The Popular Front wins elections, the Spanish Civil War begins, and Hitler and Stalin are manipulating and spying. The brilliant exile, Fiodor Voronin, a general at 20, is the deputy at the White Russian Military Union, probably slated to replace the aging Général Dobrinsky soon. Fiodor's Greek wife, Arsinoé, paints and stays away from politics, befriending Communist neighbors. Her health declines; the attentive Fiodor arranges care and, against the backdrop of Stalin's Great Purge, considers his options. He plays a chess game in which love of country, love of Arsinoé, ideology, petty jealousies, and the machinations of power roil in matters of life and death.
Direction
Rohmer's longest take: a marriage dissolving in real time.
Writing
Dialogue so polite it's practically encrypted.
Costume
Arsinoé's dresses: the only honest thing in frame.
Director
Éric Rohmer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rohmer shot the Paris street scenes at their actual 1937 addresses, using period-accurate tram schedules.
The 'triple' of the title refers to the triple agent structure, but also Rohmer's third film in his 'Tales of the Four Seasons'—wait, no, wrong trilogy. Actually it's standalone, which somehow fits.
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