Female Agents
On 28 March 2004, Madame Lise Villameur (née de Baissac) died in a French hospital, after an illness of several weeks. She was 98 years old.
Shortly after, the extraordinary life of this silver-haired lady, said to be always smiling, was honoured in print in The Times.
French director Jean-Paul Salomé scanned the obituary over his morning croissants while he was completing his swashbuckling Arsène Lupin. His next project became a drama based on Villameur’s war activities and a tribute to the women of WWII “who fought against Nazi barbarity”: Les Femmes De L’Ombre (Women of the Shadows). Its utterly inferior English title is Female Agents.
Churchill’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), created in 1940 to fight the covert war, had two French sections. One trained and equipped French agents in England, then returned 400 to France between 1941 and 1944, where they operated like the Resistance. Thirty-nine of these were women—couriers, weapons trainers, saboteurs and fighters. Thirteen lost their lives.
One of the first two women agents parachuted into France, Villameur was entrusted to run her own circuit of operatives, a job usually done by men. She risked life daily, performing courier and guerrilla work, sabotage, arms drops, and ensured the safety of airmen and wireless operators. In 1945 the SOE chief forwarded her recommendation for an OBE. It was downgraded to an MBE.
Not just the British were negligent in honouring women’s war achievements. Of 1,036 Liberation Crosses awarded by General de Gaulle, only six went to women. Villameur received a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and the Croix de Guerre avec Palme.
Villameur’s story provides the background for this gritty action drama. However, Female Agents isn’t her biography; it fictionalises real events and activities to weave a tense story, opening a dark and hard-hitting window on the intricate operations performed by female Resistance fighters, and the immense human costs.
I was left with two reflections. 1) I’d underestimated the complexity of the missions women undertook. Too many films portray pretty agents simply harbouring spies or sneaking secrets flirtatiously through Nazi checkpoints on the strength of a shapely calf and crimson lipstick. 2) War flicks are traditionally populated by the brave and crafty, but real wars are fought by real people, with real failings and weaknesses. Female Agents portrays this well.
Other strengths: It’s exciting. It’s beautifully made. It’s strongly acted by all its leads, particularly Sophie Marceau, playing the Villameur figure of Louise Desfontaines, and Julie Depardieu (daughter of Gerard), in the best character role.
Weaknesses: Ironically, the film prompted by Villameur’s life, made to honour the unrecognised, doesn’t use her name. It stretches credibility in places. Its complicated bits are trickier when you’re trying to read the subtitles. The agents are all so pretty it takes a while to tell them apart, and while they’re evading capture they’ve got access to great clothes and makeup. Surviving Resistance fighters have slammed the film for suggesting that women were coerced into joining, though it was a patriotic commitment for many.
It’s rated R16 for violence and uncomfortable to watch at times, but all up, it’s a worthy four-star power-pack for men and women alike.
Maria Polglase
Female Agents (R16) France. next screening at the Village Theatre, Sunday 26 April at 7.30pm.
