©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p18

16/07/2014 04:54 par tellurikwaves

  • ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p18

    ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p18

    16/07/2014 04:54 par tellurikwaves

        External reviews
         Showing all 71 external reviews

©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p17

16/07/2014 04:46 par tellurikwaves

  • ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p17

    ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p17

    16/07/2014 04:46 par tellurikwaves

"The Death of the Wolf"...
10/10
Author: poe426 from USA
3 March 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Politics is checkers played by fools who think they're master chess players. Fred Ward does a good job here as the B-movie star who played second banana to a chimp, but it's Willem Dafoe who gets to deliver one of the best lines: "No democracy can function without the trust of its people." Amen, brother. And one can't help but admire the irony of Ward watching and analyzing THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE.

By far the most suspenseful scenes involve the Frenchman (the nail-biting flight across the border), but the most powerful scenes involve the Russian: his refusal to leave the country of his birth even though it means he must die; his desperate attempt to cling to his son one last time; his recitation of the lines of the poem THE DEATH OF THE WOLF as he's being given the Bush-Cheney-Rumsefeld-Rove treatment. Despite the U.$ Spin on things, telling the Truth is never treachery. I'm convinced, at this point, that the end game will look not unlike the subterranean societies in movies like THX-1138 (que j'ai trouvé hyper chiant !!) or George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR. Politics and religion will be the death of us yet.

©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p16

15/07/2014 17:11 par tellurikwaves

  • ©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p16

    ©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p16

    15/07/2014 17:11 par tellurikwaves

Farewell
10/10
Author: cultfilmfan from Canada
18 November 2010

Farewell is a French film in French, English and Russian, but with English subtitles. The film is based on the book Bonjour Farewell by Serguei Kostine. It  takes place in the early 80's and is about a Russian internal security officer named Sergei, who is fed up with the current communist government and decides to take Soviet documents and secret information to the government of France, under President Mitterrand, who himself is a socialist, but is working in coalition with the communists. Sergei hopes that by doing this he could bring about a change in the Soviet Union.

Sergei realizes that he can not do it alone, so he gets the help of a French engineer named Pierre Froment, who is based out of Moscow, to help him with his mission. During the film both men will come under suspicion of family members and those around them and at times they even doubt each other, but Sergei is bound and determined to succeed with his mission. Before, I saw Farewell, I knew very little about it, but had seen and read some of the great reviews it had been receiving.

It took me a little while to sort of get caught up with the characters and all the events that were going on during the film, but in the end I found myself loving the film. I am glad that I decided to go see Farewell, instead of skipping it altogether. I think the fact that it was about espionage worried me, because I really am not a fan of the usual James Bond type espionage and spy films. Farewell thankfully turned out to be something different.

Instead of a lot of action, car chases and the usual high tech gimmicks and story lines that are pumped out in the American versions of these type of films (and I guess the British, seeing as they created James Bond), we are instead taken down a different route, where we are introduced to these two men and we really get to know the two of them well during the length of the film and we even start to care about them. We see them go about their daily lives with things going on at home and raising families, but these two also are passionate people and they are doing what they are doing for what they consider to be the best thing for them and their country and families.

This film took a more personal approach by letting us get to know these two men and giving us good character development and sets a good pace for the film and also helps us to understand why they are doing what they are doing and the end results and choices they end up making. The dialogue between the characters is all very good here and the acting from the two leads and basically the whole cast is terrific.

The film once you get to know what is going on, moves at a good pace and at times is thrilling and at other times we are in deep fascination to see what will happen in the character's personal lives as well as what will happen with the mission they are working on. As, I said we really do get to know these characters well with their heroic qualities and even their flaws and we still admire them both and get to care for them.

Some of the best scenes of the film have nothing to do with the espionage mission at all, but instead seeing how they interact with their families and how they go about their daily lives. It may not be action packed, but it feels realistic and human and more believable this way. Farewell is a really captivating film with it's story which is brought to great justice by a great script, direction and performances.

I also appreciated seeing a European view on the events and matters that take place during the film instead of a typical and perhaps biased American version. I could respect and see what they were trying to get across in this version of the story and I am glad they did not change anything to be more commercial, or to sell more tickets. Farewell is a terrific film and definitely one of the best of 2010.

