Double Agents (film)
| Double Agents | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert Hossein |
| Screenplay by | Robert Hossein Louis Martin Alain Poiré |
| Produced by | Alain Poiré |
| Starring | Marina Vlady Robert Hossein |
| Cinematography | Jacques Robin |
| Edited by | Gilbert Natot |
| Music by | André Hossein |
Release date |
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| Language | French |
Double Agents (French: La nuit des espions, Italian: La notte delle spie), also known as Night Encounter, is a 1959 mystery film co-written and directed by Robert Hossein.
A French-Italian co-production, it is based on the novel La Nuit des espions by Robert Chazal. It entered the main competition at the 20th edition of the Venice Film Festival.[1]
Plot
Cast
- Marina Vlady as Helen Gordon
- Robert Hossein as Philip Davis
- Michel Etcheverry as German Officer
- Robert Le Béal as British Colonel
- Michèle Dufour as Elga Kiel
- Roger Crouzet as Lt. Lindorff
- Clément Harari as Hans
- Georges Vitaly as Radio Announcer
Reception
Michèle Manceaux from L'Express described the film as "a Pirandellian idea [...] tinged with existentialism, and all drowned in an incredibly naive pathos, full of the [naive] humanism of a first communicant, with a lyricism that borders on bad taste".[2]
Jean-Louis Tallenay from Signes Du Temps wrote: "two fascinating faces, an original subject, a skillfully created atmosphere. But a confusion of ideas, an uncertainty in the direction of the actors and an affectation in the framing explain the rather cold reception given to the film".[1]
Bianco e Nero's film critic Giulio Cesare Castello wrote: "On one hand, it seems like a story in the style of Hitchcock, poised between emotion and deception; yet it lacks Hitchcock's skill in construction and his talent for thematic variations. On the other hand, one gets the impression that Hossein aimed much higher — for an "absolute", passionate love story set under exceptional circumstances", noting that "Hossein would certainly have liked to create his own Hiroshima mon amour. But [...] the "necessity" of inspiration — the purity of the poetic condition — is entirely absent here".[3]
References
- ^ a b Tallenay, Jean-Louis (October 1959). "Les films français déçoivent". Signes Du Temps. No. 10. p. 39. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
- ^ Manceaux, Michèle (17 September 1959). "La Semaine". L'Express (in French). No. 431. p. 38. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
- ^ Castello, Giulio Cesare (November 1959). "La nuit des espions di Robert Hossein". Bianco e Nero. No. 11. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 12 October 2025.