L'Affaire Farewell (2009)
Directed by Christian Carion

Film Review

What Ronald Reagan described as one of the most important espionage cases of the Twentieth Century is vividly recounted in this slick Cold War thriller from Christian Carion, the director who previously dramatised another remarkable historical episode (the Christmas truce of WWI) in Joyeux Noël (2005).  Based on Serguei Kostine's book Bonjour Farewell, L'Affaire Farewell tells the story of KGB colonel Vladimir Vetrov (renamed Sergueï Gregoriev in the film) who, having grown disillusioned with Soviet rule under Brezhnev, chose to act as a mole for the French intelligence service in the early 1980s.  In this role, Vetrov equipped the West with the means to neutralise Soviet intelligence gathering operations and effectively break the balance of power.  It was this that allowed Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms to take root and ultimately bring about the break up of the Soviet Union.

Those expecting a conventional spy thriller (with gadgets, guns and interminable car chases) risk being disappointed by this film.  Carion's approach is more John Le Carré than James Bond.  His film focuses on the personalities involved and portrays espionage as a dirty, dangerous and murky business, not the escapist nonsense that we are more familiar with.   This is not to say that the film is dull.  Its first half is particularly effective, offering an absorbing character study that is intelligently performed by Emir Kusturica and Guillaume Canet, who are convincing as the dissident Soviet colonel and the telecoms engineer who becomes a reluctant intermediary.

Kusturica and Canet are not only superb actors, but are also well-regarded filmmakers.  Kusturica's directorial offerings include Time of the Gypsies (1988) and Underground (1995), whilst Canet's best known work to date is Ne le dis à personne (2006).  French film aficionados will recall that Kusturica had a leading role in Patrice Leconte's La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (2000).  Kusturica and Canet complement each other perfectly, both physically (the former towers over the latter like a giant bear) and from the point of view of acting style.  Whereas Kusturica is a solid presence, perfectly suited for the role of the driven idealist, Canet looks as if his backbone is made of jelly, not the character you would expect to help to bring down an empire.  It is the subtle transformation which Canet's character undergoes in the course of events that provides the film with its emotional and moral core.  Gregoriev and Pierre may initially appear to be complete opposites yet, as their story unfolds, we realise they have many things in common.  Both are extremely complex individuals, loners who are uncertain of themselves, uncertain in their beliefs, and yet driven by a desire to prove themselves and take a stand against the flawed systems in which fate has placed them.

After a promising beginning, the narrative begins to unravel a little as attention shifts away from Gregoriev and Pierre's exploits in Moscow and takes us in into the Oval Office and the Elysée Palace.  Now we are diverted to the uncomfortable relationship between President Ronald Reagan and his French homologue, François Mitterand.  Reagan is suspicious not only of the authenticity of the information that has been passed to the French intelligence service but also of Mitterand himself, primarily because the latter has appointed Communist ministers in his government.  What could have been an intelligent interplay between another pair of complex and flawed individuals is reduced almost to the level of clumsy political satire, with both Reagan and Mitterand portrayed as their popularised caricatures.  The laughably poor English dialogue does not help matters, even when it is delivered by such capable actors as (wait for it) David Soul.  You almost expect Reagan to whip out a lasso and hop out to round up a posse; luckily, all we get is the former actor bemoaning the fact that he never got to work with John Ford (if he had, history may have taken a very different course...).

L'Affaire Farewell is worth watching for the story it has to tell but its flaws are hard to miss and undermine some of its stronger points.  Had the film concentrated on the relationship and personal journey of the two main protagonists and spent less time dragging us down rather pointless digressions (including an irrelevant scene involving Mikhail Gorbachev and a half-hearted attack on the double standards of the CIA), it would undoubtedly have much greater impact.  Carion's casual appropriation of the familiar spy thriller motifs in the scenes leading up to the predictable denouement is also to be regretted, although the film is massively redeemed by the central performances from Emir Kusturica and Guillaume Canet.  The film is far from perfect but, thanks to it two leading actors, it is intensely compelling, and a fitting tribute to the two anonymous individuals who helped to bring about the end of the Cold War, more by accident than by design.

Film Synopsis

Moscow in the early 1980s, at the height of the Cold War.   Sergueï Grigoriev is a colonel in the KGB who has become so disillusioned with the regime running his country that he decides to bring down the system.  He makes contact with Pierre Froment, a young French engineer stationed in Moscow.  The highly sensitive information that Grigoriev begins feeding Froment soon attracts the interest of Western intelligence services...