Female Agents on DVD

Female Agents is the story of a five-woman unit operating in 1944 occupied France, with a mission to protect the secret plans for the D-Day landings – in jeopardy and being unraveled by the Germans.

Directed by Jean-Paul Salome, the film recounts the preparations for bringing this crack-team of French maidens together; followed by their first daring mission to rescue a British agent from a military hospital behind enemy lines.

Their lives are then thrown into turmoil and uncertainty as they are ordered suddenly to Paris to face the menace of the German counter-intelligence head on.

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Sophie Marceau is impressive and strong as the leader (read 'mother') of the commando unit, Louise Desfontaine. While the 'getting the team together' first section of the film is a little hackneyed, Hannibal and B.A this aint't.

The said 'team' are undeniably well suited to their roles, even if those roles are a little implausible at times.

Julie Depardieu is Jeanne, the tough-nut and ex-prostitute doing time. Suzy (Marie Gillain), the seductive dancer, just happens to be the ex-lover of the SS Colonel Heindrich (played coldly by Moritz Bleibtreu) that the women are pitting their wits against. Déborah François (Gaëlle) completes the team as the young, innocent, err, explosives expert.

There are plenty of thrills, and emotions run predictably high as the recruits come to terms with the dangers of their mission. Graphic scenes of torture at the hands of Nazi thugs, as well as chaotically realistic gunfights are gritty and fair in their portrayal, but may well be too much for some.

The film does suffer at times from being a bit schematic in its delivery; squeezing these tumultuous events of the Second World War into a heroic, narrative genre.

But then surely one of the biggest tests when making a film set during this period, is to overcome the temptation of making it more profound and far-reaching than it deserves – or more importantly needs – to be.

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Having satisfied the above criteria, and because it's frankly exciting, edge-of-the-seat stuff at all the right moments, Female Agents is allowed to shine with all its great assets: rich, compelling locations, a delicious cast (in every sense of the word) and a pacey script that wastes no time.

Female Agents (120 mins, 15) is out now on DVD.

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