The RF sent a similar number of agents.ĭirector Jean-Paul Salome read an obituary for Lise Villameur in The Times in 2004, while he was making Arsene Lupin. Of the 400 F section agents sent into France between 1941 and '44, 39 were women, 13 of whom did not return. The women were also couriers, weapons trainers, saboteurs and sometimes fighters. Many of them were radio operators and liaison between the allies and the maquis - the rural-based French resistance. Section F operatives were spies, trained and equipped in England, but they operated more like members of the resistance once back in France. A literal translation, "women of the shadows", would still have been far better than the English title, which makes it sound as if the film is about spies.Ĭhurchill's Special Operations Executive (SOE), set up in 1940 to fight the covert war, had two French sections: Section F, run by the British, and Section RF, run by General de Gaulle's Free French. That may be part of the meaning of the more interesting French title, Les Femmes De L'ombre. And yes, Australian war movies are just as guilty of this heroic myth-making.įemale Agents is no exception and yet it goes deeper into the shadows than I expected to give a more nuanced sense of heroism. The exceptions make up many of the greatest war movies - the fearless ones, such as Kubrick's Paths Of Glory, or Lewis Milestone's All Quiet On The Western Front - but most filmmakers still look for heroes and honour in war, which is odd, given what war is usually like. This flattery is not a trait simply of the French pretty much every country, even Germany, has preferred to make films about the deeds of its heroes, rather than the traitors, butchers and collaborators. ![]() ![]() ![]() Actually what that means is that small parts of it are inspired by fact the rest is made up to feed the never-ending French desire for flattering stories about what they did in the war (yes, the one where Philippe Petain gave Hitler control of two-thirds of the country, while he ran the puppet Vichy regime in the rest). The publicity stresses that it is based on "true events, true stories and real heroines". If you're looking for a movie about pretty French girls who like to kill Nazis - and let's face it, who isn't? - then here is your movie. DESPITE having the worst title of the year so far, Female Agents has its compensations.
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