This seems like unusual territory for Rohmer, and yet it is still very much Rohmerian and a very effective film for me.
Triple Agent concerns one Fyodor Alexandrovich Voronin and his wife Arsinoe (a Greek). At the age of 22 he was a general in the White Russian army (the Tsarist counter-revolutionaries). However he is now living in exile in Paris, the deputy of a White Russian Military Organisation of dubious relevance.
For the most part, the first half of the film is concerned with Arsinoe, we see events through her eyes. She lives in an apartment close to two communist schoolteachers. She paints with some success and discusses politics with them in a naive manner. Voronin is an elusive milky-eyed man who lives a life of extreme duplicity. He is urbane and tender towards Arsinoe with whom however he does not share much in terms of his work.
We never witness events, the film is like a play, we only see conversations. The film is elegiac perhaps. An elegy for Arsinoe and Voronin. Voronin but for the revolution would have been Field Marshal of Russia, but instead becomes a minor though brilliant agent, a pawn on a global chessboard.
I find it hard to express exactly why but I felt ravished by Rohmer in the first half of the film, perhaps because the viewpoint is all Arsinoe, who is very open and vulnerable, and I identified with her. Later in the film Voronin is seen without his wife, and the feeling of mystery is uncloaked to some extent, but we feel as if Voronin is not just a triple agent, he is profoundly introverted, and he has the feeling of something amputated and searching once again for the main body.
The film is tragic, however it is not a melodrama. I think it's one of the most satisfying films I've seen from Eric Rohmer. I don't think it has a very good reputation, that may be because the ending is quite abrupt. I think this allowed the characters to maintain their modesty and dignity and was a graceful gesture from the director in my opinion. I think many people who went to see this won't have been Rohmer fans, and may have been expecting something a little more action packed. What it is, is a lot more, but maybe it missed expectations.
Triple Agent concerns one Fyodor Alexandrovich Voronin and his wife Arsinoe (a Greek). At the age of 22 he was a general in the White Russian army (the Tsarist counter-revolutionaries). However he is now living in exile in Paris, the deputy of a White Russian Military Organisation of dubious relevance.
For the most part, the first half of the film is concerned with Arsinoe, we see events through her eyes. She lives in an apartment close to two communist schoolteachers. She paints with some success and discusses politics with them in a naive manner. Voronin is an elusive milky-eyed man who lives a life of extreme duplicity. He is urbane and tender towards Arsinoe with whom however he does not share much in terms of his work.
We never witness events, the film is like a play, we only see conversations. The film is elegiac perhaps. An elegy for Arsinoe and Voronin. Voronin but for the revolution would have been Field Marshal of Russia, but instead becomes a minor though brilliant agent, a pawn on a global chessboard.
I find it hard to express exactly why but I felt ravished by Rohmer in the first half of the film, perhaps because the viewpoint is all Arsinoe, who is very open and vulnerable, and I identified with her. Later in the film Voronin is seen without his wife, and the feeling of mystery is uncloaked to some extent, but we feel as if Voronin is not just a triple agent, he is profoundly introverted, and he has the feeling of something amputated and searching once again for the main body.
The film is tragic, however it is not a melodrama. I think it's one of the most satisfying films I've seen from Eric Rohmer. I don't think it has a very good reputation, that may be because the ending is quite abrupt. I think this allowed the characters to maintain their modesty and dignity and was a graceful gesture from the director in my opinion. I think many people who went to see this won't have been Rohmer fans, and may have been expecting something a little more action packed. What it is, is a lot more, but maybe it missed expectations.