As he reached the status of French cinema's »mandarin«, and by proving to be the undisputed commercial ruler of non-American cinema, Luc Besson retired form directing and began writing and producing a whole serial assembly of rather simple French programmers which were set to compete with mid-budget Hollywood efforts. Some of those films like »Taxi« or »Crimson rivers« (Rivieres pourpres) managed to score amazing box office. And yet, Besson's employees failed to deliver anything more than middle-of-the-road of half-baked products. However, each of those titles managed to either reach or surpass Hollywood products in certain set-pieces. Thus, Besson's productions cured European fear of Hollywood's technical supremacy.<br /><br />The other line of French lust for Hollywood, unlike Besson's superficial clan, is represented by frontmen of the Newest Wave of French Cinema consisted of extremely talented and educated auteurs like Gaspar Noe, Christophe Gans, Jan Kounen and Olivier Assayas who use the rethorics of genre cinema in order to create brave and edgy body of work and blend of art-house.<br /><br />The acting icons of the Newest Wave are Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci, the couple who defined four most important films in the last ten years of French film history  Jan Kounen's »Dobermann«, Gilles Mimouni's »L'Appartement«, Christophe Gans' »Pacte de loups" and Gaspar Noe's »Irreversible«. The two of them star in »Agents secrets «, the film which tries to use the fourth method in order to tame the energy of commercial cinema.<br /><br />The explorer of the Fourth Method is Frederic Schoendoerffer, a classicist among contemporaries, son of famous Pierre (Dien Bien Phu), whose body of work mostly includes documentaries and chronicles of French colonial presence in Indochine. Frederic gained attention by grim and very serious police procedural "Scenes de crimes". In his debut the absence of stars prevented it from being an important title in the Serial Killer Film Pantheon.<br /><br />»Agents secrets« is a thriller partly inspired by a recent incident when French secret service (DGSE), which belongs among the most discrete, sank the Greenpeace ship. That event caused a backlash and DGSE eventually abandoned some of its' operatives.<br /><br />In »Agents secrets «, agents are ordered to sink the ship used by the notorious Easteuropean arms dealer. When the ship is sunk, agents consider mission accomplished. Suddenly, it transpires that they provoked CIA by this act and DGSE abandons them.<br /><br />This exciting yarn is adult-oriented judging by robust pacing and character portraying. Unlike (as exceptional) "The Bourne Supremacy" which grabs the viewer, »Agents secrets « attempt to seduce you. Thus, if "Supremacy" is the model of what 007-franchise should have been, then Schoendoerffer's film threads in legacy of John Mackenzie's "The Fourth Protocol". On the other hand its' Hollywood counterpart is Tony Scott's "Spy Game", another fine film about the dynamics of espionage reality. All of these films were directed by Europeans even if some belong to A-List Hollywood milieu, meaning that Europeans, especially Brits, are the go-to guys when it comes to spy yarns. <br /><br />»Agents secrets« is a fine espionage thriller that delivers efficient and disciplined roles of two authentic, and probably greatest contemporary French film stars. This film marks the return of adult-minded espionage film where espionage finally became a subject instead of being an excuse for action mayhem. Simply put, in »Agents secrets «, the device is also the goal, and this is why it stands out as a calm and articulated commercial film in the age of hysteria.