©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p15

15/07/2014 16:55 par tellurikwaves

  • ©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p15

    ©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p15

    15/07/2014 16:55 par tellurikwaves

A Mind-Boggling True Story!
10/10
Author: liberalgems from Baltimore, Maryland
5 September 2010

This is a very empowering, true-story about one man, Sergei Gregoriev, who probably did more to bring down the Communist government in Russia - and end the cold war - than any other person who ever lived! This man should be honored by a postage stamp in every Western country in the world and in every high school history textbook! What an incredibly brave human being!

I gained a lot of insights from watching this amazing film. The Russians lost an estimated 26 million people during World War II. That's 1 in 3 people that died in all of World War II did so within the borders of the Soviet Union! I can only imagine the trauma and paranoia that was inflicted on the survivors who later then came to power. It didn't help either that a monster was at the head of government (Stalin) from 1924 to 1953. And, you wonder why the Soviets had a such a mind-boggling intelligence apparatus established throughout the United States?

Once this network of spies was dismantled, the Soviet leadership was blind! Out of fear they bankrupted themselves on military spending because they could no longer accurately assess what actual threats the United States posed to them! Sergei Gregoriev, knew how his government would react to such a threat and he sacrificed everything to make it happen I don't think he would be happy with the gangster capitalism that took Communism's place. But at least there are no more brutal wars fought in desperately poor countries, which have cost millions of lives because of the Cold War! Future generations will thank you for your sacrifice, Sergei Gregoriev!

(oui oh!...les générations futures sont bien trop occupées à regarder le foot,les films de cul,à chatter ou à jouer avec leur consoles à la con...)

©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p14

15/07/2014 16:27 par tellurikwaves

  • ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p14

    ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p14

    15/07/2014 16:27 par tellurikwaves

Brilliant
10/10
Author: sergepesic from Minneapolis, USA
11 June 2012

What a brilliant movie. Spies, lies,twisted mind games. No explosions, no bullets, no exciting background music, no old hat tricks. Inspite of that, or better, because of that, tense, suspenseful and original movie. Real spies are not superheroes, flying through the air, ducking hundreds of bullets, overpowering dozens of villains with their martial arts skills unparalleled in the universe. Most of the time they happen to be, timid or coerced or dedicated to a cause.

Their job is not glamorous, they scurry like rats in a dark alley, they sweat and smell some times they live, most of the time they die.Finally the real spy movie, deep and harsh, leaving the sickening feeling. As usual the decent, courageous people get shoved aside or get killed for a higher cause- saving some ambitious creep's ass.

©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p12

15/07/2014 16:05 par tellurikwaves

  • ©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p12

    ©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p12

    15/07/2014 16:05 par tellurikwaves

A Brilliant Though Densely Dark Film: A Study of the Cold War
10/10
Author: gradyharp from United States
20 April 2011

Serguei Kostine's book 'Bonjour Farewell' serves as the source of the historical moments of one of the most important fractures in the Cold War in 1981 - the act of valor of Sergei Gregoriev - and the script for this very important and controversial film was written by Eric Reynaud and Christian Carion who also directed this stunning film (he is best remembered for his brilliant 'Joyeux Noël' which incidentally starred many of the actors in this film).

It is a disturbing movie to watch, a film that was condemned by the Russian government, disallowing filming in Moscow - except for some undercover camera work for an apparent Coca-Cola commercial, and refusing to allow Russian actors to take part in the project. It reveals the brutality of the Communist regime of the time, a period Russia would prefer to remain occult.

The story is somewhat convoluted, a fact that makes it even more revealing of the nature of espionage work at the time. Sergei Gregoriev (Emir Kusturica) passes secret documents to French spy Pierre Froment (Guillaume Canet) living in Moscow with his wife (Alexandra Maria Lara), documents so important that Froment must take extraordinary risks to pass them to the US Government.

In the US President Reagan (Fred Ward) must balance the importance of these documents with the balance of relationships with the French government under François Mitterrand (Philippe Magnan) it is a tense struggle for power and at the crux of it is Froment and the ultimately captured Gregoriev who is tortured to reveal his French espionage contact. The rush to finish at the end of

the film is breathtaking and heartbreaking. There is a conversation between Froment and the US Feeney (Willem Dafoe) that places the soul of the Cold War years in perspective. Every aspect of this film is involving - the acting is first rate from everyone involved, the pacing is in the fashion edge of the seat direction, and the sharing of the innermost secrets of espionage is information we all should study.

A reenactment of the Reagan/Gorbachev era as well defined as any film has dared to show us. Not only is this excellent filmmaking, but it is also information about a man's (Sergei Gregoriev) sacrifice that deserve honor.

