''Farewell'' (french: L'affaire Farewell; literally ''The Farewell Affair'') is a 2009 French espionage
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
Christian Carion
Christian Carion (born 4 January 1963) is a French film director, dialogue writer and screenwriter, gaining international attention for ''Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas)'', which was nominated for several awards, including the 2005 Academy Awa ...
, starring
Guillaume Canet
Guillaume Canet (; born 10 April 1973) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, and show jumper.
Canet began his career in theatre and television before moving to film. He starred in several films like '' Joyeux Noël'', '' Love Me I ...
and
Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica ( sr-cyrl, Емир Кустурица; born 24 November 1954) is a Serbian film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and musician. He also has French citizenship.http://www.serbia.com/emir-kusturica-artist-builder-and-anti-glo ...
. The film is loosely based on the actions of the high-ranking KGB official,
Vladimir Vetrov
, nickname =
, image =
, caption =
, allegiance = Soviet Union later France
, service = KGB, DST
, serviceyears =
, rank = Lieutenant Colonel
, operation = F ...
. It was released in the United States in June 2010. It was adapted from the book ''Bonjour Farewell: La vérité sur la taupe française du KGB'' (1997) by Serguei Kostine.
The movie was filmed in Ukraine and Finland because Russia refused to provide a permit for filming in Moscow. A
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was esta ...
news item also stated that the government "dissuaded Russian movie actor Sergei Makovetsky and Russian producer and director Nikita Mikhalkov from participating in the film" (according to the director).
Plot
In the early 1980s, a high-ranking
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
analyst, Sergei Grigoriev, disillusioned with the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
regime, decides to pass Soviet secrets, including a list of their spies, to the government of France, then under the newly elected President
François Mitterrand, a
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
in coalition with the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
. Grigoriev (code-named ''Farewell'' by the
French intelligence service) hopes to force change in the Soviet Union by revealing their extensive network of spies trying to acquire scientific, technical and industrial information from the West. He uses Pierre Froment, a naïve French engineer based in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, as his unlikely intermediary. After the first transfer of information, Pierre confides in his wife Jessica, who is adamant about his stopping this activity in order to safeguard their family. Grigoriev persuades Pierre to continue without telling Jessica. He will accept neither money nor
defection as a reward, but sometimes requests small gifts from Pierre's trips to France, such as a
Sony Walkman
Walkman, stylised as , is a brand of portable audio players manufactured and marketed by Japanese technology company Sony since 1979. The original Walkman was a portable cassette player and its popularity made "walkman" an unofficial term fo ...
and
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
cassette tapes for his son, some
cognac
Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime.
Cognac production falls under French appella ...
, or books of French poetry. As Farewell's prodigious output blossoms, the French are bewildered by the sheer scale and yield of top Western technology transferred covertly to the Soviets.
Under suspicion that he is not a trustworthy ally, Mitterrand personally hands U.S. President
Ronald Reagan a
dossier of invaluable Farewell data during the
Ottawa G7 summit. The Americans are astounded with it and other information provided by Farewell, culminating in the full "
List X" of Soviet spies within the highest echelons of the Western scientific and industrial apparatus. They embark on an ambitious plan to feed the Soviets erroneous or defective data; shortly afterwards, the network of Soviet technology spies in the West is rolled up, and Reagan announces the
"Star Wars" antimissile shield project. Deprived of hi-tech information from the West, and with their own laboratories falling behind, the Soviet leadership panics. Seeing this desperate impasse for what it is,
Mikhail Gorbachev, then an upwards-mobile party official, starts preparing the reform policies he is to pursue in the future.
Grigoriev's superior, a
double agent
In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organ ...
for the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
, is directed by them to sacrifice Grigoriev and save the Froments, all unbeknownst to the French. Grigoriev, under arrest and KGB interrogation, plays dumb to give the Froments time to escape. They cover their tracks and flee by car to the
Finnish border. While in
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
for debriefing, Pierre pleads with the
CIA Director
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) is a statutory office () that functions as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, which in turn is a part of the United States Intelligence Community.
Beginning February 2017, the D ...
to save Grigoriev, praising his integrity and selflessness. The director refuses as a policy principle, having brought the other agent to the West. Grigoriev is granted his request of execution by a marksman on the jetty of the snow-clad lake he loves. Pierre is later offered a company job in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
Cast
*
Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica ( sr-cyrl, Емир Кустурица; born 24 November 1954) is a Serbian film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and musician. He also has French citizenship.http://www.serbia.com/emir-kusturica-artist-builder-and-anti-glo ...
as Sergei Grigoriev (the character based on Vetrov)
*
Guillaume Canet
Guillaume Canet (; born 10 April 1973) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, and show jumper.
