During the Cold War, high ranking
Soviet official Sergei Gregoriev became frustrated with the corrupted bureaucracy
within his government so he decided to divulge secrets to the West. To do this,
he chose a non-professional spy in the form of French national Pierre Froment.
His co-name was Farewell.
Farewell is the third film from
French writer-director Christian Carion,
who also made the very good WWI film Joyeux Noel. On this film,
Carion worked with composer Clint
Mansell (who often collaborates with Darren Aronofsky),
Belgian cinematographer Walther
van den Ende (who also shot the Oscar winner No Man’s Land), and production designer
Jean-Michel Simonet (who has designed
all three of Carion’s films).
The cast is very good with strong
leading performances from Guillaume
Canet (one of my favorite current French actors, and directors – he directed
Tell No
One) and Emir Kusturica. The
supporting cast features Willem
Dafoe, Fred Ward, Alexandra Maria Lara (from Downfall),
Niels Arestrup, and Gary Lewis. Diane Kruger also has a cameo
(probably due to her connection to Canet).
Farewell is a great spy thriller
in the more classical sense. It does not have action sequences. Rather, it is
built much more around characters and suspense, similarly to the recent version
of Tinker
Tailor Soldier Spy. This is another film that falls in the category of
underrated and under seen. Fans of spy thrillers should very much enjoy it.
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