Les femmes de l'ombre (2008)

Director:

Jean-Paul Salomé

Writers:

Jean-Paul Salomé (writer)
Laurent Vachaud (writer)

Release Date:

5 March 2008 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

In May 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special...

Plot Keywords:

Rescue | Commando | D Day | Resistance | 1944

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Sophie Marceau	...	Louise Desfontaines
Julie Depardieu	...	Jeanne Faussier
Marie Gillain	...	Suzy Desprez
Déborah François	...	Gaëlle Lemenech
Moritz Bleibtreu	...	SS Colonel Heindrich
Maya Sansa	...	Maria Luzzato
Julien Boisselier	...	Pierre Desfontaines
Vincent Rottiers	...	Eddy
Volker Bruch	...	Lieutenant Becker
Robin Renucci	...	Melchior
Xavier Beauvois	...	Charles Granville
Colin David Reese	...	Colonel Maurice Buckmaster
Jurgen Mash	...	Gerd Von Rundstedt
Conrad Cecil	...	Le géologue anglais
Alexandre Jazede	...	René Bourienne

Also Known As:

Female Agents (International: English title)

Runtime:

Germany:117 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | German | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Ireland:15A | Australia:MA | Portugal:M/12 | UK:15 | Germany:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Singapore:R21 (cut) | France:U (with warning)

Company:

Les Chauves-Souris

Goofs:

Factual errors: The scene in Holloway prison where the murderess is recruited to the mission, shows her looking out onto a courtyard were a scaffold is erected. Hangings in Britain by this time were conducted indoors in a room adjacent to the condemned cell. Prisoners were not aware of where the gallows was in order to spare them anxiety.

Highly recommended

I happened to see 'The Dark Knight' the night before I saw this, and felt somewhat unsatisfied by it. This film (which I hadn't even heard of until yesterday) by contrast, provided what I'd been looking for: dark, yes - very, but evoking real emotional depth and a sense of the ambiguity and terrible moral choices that have to be faced in wartime. And completely gripping, excellently acted. The fact that the underlying scenario has been used before is completely irrelevant - how many films have been made about 'two people falling in love' for example? This is not only an excellently realised 'wartime adventure' story - it's a harrowing and thought-provoking film which will definitely stay with you. Get to see it if you can.