Canet began his career in theatre and television before moving to film. He starred in several films like '' Joyeux Noël'', '' Love Me I ...
as Pierre Froment, an engineer working in the Moscow branch of French electronics conglomerate
Thomson-CSF
Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in the development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence sectors of the market.
Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merger of Thomson-Houst ...
*
Alexandra Maria Lara
Alexandra Maria Lara (''née'' Plătăreanu; 12 November 1978) is a Romanian-German actress who has appeared in '' Downfall'' (2004), ''Control'' (2007), '' Youth Without Youth'' (2007), ''The Reader'' (2008), '' Rush'' (2013), and ''Geostorm' ...
as Jessica Froment, Pierre's wife
*
Willem Dafoe
Willem James Dafoe (; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, in addition to receiving nominations for four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, t ...
as Feeney, Director of the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
*
Fred Ward
Freddie Joe Ward (December 30, 1942 – May 8, 2022) was an American actor and producer. Starting with a role in an Italian television movie in 1973, he appeared in such diverse films as '' Escape from Alcatraz'', ''Southern Comfort'', '' The R ...
as U.S. President
Ronald Reagan
* Philippe Magnan as President
François Mitterrand of France
*
Niels Arestrup
Niels Arestrup (; born 8 February 1949) is a French-Danish actor, film director and screenwriter. He has won three César Awards.
Biography
Arestrup was born in Paris into a family of modest means; his father was Danish and his mother was Br ...
as Vallier, Director of the
DST
Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...
*
David Soul
David Soul (born David Richard Solberg; August 28, 1943) is an American-British actor and singer. He is known for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the television series ''Starsky & Hutch'' from 1975 to 1979; Joshua Bolt on ' ...
as Hutton, aide to President Reagan
*
Ingeborga Dapkunaite as Natasha, Grigoriev's wife
*
Dina Korzun
Dianna Aleksandrovna "Dina" Korzun (russian: Диа́нна Алекса́ндровна "Ди́на" Ко́рзун; born 13 April 1971) is a Russian theater and film actress.
Life and career
Dina Korzun was born in Smolensk. She graduated from ...
as Alina, a colleague and mistress that Grigoriev is having an affair with
* Yevgeni Vasilyevich Kharlanov as Igor, the Grigorievs' rebellious son
* Christian Sandström as
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
agent
*
Diane Kruger
Diane Kruger ( Heidkrüger; ; born 15 July 1976) is a German and American actress. Early in her career, Kruger gained worldwide recognition and received the Trophée Chopard from the Cannes Film Festival.
Kruger became known for her roles in ...
,
Benno Fürmann,
Gary Lewis and
Alex Ferns
Alexander Ferns (born 13 October 1968) is a Scottish actor and television personality, best known for his ''EastEnders'' role as Trevor Morgan, who was described as "Britain's most-hated soap villain" when he played the role between 2000 and 200 ...
, amongst others, have cameos.
Reception
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 77 reviews, with an average rating of 7.06/10. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
See also
*
Farewell Dossier
The Farewell Dossier was the collection of documents that Colonel Vladimir Vetrov, a KGB defector "en place" (code-named "Farewell"), gathered and gave to the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST) in 1981–82, during the Cold War.
...
Further reading
*Thomas C. Reed, ''At the Abyss: An Insider’s History of the Cold War'' (2004)
* Sergei Kostin and Eric Raynaud, ''Adieu Farewell'' (Laffont, Paris, 2009, in French); "Farewell" (AmazonCrossing, Aug. 2011, in English). First complete investigation of the Farewell Dossier and its international impact.
* Michel Louyot, ''Le Violon de neige'' (Publibook, Paris, 2008; soon to be available in English).
References
External links
*
Screendaily.com review
The interviews with Director and actors
{{Clint Mansell
2009 films
2000s French-language films
2000s English-language films
2000s Russian-language films
Films directed by Christian Carion
Films shot in Ukraine
Films shot in Finland
French spy thriller films
2000s spy thriller films
Cold War films
Films set in the 1980s
Cultural depictions of Ronald Reagan
Cultural depictions of Mikhail Gorbachev
Films set in the Soviet Union
Films set in Moscow
Films scored by Clint Mansell
France 2 Cinéma films
Canal+ films
Films about the Central Intelligence Agency
2000s French films