Mata Hari, Agent H21 (1964) Belgian Poster

Jean-Louis Richard wrote some of Francois Truffaut's finest films - La peau douce (1964), Farenheit 451 (1966), The Bride Wore Black (1968) and Day For Night (1973) and here Truffaut returned the favour, co-writing the script. Richard's ex-wife Jeanne Moreau stars, with Jean-Louis Trintignant as the officer she is tasked to steal documents from, but falls in love with instead.

Richard skates the boundaries between the fluid movement of the New Wave and the formal tension of the thriller, and Truffaut (embroiled in his ground-breaking monograph on Hitchcock which would be published two years later) gleefully quotes some of the Master's signature tropes, a briefcase chained to a chair, stealing documents under the noses of enemy officers, a tense border crossing.

Condition: VERY FINE / NEAR MINT (Rolled)

Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Claude Rich, Henri Garcin, Hella Petri, Nicole Desailly