Farewell (2009)
"L'affaire Farewell" (original title)

The French intelligence service alerts the U.S. about a Soviet spy operation during the height of the Cold War, which sets off an unfortunate chain of events.

Director:

Christian Carion

Writers:

Christian Carion, Serguei Kostine (book),

Stars:

Diane Kruger, Willem Dafoe, John Wayne

Cast

Credited cast:
Diane Kruger	...	Femme jogging
Willem Dafoe	...	Feeney
John Wayne	...	Tom Doniphon (archive footage)
James Stewart	...	Ransom Stoddard (archive footage)
Guillaume Canet	...	Pierre Froment
Lee Marvin	...	Liberty Valance (archive footage)
Fred Ward	...	Ronald Reagan
Gary Lewis
Alexandra Maria Lara	...	Jessica Froment
David Soul	...	Hutton
Emir Kusturica	...	Sergei Gregoriev
Ingeborga Dapkunaite	...	Natasha
Niels Arestrup	...	Vallier
Benno Fürmann
Dina Korzun	...	Alina

Storyline

In 1985, Sergei Gregoriev, a Soviet colonel, wants to force his nation to reform, so he leaks secret information to the West. He picks an unlikely contact, a Pierre Froment, French nebbish in the diplomatic corps. Gregoriev keeps a lot of balls in the air - a marriage, a teen son he's trying to bond with, a mistress who's a colleague at work; his tradecraft is equally reckless. Meanwhile, Froment keeps his spy work secret from his German wife, and Mitterrand uses Gregoriev's information to make France indispensable to Reagan and his government. When Gregoriev leaks a list of key Soviet moles and spies, Gorbachev is left without secret intelligence. Will Gregoriev get what he wants?

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Plot Keywords:

spy | french | france | cold war | double agent | 

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Taglines:

Secrets have the power to change the course of history.

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

France

Language:

French English Russian

Release Date:

23 September 2009 (France)

Also Known As:

Farewell

Filming Locations:

France

Box Office

Budget:

€17,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nord-Ouest Productions, Le Bureau, Pathé

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Alexander Avdeev (Russian ambassador in France who became Russian Culture Minister and who had been expelled from France in 1983 because of Farewell) blocked most Russian actors to play in this movie, including Sergey Makovetskiy and Nikita Mikhalkov, because he did not want to back a movie about a Russian traitor. He also blocked authorizations to film in Moscow, while most of the plot takes place in Moscow. Christian Carion had to pretend to film a Coca Cola advertisement for the few images of the city.

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Goofs

There is a poster of the movie "We are from the Jazz" on the theater window. This movie came out two years later - in 1983.

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Connections

Features The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

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Soundtracks

"We Will Rock You"
Performed by Queen

User Reviews

I loved it & so did everyone in my film group!

My film group and I saw "Farewell" at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center in New York. We all loved it. I do hope it will have a commercial release soon so more people can see it. The acting was superb, the screenplay riveting. We did not know the story so we were kept on the edges of our seats. I gained a lot of insights into what was going on in the cold war and emerged with a very different take on what had happened and increased appreciation for the leaders of France and the U. S. and appreciation for the brave Russian agent and what he did for the world. I am looking forward to reading the book on which the film was based. The opening and closing were so beautiful and meaningful -- the meaning only grasped at the end. I will never forget them.