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

The Kiev's subway station "The Golden Gate" is shown as a Moscow's subway station. Actually the station "The Golden Gate" was built 8 years later - in 1989.

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Connections

Features The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

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Soundtracks

"Under pressure"
Performed by Queen

User Reviews

The Very Moving Emir Kusturica

We just returned from seeing this film as part of the Annual French Film Festival at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, 7/10/10. In the U.S., we have an expression sometimes used to express one's admiration for a certain talented actor/actress who is riveting to watch on screen.I will use this expression here w/ regards to the lead actor, " I could watch Emir Kusturica read the phone book". It is his performance more than any other single factor, that causes me to think very highly of this film.It is a rare thing to watch a film about a real life hero without seeing a film that is also maudlin, clichéd or too simplistic.

But in "Farewell" I felt that the story was compelling,and the screenplay was well written,economical, completely believable and well acted.There were no unnecessary scenes and the whole thing mostly made sense, as sad as that sense was.The cinematography was crummy, but you can't have everything.Besides,I was so mesmerized by K's performance that I didn't really care that much about the cinematography, because my eyes were always focused in on him.As I exited the theater I felt like I had just been hit by a truck, and I am still feeling this film.