After novels and theatre, spies have been exported from silent to cinema without ever leaving it. A whole world, where James Bond would be king, Mata-Hari queen and OSS 117 their unlikely offspring. We find them, and many others, in a spectacular exhibition at the Cinémathèque française until May 21, 2023.
If spies have existed since Antiquity, they have multiplied considerably since the First World War. Committed to highlighting the parallels between reality and the fantasies they arouse, the exhibition at the Cinémathèque mixes history, cinema and geopolitics. The spy film is associated with the present, more than the past. Most of the films are devoted to spies or to contexts that are more or less contemporary to them. It’s 1914 that sets the tone, which is why the rooms also tell a story of espionage.
Films, technology and documents punctuate the journey in a constant dialogue between cinema and reality. The genre lends itself to being exhibited thanks to the many objects that nourish it. The gadgets of James Bond are the exacerbation of it, but everyone knows the fatal Bulgarian umbrella, microfilms and other photo-ties. In the exhibition, real spy tools rub shoulders with the most eccentric inventions.
The splendid drawings exhibited by Ken Adams for the sets of four james bond prove to be decisive in the paw of the franchise. Scaramanga’s mythical golden pistol, the costumes of Daniel Craig and Eva Green in Casino Royale (2006) rub shoulders with a gray overcoat reversible into a green raincoat, and real spy briefcases precede a room devoted to the KGB and the Stasi. The Cold War over, espionage turned to the Middle East, after a detour through the Watergate affair. Many screens, several of good size, broadcast documents and excerpts in a loop, all in the middle of a profusion of posters and selected photos. Two short films are also remarkable: The Plot by Namanja Nikolic and Where the City Can’t See by Liam Young.
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The scenography bathes the exhibition in a bluish aura crossed by iconic silhouettes: Musidora, Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergmann, Sean Connery… As such, parity reigns in intelligence, where spies and spies are equal in number and celebrities. More in fiction than in reality for men, while the names of real spies are better known to the public, to the point of generating biopics. In the exhibition, James Bond meets Mata-Hari.
Cousin of the thriller, the spy film has distinguished itself since Méliès (Execution of a spy1897), and more particularly at the end of the First World War, in Doctor Mabuse, the demon (1922), Doctor Mabuse, the player (1922) by Fritz Lang, with two sequels and other substitutes. Whether mabuse is not stricto sensu a spy franchise, the megalomaniac hypnotist also manipulates German society with intelligence surveillance devices. The same Fritz Lang will realize The spies (1928), more faithful to the precepts of the genre. The Great War propagated the image of the spy in mentalities as a patriotic hero in the shadows, or an unspeakable traitor. Obliged to pretend, he must charm his adversaries to draw secrets from them. From charm to seduction there is only one step that the cinema will take by considerably eroticizing the genre, even if the parts of the bed are part of the job in reality….
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Whether played by Sean Connery or Mel Gibson, or historical or James Bond Girls, movie spies and spies are mostly fanciful. However, more than one jewel escapes this register, with a more realistic approach, as with Fritz Lang (The spies, Manhunt), Alfred Hitchcock (The 39 Steps, The Man Who Knew Too Much (two versions), The Chained), Carol Reed (The Third Man) or JL Mankiewicz (The Cicero Affair, The Bloodhound), all classics.
The United States, Great Britain and France are the biggest suppliers of the genre. One of its characteristics is the topicality of films with contemporary history: First World War (Mata Hari1927, and 1931, Marthe Richard in the service of France1937), Cold War (The Third Man1949, james bond1962), the Middle East (carlos2010, Argo2012, Zero Dark Thirty2012).
France is fertile in spy films, with the Dreyfus affair in the first place. Méliès, a convinced Dreyfusard, adapted it in 1899, at the time of the review trial of the condemned man in Rennes. In 2019, Roman Polanski was still talking about it in I accuse. Espionage, a topic not very prolific after the Second World War, but constant in France, goes up in popularity in the 1960s, with the OSS 117 by André Hunebelle, then more seriously in The snake (1972) by Henri Verneuil, and especially File 51 (1978) by Michel Deville, a sharp look at the methods used by the French secret services to destabilize a diplomat: great film. More recently, Arnaud Despleschin (The Sentinel1992), Eric Rochant (The Patriots1993) and Olivier Assayas (carlos2010), lent themselves to espionage, for cinema and television by renewing the genre.
The parody was obviously invited to the spy ball with Our man Flint (1966), modeled on Bond, just like Austin Powers (1997), then OSS 117 (2006). Parody sanctifies the genre, because it is only possible when the majority of the public knows its codes. The success of the series The Office of Legendsthe durability of espionage in the cinema (franchises james bond, Impossible mission, Jason Bournemovies Imitation Game, The Bridge of Spies), demonstrate the power of the genre in cinema. A mix of mystery and glamour, conducive to suspense and action, rooted in current events, on-screen espionage still has a bright future ahead of it. Top secret at the Cinémathèque exhibits its finery.
Top secret – Cinema and espionage, the exhibition catalog designed under the direction of Alexandra Midal and Matthieu Orléan brings together all the iconography and objects presented in an original approach.
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Composed of a succession of files – from James Bond to Zero Dark Thirty, the catalog lists emblematic subjects such as Cuba or the Enigma machine, the X27 case, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Salon Kitty, Mata Hari, telephotography… Rare book devoted to espionage in the cinema, the image is abundant and the text by many scholarly contributors, as one would expect from the Cinémathèque.
The icing on the cake: three unpublished interviews with Arnaud Despleschin, Eric Rochant and Olivier Assayas are devoted to their renewal of the genre. Léa Seydoux is also invited as a French James Bond girl appearing in the last two films with Daniel Craig. Beautiful work.
Top secret
October 21, 2022 – May 21, 2023 (except Tuesday)
French Cinematheque
51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris
Telephone: 01 71 19 33 33