The second world war is about the begin. A Russian ex-officer and his wife live in Paris. The ex-officer is "white" and works against the Communists. But with whom is he allied? In conversations with his wife, who is an artist, we see this life of a spy unravel.
My hunch about Triple Agent is that it would have been an almost unwatchable film had it been made by anyone else than Erich Rohmer. Rohmer takes the suspense out of the agent story and turns it into an investigation of the ordinary life of an agent. This makes the clandestine nature of this man’s work all the more interesting: when it is contrasted with ordinary conversations about the things we tell each other and the things we don’t, how not telling things is a form of betrayal, and how sometimes not telling things has to do with our thinking the other is not “interested”. Rather than focusing on the intricate mission of a “triple agent”, Rohmer dwells on a more common form of deceit and secrecy. What I also appreciate about this film is its absolute lack of cinematic props and tricks that are to make us enthusiastic about the film. I am not by any means saying that Triple Agent is an extraordinary film, I am simply struck by the fact that a film about an agent was radically removed from the James Bond-kind of tradition. Because if anything, this is not James Bond. In James Bond, the role of the dialogue is to be informative and witty: in Triple agent, conversations are the backbone of the film, the driving force. I must admit I think this is a quite bold film. - If you have no better reason for watching this film, watch it for the very French last line of the film.
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