Topaz (1969)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.2/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Escritores:

Leon Uris (novel)
Samuel A. Taylor (screenplay)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

19 diciembre 1969 (USA)

Género:

Crimen | Suspenso

Frase comercial:

Hitchcock takes you behind the actual headlines to expose the most explosive spy scandal of the century!

Plot:

A French intelligence agent becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics first with uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis, and then back to France to break up an international Russian spy ring.

Plot Keywords:

Agent | Spy | Cold War | Paris | NATO

Premios:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Truly Hitchcockian despite its weaknesses

Reparto

Frederick Stafford	...	Andre Devereaux
Dany Robin	...	Nicole Devereaux
John Vernon	...	Rico Parra
Karin Dor	...	Juanita de Cordoba
Michel Piccoli	...	Jacques Granville
Philippe Noiret	...	Henri Jarre
Claude Jade	...	Michele Picard
Michel Subor	...	Francois Picard
Roscoe Lee Browne	...	Philippe Dubois
Per-Axel Arosenius	...	Boris Kusenov
John Forsythe	...	Michael Nordstrom
Edmon Ryan	...	McKittreck
Sonja Kolthoff	...	Mrs. Kusenov
Tina Hedström	...	Tamara Kusenov (as Tina Hedstrom)
John Van Dreelen	...	Claude Martin

También conocida como:

Topaz (Argentina) (video title) (Spain) [es]
Topaze (Argentina) [es]

Duración:

143 min | 127 min (edited version)

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Clasificación:

Spain:18 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:PG (DVD rating) | Iceland:12 | UK:A (original rating) | Brazil:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1970) | Peru:14 | Sweden:11 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Locaciones de Filmación:

Copenhagen, Denmark

Compañía:

Universal Pictures

Trivialidades:

According to Alfred Hitchcock, this was another of his experimental movies. In addition to the dialogue, the plot is revealed through the use of colors, predominantly red, yellow and white. He admits that this did not work out.

Errores:

Sin sincronía de Audio o Visual: At Jaques Granville's party when Deveraux is setting up the meeting with his colleagues, he says, "So that's five people who can help me." The line is obviously dubbed as he clearly mouths the word "six".

Citas:

Michèle Picard: Oh, the Cubans. I love the Cubans. They are so wild!

Conexiones de Película:

Apareció en 'Topaz': An Appreciation by Film Critic/Historian Leonard Maltin (2001) (V)

Truly Hitchcockian despite its weaknesses

Unfortunately, I'd only come across the weak ending version. Despite of that, it's a truly Hitchcockian film. The memorable scenes are pure and exclusively visual: the intriguing start, the stealing of the documents, the death of Juanita, the torturing of the cuban spies, the discovery of the body at Jarre's apartment, the meal of the french officers...

Hitchcock used to take technical challenges in every one of his films, I assume that here he committed to deliver the most complicated information concerning the plot without using dialogue, and he succeed.

There's a lot of subtle humor and some clever twists. The cuban officers are just great, absolutely surreal. I loved the atmosphere in that hotel room, with people doing paperwork, smoking cigars and drinking, and the detail of the hamburger wrapped in the document. I think the very broad differences in tone between the three main sections of the film affects the pace and the appreciation of the story as a whole.

It's amazing how Hitchcock managed to survive in it in the light of the multitude of trouble this film went through.

Watching the video version edited in Norway had its extra. Amazingly, all subtitles were delayed a good five, six minutes throughout the entire film, so you actually had text during the silent scenes and incongruities such as love words during killings.