After seeing a fellow poster mention on a message board that they were planning to catch up on works from auteur François Truffaut (FT). Owning a small collection of FT DVDs waiting to play,I decided to join in. Whilst checking what years the movies had come out,I was surprised to find that FT had co-written (but not directed) a Spy flick,which led to me spying on Agent H21.
The plot:
During WWI Mata Hari works as a dancer who is secretly spying for the Germans,with Hari sharing info given by her admiring fans. One day Hari is given the task of distracting François Lasalle,so his briefcase can be stolen. What is planned as an easy mission is made difficult by Lasalle handcuffing his case to a chair,which leaves Hari with the task of keeping him distracted so others can obtain it,which causes Hari to fail in her mission to not fall in love with a target.
View on the film:
Appearing topless in the opening dance number, (which 007 would not do until Sophie Marceau in 1999's The World Is Not Enough) Jeanne Moreau gives an enticing performance as Hari,whose romance with Lasalle, Moreau (who wisely does not try to put on a fake accent) brings out with a subtle dropping of Hari's guard,that Moreau nicely matches with a quick-witted edge for the espionage action. Joined in the spying game by special appearances of François Truffaut regulars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Charles Denner and the gorgeous Marie Dubois, Jean-Louis Trintignant gives a very good performance as Lasalle,whose lack of awareness over Hari's spying is given a charmingly light comedic touch by Trintgnant.
Accepting this mission when the French New Wave and the Euro Spy genre were at their peak,the screenplay by co-writer/(with François Truffaut) director Jean-Louis Richard plays loose on the real life of Hari to target a FNW tragic romance with Spy thrills. With the romance between Hari and "François" slyly nodding to Truffaut's affair with Moreau, the writers become ill at ease over carrying out the task,as the would-be New Wave romance between Hari and Lasalle is unable to blossom due to the espionage tugging at the strings threading a tragic romance final,whilst the spy action keeps being withheld from fully turning into thrilling set-piece missions for Hari, by the need for the missions to be linked to the Lasalle romance.
Whilst the choice to shoot in black and white leads to the title missing the Pop-Art colour it looks ready-made for, (that Umberto Lenzi used very well in the 1965 playful woman-led Spy flick 008: Operation Exterminate ) Jean-Louis Richard's effortlessly switches from writing for Truffaut to directing a Truffaut script, via closely working with cinematographer Michel Kelber to deliver glittering, fluid tracking shots,which along with following each stage of Hari's missions,also flow into the New Wave. Eyeing Alfred Hitchcock for Hari's challenges, Richard's impressively crosses the New Wave fluidity with the crystallized tension of the Thriller,by a witty use of physical comedy that gives Hari's attempts to grab a briefcase and find papers in an officers room an unpredictability,thanks to whip-pans landing when the punch line hits,and Mata Hari starts planning to escape with her license to kill unseen.
The plot:
During WWI Mata Hari works as a dancer who is secretly spying for the Germans,with Hari sharing info given by her admiring fans. One day Hari is given the task of distracting François Lasalle,so his briefcase can be stolen. What is planned as an easy mission is made difficult by Lasalle handcuffing his case to a chair,which leaves Hari with the task of keeping him distracted so others can obtain it,which causes Hari to fail in her mission to not fall in love with a target.
View on the film:
Appearing topless in the opening dance number, (which 007 would not do until Sophie Marceau in 1999's The World Is Not Enough) Jeanne Moreau gives an enticing performance as Hari,whose romance with Lasalle, Moreau (who wisely does not try to put on a fake accent) brings out with a subtle dropping of Hari's guard,that Moreau nicely matches with a quick-witted edge for the espionage action. Joined in the spying game by special appearances of François Truffaut regulars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Charles Denner and the gorgeous Marie Dubois, Jean-Louis Trintignant gives a very good performance as Lasalle,whose lack of awareness over Hari's spying is given a charmingly light comedic touch by Trintgnant.
Accepting this mission when the French New Wave and the Euro Spy genre were at their peak,the screenplay by co-writer/(with François Truffaut) director Jean-Louis Richard plays loose on the real life of Hari to target a FNW tragic romance with Spy thrills. With the romance between Hari and "François" slyly nodding to Truffaut's affair with Moreau, the writers become ill at ease over carrying out the task,as the would-be New Wave romance between Hari and Lasalle is unable to blossom due to the espionage tugging at the strings threading a tragic romance final,whilst the spy action keeps being withheld from fully turning into thrilling set-piece missions for Hari, by the need for the missions to be linked to the Lasalle romance.
Whilst the choice to shoot in black and white leads to the title missing the Pop-Art colour it looks ready-made for, (that Umberto Lenzi used very well in the 1965 playful woman-led Spy flick 008: Operation Exterminate ) Jean-Louis Richard's effortlessly switches from writing for Truffaut to directing a Truffaut script, via closely working with cinematographer Michel Kelber to deliver glittering, fluid tracking shots,which along with following each stage of Hari's missions,also flow into the New Wave. Eyeing Alfred Hitchcock for Hari's challenges, Richard's impressively crosses the New Wave fluidity with the crystallized tension of the Thriller,by a witty use of physical comedy that gives Hari's attempts to grab a briefcase and find papers in an officers room an unpredictability,thanks to whip-pans landing when the punch line hits,and Mata Hari starts planning to escape with her license to kill unseen.