Grady Harp

©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p11

15/07/2014 15:58 par tellurikwaves

  • ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p11

    ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p11

    15/07/2014 15:58 par tellurikwaves

I loved it & so did everyone in my film group!
10/10
Author: Dorothy Davis from New York City
19 May 2010

My film group and I saw "Farewell" at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center in New York. We all loved it. I do hope it will have a commercial release soon so more people can see it. The acting was superb, the screenplay riveting.

We did not know the story so we were kept on the edges of our seats. I gained a lot of insights into what was going on in the cold war and emerged with a very different take on what had happened and increased appreciation for the leaders of France and the U. S. and appreciation for the brave Russian agent and what he did for the world.

I am looking forward to reading the book on which the film was based. The opening and closing were so beautiful and meaningful -- the meaning only grasped at the end. I will never forget them.

©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p10

15/07/2014 15:53 par tellurikwaves

  • ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p10

    ©-DR-L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL de Christian Carion (2009) p10

    15/07/2014 15:53 par tellurikwaves

A Frenchman helped start this game, another the reviews (Screen)
10/10
Author: leplatypus from PariS
26 September 2009

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A few months ago, I was reading a biography about the French President, François Mitterand and it discussed this Farewell case. As Mitterand had known about this, you can be sure this was a highly top secret file. But I can't remember what really happens so I was very eager to see this movie. In addition, the cold war time was my childhood and teen years, and as "Watchmen" did earlier, those movies bring now, nostalgia.

Actually, it was an old colleague of mine who thinks to this movie and we left the theater totally pleased. I really like French cinema when it doesn't forget what cinema is, that is to say: pictures moving with sound to tell a story! Usually, French movies are only speeches with no camera moves and silence, always telling about "old" France or failed relationships!

Here, since the beautiful credits, you understand that it will be a great movie and what it's about: CCCP vs. USA. Communism vs. Capitalism. As it's involved spies and moles, this conflict draws on the blood on common, "little" people, not the delusion of "James Bond". It all starts with the courage and bravery of individual people for whom beliefs, truth, justice, liberty are as essential as everything else (familial values, job fame, material life,...). Thus, becoming spy is per se dangerous for one's own life but it threatens all that you can have built in your life, especially family. This danger is depicted with great talent in the movie. Choices are hard and nothing comes easily.

Another aspect of spy life is shown with intelligence: as Mulder would say, "Trust no one": if you are a spy, others can be spy-hunters, thus you get paranoid, suspicious with everyone: the "babushka" (grandmother), the maid, colleagues, the big head of administration. Worst: the golden rule in espionage is that a spy is always alone, thus spies can killed each other without even knowing it. That's the terrible tragedy in this movie…

In addition to spy life, this movie offers also deep thoughts about married life, and parenthood. The big adversary there isn't ideology but time. Kids grown up, love flame can be extinguished. You got to be cautious, even more than for your spy business. The infidelity, cheating times in the movie are funny, because they seem so far away for all this political war and yet, they act the same!

But, to be good, a movie needs, beyond ideas, people and here, every one delivers: I didn't know so far the director, Caron as a director but he deserves to be recognized: He has been able to change scope every time (From White House to bench talking about poetry) and he is imaginative: I really liked the sequences of driving, between "Duel" and De Palma, and the end credits.

I don't know if the locations are indeed Russian but you really got the feel of a socialist republic and the 80's: Walkman, Pink-Floyd, Queen and 8mm movies! My father had the same hobby than Farewell and as his son, my brother and I can be seen running on the wall! A very moving moment for me.

The cast is greatly rich with exceptional guest-stars: I remember Ingeborha Dapkounaite from my Russian period. Willem Dafoe is always a (machiavelic) presence in whatever he does. It's funny to see "Hutch" and the participation from Gorby and Mitterand, because they look very much like the real ones. From my point of view, Reagan is too young and energetic but I agree with his pictorial as a cowboy, past actor because the above-mentioned book about Mitterand says the same. And he was also a funny movie critic: just read the poster of this movie!

Now, for our pair of spies, Canet is a good choice because the part needed a low profile, not big mouth actor, which he is. And Kusturica is truly an "Emir", AMAZING! He shows so much humanity within his gruff exterior.

I really hope that this movie will be attended by big crowds and wins a lot of awards (especially for Emir) because their success would be the long-awaited homage to the real people in this story! Definitively, a reference in spy movie!

©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p9

15/07/2014 11:33 par tellurikwaves

  • ©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p9

    ©-DR- L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL p9

    15/07/2014 11:33 par tellurikwaves

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