Dossier 51

The best tribute we can pay to a departed filmmaker is to watch or rewatch his films. That's what I've been doing for the past few weeks, since I learned that Michel Deville is no longer with us. In the filmography of the French director who died on February 16, 'Le dossier 51' is considered a pinnacle. Rightly so. It is an excellently made film, well written (adapting a novel by Gilles Perrault), professionally acted by a team of not so famous actors (which is an advantage) and very original in terms of cinematic techniques. The subject is very relevant even today. We could almost say it's a dystopian film. Michel Deville depicted on screen a world in which individuals are under constant surveillance, many decades before terms like 'parallel state' or 'surveillance society' entered the political lexicon. Of course, technology has evolved, but it is precisely the details related to the 'advanced' tracking techniques of the '70s that give the film an air of retro-anticipation. If it had been made today, 'Le dossier 51' could have been nominated for the César Awards (and would be too good a film for the Academy Awards) without the need to change a single frame.

The theme was not completely new in the cinematic landscape of the 70s. Other filmmakers had already tackled it, the most famous example being Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 'The Conversation' with Gene Hackman in the lead role. I do not hesitate to say that 'Le dossier 51' is a film of the same caliber. The main character is a French diplomat named Dominique Auphal who is posted to the headquarters of an international organization based in Luxembourg. A secret and nameless organization tries to hire him and for this purpose builds around him a whole network of agents and a surveillance apparatus with the latest gadgets of conspiratorial techniques of those years. Auphal is given the code name 51, and his wife will be 52. The purpose of the whole action will be to find the weak points of his character or the shadows of his biography in such a way that '51' can be blackmailed and coerced into becoming an agent. No resource is spared and no scruples stand in the way of 'services'. And whoever rummages finds something, even when it comes to the most honest and devoted diplomat.

'Le dossier 51' is filmed in pseudo-documentary style. Watched today we can easily imagine that the archives of the mysterious secret service have been opened after almost half a century. Photographs, audio tapes and sequences filmed with a camouflaged camera are shown as pieces in the file. Around the middle of the film these are interspersed with sequences filmed from the perspective of the agents in charge of the pursuits and of those who interrogate the witnesses around Domique Auphal, his family and people from his past. The use of the 'subjective camera' technique (today called point-of-view / POV filming) was not entirely new, but Michel Deville used it extensively and integrated the scenes shot in this way with the other 'documents' in the file. The result is effective and expressive. We breathlessly follow the fate of the hero who appears mostly in photographs and tape recordings. Both the pursued and the pursuers - agents, informants and the all-powerful boss ('Jupiter') are designated by numbers or code names. In fact, the few scenes in which those overseeing the heroes' destinies appear towards the end of the film are the weakest scenes. Faceless cops are the most effective and feared. The victims, the subjects of the surveillance, may be heroes in the film made 45 years ago, or it may be any of us today.

A movie about creation and perception, a big paste of shorts films, pictures and misc documents, about cinematographic language as it were in the late 70's

A foreign secret service put Dominique Auphal (a diplomat) under surveillance in order to find a psychological and/or social weakness in his life to ensure some kind of leverage to control him politically (by blackmailing). His life is analyzed, commented, discussed and rationalized. He's the File (number) 51.

First it can be seen as a view on an omnipresent figure representing oppressive control over individual lives ; a variation on Orwell's 1984 set in France in the late 70's describing a society with less privations and overwhelming authority. More realistic though as pessimistic as the novel.

Then it provides keys and show the 'everyone's watching everyone' just born-ed syndrome when secret services agents go on coarse or trivial comments about Auphal's personal life ('why in hell he's dating this girl ?' 'what kind of twisted guy has this kind of sexual fantasies'..) ; they're judging him beyond the psychological analysis they have to do and lose partiality. 30 years before 'garbage - who's fu**ing who -' reality TV, Michel Deville discusses about basic viewers pulsion and perversion.

About one third of the movie is overdubbed (messy voices-over spoken by secret services agents watching Auphal) footages of Auphal (51 in a street, in a park, at home ; spy cameras, photographs, sound recordings..) we are at heart with empathy. We both follow the POV (perception) of a secret service agent by watching those documents AND due to the fact that this investigation is merciless, so complete and meticulous we're deeply breaking in Auphal's life. This is a document produced by this secret service, the whole movie is created by them as it could be shown to an executive who wouldn't know the case.

Dominique Auphal is born during WWII, he was about 25 years old during the 1968 french events with everything that it involves, psychologically ; he's part of the generation that had no global war to handle, enjoying freedom of social, professional and sexual choices. The movie deserves to be seen just to get a good look on the France of those years..

"His Life's Facts" are thrown into your face during a hundred minutes : the movie is a list of things, facts, views about this man ; as in Antonioni's Blow-up (another one charactered movie about photographic and its medium perception), there's no great deal of action or mystery but the portrait of the loneliness of a man. One is surrounded by models, big money, The Yardbirds and creation during the swinging sixties (lucky lucky) whereas 51 is trapped in a strict and pretty depressing professional life (but a valuable position for other countries to have under control) and his sexual habits...

Technically, there's never-seen-before innovations (use of 'look through camera', POV shots, interview footages, jump cuts ; all mixed up) but Le Dossier 51 is also one the most incredible cinematographical portrait ever made, supported by great actors (François Marthouret as 51 and Roger Planchon as Esculape 1), state-of-the-art editing and cinematography.

To be watched along with : Le Prix du Danger (1983, Y.Boisset), The Conversation (1974, F.F. Coppola), Blow up (1966, M. Antonioni), Blow out (1981, B. De Palma), Je te tiens, tu me tiens par la barbichette (1979, J. Yanne) and everything discussing artistic mediums or/and medias.

This political thriller is directed by a comedy drama specialist, an excellent specialist of comedies of manners made in France. For such a film maker, this is a tour de force, believe me. We think here of Yves Boisset, Coasta Gavras for the French or Alan Pakula - PARALLAX VIEW - or Sidney Lumet for the American influence. This is a terrific piece of work, intriguing, disturbing, that also could remind Francis Coppola's THE CONVERSATION. The story telling, with those off voices is absolutely unique, outstanding, but will puzzle many of viewers. Not for all audiences, but an unforgettable and unavoidable film.

Easily, one of the better crime stories I've watched. The plot moves forward at a decent pace, decent enough to get one glued to their seats. Every single casting did justice to their role. And the climax is just icing on the top, you couldn't have asked for more. On the whole, a superb movie from Michel Deville.

My favorite movie of all time. I've seen it once, when it came out in 1978, and I've never seen it since. But I can't stop thinking about it.

Somehow, others can see things in ourselves that we can't see, or refuse to see. And these observations are used against us, in small ways and in much larger circumstances.

Intrigue is my favorite genre in film. Not loud fights, car chases, or shoot-outs. The quiet contemplation of earth-shaking truths leaves me mulling the subject over and over and over.

In the film, an espionage agency seeks to compromise an employee of a foreign government. And to compromise that foreign government employee, the spies try to find his greatest weakness. The weakness that their target isn't even aware of proves to be the target's greatest weakness.