Directed by veteran Michel Deville (perhaps best know to local audiences for 1988's La Lectrice), this well-mounted espionage thriller documents a foreign intelligence agency's attempts to entrap and "turn" a minor French diplomat. The unwitting victim (played by FranÙois Marthouret) is a closeted homosexual; a variety of surveillance devices are deployed against him in an effort to gather compromising material. Deville's unorthodox approach is to tell the film from the surreptitious point-of-view of the sinister spies; we in the audience become uncomfortable voyeurs and eavesdroppers, complicit in the accumulation of evidence against the helpless target.
A brilliant film, well made, and should be available on DVD. What a shame!
A brilliant film, well made, and should be available on DVD. What a shame!