gaëlle are captured by the Germans, whereupon the young agent reveals important information for fear of torture. Another assassination attempt on Heindrich with the help of Maria, Suzy and Jeanne in the Paris Métro is just as unsuccessful - Maria is killed and Louise falls into the hands of the Germans.

With the help of Louise's poison capsule, Gaëlle takes his own life in captivity. Meanwhile, Jeanne and Suzy, with the help of a friend of Heindrich's, plan another fatal trap - Suzy is supposed to seduce the SS-Standartenführer in her former hotel room and then shoot him. This assassination attempt also fails and Heindrich shoots his former lover instead. Annoyed by the recruitment of Suzy, for whom he still felt something, Heindrich withdraws the promise made to Pierre to save the tortured Louise from deportation . Pierre, who in return revealed important information, then takes his own life with a stolen knife. Louise is freed by Jeanne and other helpers on a prisoner transport. She lost her deceased husband's unborn child as a result of torture. Together with Jeanne, Louise is planning a final attack on Heindrich when the German was leaving Paris by train. While Jeanne shoots a German soldier as a distraction and is taken prisoner, Louise manages to shoot the SS colonel in the commotion at the train station and escape.

Due to Heindrich's death, the Germans were denied information about Operation “Phoenix” and the Allies succeeded in invading the English Channel with floating artificial concrete boxes, the Phoenix elements of the artificial harbors (Mulberrys) off the French coast . As a nurse in London, Louise witnessed the Germans' surrender . A little later she finds out that Jeanne was killed in a concentration camp . As the only survivor of the partisan squad, Louise fulfills a wish previously expressed by the devout Catholic Gaëlle and lights four candles for her in a church under a photo taken together.

dedication

In the credits, the further life data for the role of Louise Desfontaines are given. The information on the really living Lise de Baissac (1905-2004) is used. It goes on to say that the film will be dedicated to the memory of all those women who fought for France's liberation.

background

A budget of around 17 million euros is set against a total income of around 7.2 million dollars. The production reached over 865,000 cinema viewers in France.

Historical inaccuracies

  • The film portrays events that lead to D-Day . The plane that parachuted the group in France already shows invasion strips that the Allied planes had at the time of the D-Day landings in order to facilitate detection, see also: Operation Overlord
  • The scene in Holloway Prison, where the murderess is being recruited for the mission, shows the view of a courtyard on which a scaffold is being erected. The death penalty in Great Britain at the time was being carried out in a room next to the convict's cell. To save them fear, prisoners were not aware of where the gallows were placed.
  • Bars in England are named by their descriptive name, for example: The Nags Head , not: The Nags Head Pub .
  • The UK does not have a Royal Academy of London , although there are several other Royal Academies (which are: arts, music, dance, ballet, opera).
  • The film's basic premise that a geologist was sent to France to explore the sandy beach is likely to be fictional. It is known that English divers landed on the beach at night to take samples. Civilians could not have been able to access the beaches of Normandy as they were heavily guarded.
  • The SD officer Heindrich is incorrectly referred to as " Colonel ", although the SS , to which the SD belonged, used the designation " Standartenführer ". He wears the normal shoulder pieces of the Waffen-SS on his uniform instead of the green underlay of the Schutzpolizei, which at least does not correspond to the practice at the team and non-commissioned officer ranks of the SD at the end of the Second World War .

criticism

Director Jean-Paul Salomé at the Paris premiere of the film at the UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles (Spring 2008)

The French daily Le Monde criticized the historical inaccuracy of the film, which resembles Ken Follett's book The Leopard. Women of the SOE were never obliged to operate together. The way in which the partisan command was put together, including through lies and extortion, threw "a disrepute on the heroism of those who committed themselves to fight," which was usually voluntary. Historians would appreciate this “fantastic ingenuity”, but despite the achievements of Julie Depardieu and Maya Sansa, the film does not convince . Gaëlle's suicide scene borders on the ridiculous.

In its criticism of the appearance of the German DVD for sale, the Berliner Zeitung pointed to the accumulation of " colportage elements, clichés and screenplay capers" which, however, would produce a "coherent", "admittedly wild picture". Because of the four glamorous-looking leading actresses, the film is reminiscent of a B-movie . The French original title (German: "Women in the shadow") is based on Jean-Pierre Melville's famous war film Army in the Shadow (1969).

"War and agent drama that focuses on equipment and suspense, successfully striving to strike a balance between sophisticated entertainment cinema and an appreciation of the Nazi victims."

- Lexicon of international film .

Die Welt wrote on DVD for the premiere: “Although the film patheticallypays homage tothe French Resistance fightersat the end, it is less a war drama than a thriller trimmed for suspense. It has that incommonwith Operation: Valkyrie . "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Female Agents - Phoenix Secret Command . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2008 (PDF; test number: 115 559 DVD).
  2. ↑ http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=10051
  3. ↑ cf. Profile at jpbox-office.com (French)
  4. ↑ cf. On peu eviter: Un polar plus rocambolesque qu'historique . In: Le Monde , March 5, 2008, p. 26.
  5. ↑ cf. Cultural calendar . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 25, 2009, No. 145, p. K02.
  6. ↑ Female Agents - Phoenix Secret Command. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ^ Peter Zander: "Female Agents": Moritz Bleibtreu's forgotten Nazi film. In: welt.de . March 23, 2009, accessed October 7, 2018 .