La spia del secolo

It is a confusing movie.At its best ,it represents Ciampi's most artistically ambitious work ever.At its worst ,it is surprisingly muddled ,the story being very off putting for the average viewer (and for the 1961 audience?).Although Ciampi was labeled "old school" director,"Qui Etes Vous Monsieur Sorge ?" sounds more "NV" than any Godard's cinema Verite works .

One of the characters is "played " by the "real life " character .The movie begins with a spate of conflicting testimonies ,one of the persons going as far as to say that Sorge's story is not over and he is still alive and "working" somewhere.The Japanese speak their own language,which is a good thing ,but there's a problem:most of the action takes place in Germany and the Germans speak French;so do the English .

German born Sorge (His surname means "fear" "problem" "anxiety" !) was a spy in the pay of the Japanese .We follow him through the troubled times before WW2 and in the war when his ring reportedly changed the face of the war.

Extremely demanding,but sometimes stodgy ," Monsieur Sorge" remains one of the two Ciampi's most memorable works ,along with "Les Heros Sont Fatigués"