Female Agents (2008)

Sophie Marceau leads an excellent cast in this gripping movie.Based on true events it begins in 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special Operations Executive commando group under the command of Louise Desfontaines and her brother Pierre.Their mission, to rescue a British army geologist caught reconnoitering the beaches at Normandy, and to kill a German SS colonel who is close to figuring out the imminent secret of D-Day, proves to be emotional and brutal.The film moves at a good pace and is so well acted you feel for the characters.

(French with English subtitles on Netflix)An excellent WW2 French resistance film based on a real life highly decorated French heroine who died in 2004 at age 98. Marceau portrays a woman with and on a deadly mission with selected other women not to seduce but to kill certain Germans in prep for D-Day. Marceau plays well her roles as sniper &/or assassin and team leader with a commanding yet understated performance. There's more to Marceau than has been seen - and probably more yet with the right Direction.Without showing everything about WW2 and German criminality, the film is well cast, directed, scored, and photographed. What a time it was ...

A film that pays homage to the bravery of the women of SOE who parachuted into occupied France has long been overdue and in my opinion is still to be made as this film falls short of the mark, however, not as insultingly as the Charlotte Gray film did, where the woman agent was portrayed as delicate and ditched her mission for the sake of a romance. For a European production this movie is surprisingly dumbed down and makes the same senseless historical mistakes usually associated with mechanically produced Hollywood films. This is no atmospheric masterpiece as the characters are shallow, the script is too basic and the camera work is conventional. It feels as if the film were made in a hurry, which is a shame as they definitely had the resources available to make it visually convincing with plenty of vintage cars, Kubelwagens, costumes, planes, trains and cool locations etc...This film could be OK for people who just want some eye candy for 90 minutes. Justice has so far only been made to the real women agents in books and it is scandalous how film makers have overlooked the potential for making a credible movie given the abundance of real and amazing material out there. Why Directors who have so far tackled this subject have ruined it all with fictional nonsense,is anybodies guess. If you are really interested in the subject you should read about agents such as Nancy Wake or the revealing book by Marcus Binney titled "The women who lived for danger", which tells the gripping stories of 10 different agents. There was also an excellent channel 4 documentary called "The Real Charlotte Grays".Fiction vs historical fact (Contains Spoilers)............. As an avid reader of everything SOE I was groaning early on in this film as the historical facts were shamelessly trampled under foot by the director. First off they have Maurice Buckmaster telling war secrets to a woman who hasn't even decided whether to accept the mission yet. She then goes on to recruit women who are not interested in going, which is an insult to the real agents as they were highly motivated people who were vetted by SOE on a very strict basis. Then the 5 agents go to France without any training and travel together on trains without taking any security measures. 5 agents together on a train? What were they thinking? Whatsmore, they all get off at a main Paris station rather than get off one stop before and bus in to avoid the German presence they knew would be at all main stations...The story about the geologist on the beach, a week before the Normandy invasion is just plain ridiculous. As if they didn't know the density of the sand till a week before the operation. Finally, SOE never sent brothers and sisters or married couples together on missions for the simple fact that they could be tortured in front of each other to make them talk. When are they going to make "The Movie" about SOE?

There is no doubt this is a very well-made movie, good cast and generally good handwork. The women are believable in their roles and the conflict is an exciting one. Look elsewhere for a synopsis. But... (potential spoiler) This movie starts out as a female agent movie but towards the end it has become rather a film about female being dressed naked, tortured, beaten. Which makes it into a very sad movie indeed. Namely because women being dressed naked tortured and beaten is not good entertainment, at least for those of us who love women. I present this as an "alternative view" review, because other people might say it would be necessary to show the cruelty of war, others might say it's not over the top cruel... the scenes could be worse and would have to be more explicit detailed if you where to call it a bad movie. There is many who likes this movie. But be warned... you might be offended, you might find it to be bad taste... at least thats my conclusion.