Triple agent (2004)
Directed by Eric Rohmer

Film Review

Eric Rohmer's fourth period drama (which comes straight after his widely acclaimed L'Anglaise et le Duc, 2001) is this compelling political thriller set on the eve of World War II.  Inspired by a true story, the film is concerned with a Russian agent who is implicated in the kidnapping of a White Russian general before he himself disappears.  As in all of Rohmer's films, the emphasis is on character and dialogue, not action, and the film is as much a study in the psychology of deceit and betrayal as it is a portrait of an extraordinary period in Western history.

Use of newsreel footage of the time is an effective albeit somewhat lazy way of establishing the background to the unfolding human drama.  What most characterises Rohmer's cinema is the way in which he sets up situations where we gain an intimate acquaintance with a small number of characters.  His films have great humanity and charm, and it is easy to be absorbed by this refreshingly naturalistic style of cinema.  Triple agent is no exception.  Most of the film focuses on the relationship between a Russian émigré and his wife and it is painful to see how external circumstances gradually erode their mutual trust and drive them inexorably to their tragic end.  Like Arsinoé, the film's artistic heroine, Rohmer's skill lies in painting intimate scenes of everyday life, not grandiose frescos or baffling abstract canvases.

Where the film moves away from the two central characters, the audience's attention is likely to waver.  Anyone not acquainted with the period in which the film is set may want to dip into the history books before watching it, since a lot of the conversation involves a great deal of political discussion which will be over the heads of most spectators.  Rohmer himself has admitted that this is one of his most dialogue-heavy films, and it is easy to lose the thread in some of the more erudite exhibitions of wordplay.  The film is also marred by a somewhat superfluous epilogue which adds nothing to the drama but effectively diminishes the impact of the tragic denouement.

Triple agent is certainly not the kind of spy thriller that most cinemagoers would recognise.  There are no action scenes, just an abundance of well-written dialogue in a beautifully filmed piece of drama.  It is probably Eric Rohmer's most demanding film to date, and requires at least two or three viewings for a full appreciation of the director's art.  Although it is noticeably more ponderous and detached than much of Rohmer's previous work, it is nonetheless a compelling and poignant piece of cinema.

Film Synopsis

1937.  Europe is in political turmoil, as two opposing forces muster strength: Nazi Germany on the one hand, Communist Russia on the other.  With the election of the Popular Front in 1936, France finds herself with a weak and ineffective government, and Spain is being torn apart by civil war…  A former general in the Russian army, Fiodor Vorodin has lived in France with his Greek wife Arsinoé since the Bolshevik revolution.  He supports the cause of the anti-Soviet White Russians by working for a group known as the Russian Army Veterans organisation, headed by General Dobrinsky.  As her husband is increasingly absent from home, Arsinoé becomes suspicious that Fiodor may be involved in espionage activities.  But who is he working for?  The White Russians, as he claims, or their communist enemies?  Or is he indeed on the side of Nazi Germany...