True lies are given an historical spin in Eric Rohmer's invigoratingly ambitious Triple Agent. A period tragedy in the vein of the octogenarian French New Wave director's The Lady And The Duke, it's very loosely based on the true story of White Russian Army general Fyodor (Serge Renko) who played a triply duplicitous role as a spy in 30s France, deceiving not only Marxists, Soviets and Fascists but also his long-suffering wife ArsinoΓ© (Katerina Didaskalou) until the forces of history finally caught up with him.
The year is 1936 and Europe is in turmoil. Caught in the middle of the clash between Fascism and Communism are a group of aristocratic Russian exiles who've fled to France from Stalin's Russia. Among them is Fyodor, a soldier turned pen pusher who's rumoured to be "very well-informed". A secretive, duplicitous man he's an enigma even to his Greek wife ArsinoΓ© who slowly begins to realise that he's actually a spy.
"THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TRUST AND DECEIPT"
Triple Agent was originally planned as a formal companion to The Lady And The Duke, with Rohmer planning to insert his characters into 1930s newsreel footage much as that earlier film used digital technology to put the protagonists into 18th century paintings. Sadly, the idea proved too expensive and unwieldy and Triple Agent instead uses the newsreels in a more conventional form - as a backdrop to ArsinoΓ©'s relationship with her husband.
As with all Rohmer's films, its words not action that count. Triple Agent delivers a heady thrill as characters pick over the events of the period, chattering about 30s politics, the joys of Cubist art and the gathering storm that would tear Europe apart over the course of the next decade. Focusing in on Fyodor and ArsinoΓ©, Rohmer manoeuvres the espionage theme through sitting room and bedroom, distilling the tumultuous events of 20th century history into an intimate drama about the psychology of trust and deceit.
Triple Agent (2004)
