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The Sentinel

Original title: La sentinelle
  • 1992
  • 2h 19m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
885
YOUR RATING
The Sentinel (1992)
DramaMysteryThriller

A medical student returning to France finds himself mixed up in a dark affair of espionage between the Eastern and Western blocs, involving agents of the DGSE (French foreign intelligence se... Read allA medical student returning to France finds himself mixed up in a dark affair of espionage between the Eastern and Western blocs, involving agents of the DGSE (French foreign intelligence service).A medical student returning to France finds himself mixed up in a dark affair of espionage between the Eastern and Western blocs, involving agents of the DGSE (French foreign intelligence service).

  • Director
    • Arnaud Desplechin
  • Writers
    • Arnaud Desplechin
    • Pascale Ferran
    • Noémie Lvovsky
  • Stars
    • Emmanuel Salinger
    • Thibault de Montalembert
    • Jean-Louis Richard
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    885
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Arnaud Desplechin
    • Writers
      • Arnaud Desplechin
      • Pascale Ferran
      • Noémie Lvovsky
    • Stars
      • Emmanuel Salinger
      • Thibault de Montalembert
      • Jean-Louis Richard
    • 6User reviews
    • 6Critic reviews
    • 67Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 4 wins & 5 nominations

    Photos

    Emmanuel Salinger in The Sentinel (1992)
    The Sentinel (1992)
    Marianne Denicourt and Emmanuel Salinger in The Sentinel (1992)
    The Sentinel (1992)

    Top cast

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    Emmanuel Salinger
    • Mathias Barillet
    Thibault de Montalembert
    • Jean-Jacques
    Jean-Louis Richard
    Jean-Louis Richard
    • Bleicher
    Valérie Dréville
    • Nathalie
    Marianne Denicourt
    Marianne Denicourt
    • Marie Barillet
    Jean-Luc Boutté
    • Varins
    Bruno Todeschini
    Bruno Todeschini
    • William
    Philippe Duclos
    Philippe Duclos
    • Macaigne
    Fabrice Desplechin
    • Simon
    Emmanuelle Devos
    Emmanuelle Devos
    • Claude
    Philippe Laudenbach
    Philippe Laudenbach
    • The Priest
    László Szabó
    László Szabó
    • Pamiat, the Russian
    • (as Laszlo Szabo)
    Alexis Nitzer
    • Consul
    Nadine Alari
    Nadine Alari
    • Mme. Barillet
    Jean-Pierre Ducos
    • Customs Officer
    Hubert Gillet
    • Cop on Train
    Damien Eupherte
    • Military
    Stéphane Thiébaut
    Stéphane Thiébaut
    • Student
    • Director
      • Arnaud Desplechin
    • Writers
      • Arnaud Desplechin
      • Pascale Ferran
      • Noémie Lvovsky
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Jeanne Balibar's debut.
    • Connections
      Referenced in Parole de cinéaste: Arnaud Desplechin, l'interprète (2017)
    • Soundtracks
      Prelude & Allegro
      by Fritz Kreisler

    User reviews6

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    6/10
    An attempted "explication"**SPOILER**
    Here are the elements you need to make sense of this film: 1) the initial scene in which a French diplomat tells an anecdote about Yalta which reveals how the big powers "cold-heartedly" disposed of the lives of millions according to the logic of Realpolitik; 2) the character of Bleicher, whose brother fought on the side of the Germans in a French SS unit on the Russian front, was captured, and died in a POW camp in the USSR; Bleicher remains obsessed with retrieving the remains of his brother, while the French State shows little interest in the matter; 3) the characters representing the French Secret Service (Varins & William Mahe'), who were involved in a scheme to smuggle Soviet engineers out of the USSR only to sell them into a kind of techno-slavery to countries interested in their services; 4) the head of one such Soviet engineer who got into some hot water in Sumatra (by putting the head in Mathias' suitcase, Bleicher wants Mathias to embarrass French intelligence). So what you get, in political terms, is a condemnation (rather oblique, admittedly) of big-power politics. So I suppose Desplechins would have been happier if, immediately at the conclusion of WWII, the US had declared war on the Soviet Union, dropped the atom bomb on Moscow, and "liberated" the peoples of Eastern Europe. If that's the director's idea of "humanistic" politics, I'll take Realpolitik any day. One distinctive note in this film: There's not one single character here who is "sympa": not Mathias (too much of a wuss), not his Jewish classmate (captious); certainly not the villains in the French secret service; not Mathias' sister (irritatingly capricious); not the son-of-diplomat diplomat (full of conceit); not even Emmanuelle Devos as Mathias' would-be girlfriend (not worth the trouble wooing her--she fusses much too much).
    helpful•12
    11
    • palmiro
    • Aug 2, 2002

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • October 16, 1998 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • France
    • Official site
      • Why Not Productions (France)
    • Languages
      • French
      • German
      • Russian
      • English
    • Also known as
      • La centinela
    • Filming locations
      • Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany(scenes in Germany)
    • Production companies
      • Why Not Productions
      • 2001 Audiovisuel
      • La Sept Cinéma
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross US & Canada
      • $7,548
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $4,176
      • Oct 18, 1998
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      2 hours 19 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 16 : 9

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