Espion, lève-toi (1982)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Yves Boisset

Writers:

Michel Audiard (writer)
Yves Boisset (writer)

Release Date:

27 January 1982 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Lino Ventura	...	Sébastien Grenier
Michel Piccoli	...	Jean-Paul Chance
Bruno Cremer	...	Richard
Bernard Fresson	...	Henri Marchand
Marc Mazza	...	Ramos Bavila
Roger Jendly	...	Le commissaire Lohmann
Heinz Bennent	...	Meyer
Krystyna Janda	...	Anna Gretz
Beate Kopp	...	La secrétaire de Grenier
Christian Baltauss	...	Le bibliothécaire
Kurt Bigger	...	Alfred Zimmer
Jean-Paul Franky	...	Rudy la blonde
Yves Boisset	...	L'adjoint de Richard
Daniel Plancherel	...	L'inspecteur Vogel
Philippe Brizard	...	Le collaborateur de Grenier

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

France | Switzerland

Language:

French | German

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f)

Filming Locations:

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Cathala Productions

Splendid Spy Thriller

I caught this film on a hotel room TV set, just when I was going to bed. A look at Lino Ventura made me stay just for a few minutes - and finally I set on to the dramatic, dark end. Looking at my watch I noticed that I must have started watching the film just after the early credits.

This capacity of keeping even a tired spectator awake is a trade mark of director Yves Boisset, with an easy to follow storyline told so that it is new, or old seen through interesting new angles. The ambiance is luxurious Switzerland and French intelligence headquarters, or college's libraries - for spying is done not only by your common 007-type of agent, but by people "above all suspicion".

Ventura plays a retired agent living a peaceful life with a younger, loving German woman, who's teaching in France, when he is called into active service again - very much against his will. When he finally starts suspecting all people around him - minus those who fall dead after he makes the first moves into knowledge... - it will be too late. Too late to avoid discovering the unthinkable truth, and too late to get back to his peaceful retirement.

The dark end may not please all viewers, but it is actually a signal of the times the movie was made - and now that you are a quarter of a century past that, you may notice that it was a forewarning against the all encompassing spying and intruding on people's lives from those people up there who are "above all suspicion"!