Female Agents

Female Agents is a perplexing film. On the one hand, through its sombre dedication, frequent date/time inter-titles and its opening montage of authentic WWIII archive footage, it implores audiences to recognise its ‘true story’ aspect. On the other, through its stereotypical characters, sensational narrative, and melodramatic developments, it makes that very difficult to do. Based very loosely on real-life French partisan Lise Villameur, the film follows Lousie (Sophie Marceau) and her brother (Julien Boisselier) as they lead a group of all-female agents into a Nazi-operated hospital to rescue a British geologist crucially involved in planning the Normandy landings, before the Germans have a chance to figure out why he was there.

Director Jean-Paul Salome has handled his action scenes with prowess; the film is full of taut, tense moments guaranteed to bring audiences to the edges of their seats. Beyond these moments, however, the film’s soundtrack and dialogue allude to a deep profundity that is actually notably absent. In its place is a sensationalist, and almost comcial, mellodrama that permeates practically every scene, whether the girls are orchestrating elaborate attacks in burlesque get-up, or engaging in far-fetched romantic exchanges. Furthermore, these female characters are actually almost offensive in their simplicity, each sitting on the far edges of that age-old madonna/whore dichotomy. The discoveries that they make about each others’ pasts are predictable and arguably unnecessary. In the end, the film fails dramatically at crafting any real drama or emotional involvement, and yet unfortunately it seems unwilling to identify simply as an action film.