Based on Louise De Bettignies's and one of her mates Leonie Vanhoutte's lives during WW1,when they were spies -the movie refuses this pejorative appellation-in the service of their homeland .
It was actually made to stir patriotic feelings ,like many other propaganda movies,in the years just before WW2;The first part of the movie is dull,monotonous,beginning with a four-minute lecture on this northern Joan of Arc ;directing is flat,and the characters are uninteresting.
Things go a little better in the third part (the movie is divided into three chapters "serving" "suffering" and "dying" )when the two actresses ,Jeanne Sully and Josette Day (who would be La Belle in Cocteau's classic) have some moving scenes together.
It was actually made to stir patriotic feelings ,like many other propaganda movies,in the years just before WW2;The first part of the movie is dull,monotonous,beginning with a four-minute lecture on this northern Joan of Arc ;directing is flat,and the characters are uninteresting.
Things go a little better in the third part (the movie is divided into three chapters "serving" "suffering" and "dying" )when the two actresses ,Jeanne Sully and Josette Day (who would be La Belle in Cocteau's classic) have some moving scenes together.