Topaz (1969)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1969
	Director: Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds, Torn Curtain)
	Actors: Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, John Vernon, Michel Piccoli (La Grande Bouffe), Philippe Noiret (Le Vieux Fusil)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 30.05.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: A French intelligence agent (Stafford) becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics when uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis.
Review: Still part of the beautiful Hitchcock box-set containing ten Blu-rays, I have discovered Topaz for the first time. You can see that the cinema of Alfred has evolved since his earlier years, and it is not surprising that Topaz is less known than other of his movies: it is not a Masterpiece. I have already been slightly disappointed by The Man who Knew too Much and my feeling was similar here. OK the story is well told, the actors good and the stakes high, but something is missing, I think it is this feeling of suspense for which Hitchcock was so good, giving no rest to the viewer like in Torn Curtain. On the contrary in Topaz the action is too slow and there is only one suspenseful moment, and it is not even the ending. The movie is interesting for me because it involves France. The main character is a French spy and the last third of the movie takes place in France and involves some of our best actors of the time: Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret, and I enjoyed seeing them both. However it is disturbing that American actors play the roles of French people. Other funny fact: the main character is named Devereaux. I don't know why this name is often used to portray French people in American movies: it is the name of Jean-Claude Van Damme in the Universal Soldiers series, and the name of the character played by Gérard Depardieu in the recent Welcome to New-York by Abel Ferrara, about the events around Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Rating: 5 /10