Mata Hari (1985)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good movie but grossly overrated

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Mata Hari is a beautiful Dutch-born dancer, working in Paris. It is August 1914 and war between France and Germany seems imminent. However, she accepts an invitation to travel to Berlin as part of a show. On the train she meets a young German army officer but any thoughts of romance are cut short when a French agent is murdered on the train, while in her company. She is arrested in Germany but freed when the German officer intervenes. While in Germany war breaks out and she is recruited by German Intelligence to spy on France.I was under no illusions regarding this film, figuring it was mostly made as a skin flick (it stars Sylvia Kristel) but hoping that it was at least historically accurate, thus making it sensual depiction of the life of Mata Hari. Despite my low expectations, however, it is still disappointing.About the only historically accurate things about this movie are the facts that she was Dutch, lived in the Dutch East Indies for a while, was a dancer, was a German spy and was captured by the French and executed. Everything else is pretty much fiction, created for dramatic effect, and poor effect at that.Her whole story gets turned into one of her being blackmailed into being a spy, doing it for all love and actually doing her best to undermine the Germans. The idea is to make this into a love-during- wartime drama, but it fails as a romantic drama too - quite unengaging.It even fails at it primary purpose - as a skin flick. Quite tame in that regard, what there is. The topless female fencing duel was unintentionally quite hilarious though...It's essentially a B-grade (at best) skin flick with pretensions of being a romantic biopic, but by trying to encompass so many genres and audiences it fails in all of them.

This is a real stinker of a film. The acting is execrable, the plot is almost incomprehensible and the accents are so shocking that they are to die for! Sylvia K has almost nothing to contribute to this film apart from her breasts, which are mildly alluring. Her acting ability is laughable and is matched in awfulness only by Christopher Casenove, who can only be described as a "hoot". In the most hilarious portion of the film, he is rescued from behind enemy lines by SK dressed as a nun (!) She has just crossed no-man's land during a full scale attack by German forces. She then drags him from the hospital in bandages and proceeds to commune with him in a bombed out barn. You must see it to believe it. I recommend you either a) don't bother b) watch the film with mates when you are all blotto when you can really appreciate its true horror. Two hours of your life would be better spent asleep or picking your toe nails.

This is a soft-core biography about notorious dancer with smouldering allure who had relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians,millionaires and others in influential positions in many countries. The film starts in Java 1909, where we see to Mata Hari dancing an exotic temple dance. 1914 Paris , two captains (Christopher Cazenove, Oliver Tobias) know to Margheritte Zella. Later Mata Hari travels in train where knows a handsome traveller (Derek De Lint) but he's suddenly murdered. Then she's accused from killing but is freed by the German captain(Cazenove). Paris 1915, Folies Bergere where Mata Hari is playing a spectacle impersonating the Goddess Kali with several hands. There encounters again the French captain(Tobias), who frames her as informer and asks her participate as Allied spy . In Madrid contacts with a watchmaker and is blackmailed by two German spies(Gaye Brown,Gottfried John). Now she must to go behind the enemy lines and rescue the German captain, dressing as nurse.Posteriorly in Paris 1916, is proceeded an intrigue about an liquid explosive which the baddies want to explode into a cathedral.This is an erotic and disastrous rendition about the life of famous spy Mata Hari.The picture is full of sexual relations, nudism and some of action and drama. Lousy performance by Sylvia Kristel, Emmanuel, at one of the worst acting of the cinema history. Produced in middling budget by Menahen Golan and Yoran Globus, Cannon, usual producers lots of films during the 70s and 80s. The movie is badly directed by Curtis Harrington.Although the story is inspired on real events, it's mostly a historical fiction , the actual deeds are the following: His true name was Margaretha Zella(1876-1917), a Frisian-Dutch known dancer and double agent during WWI. She was a successful courtesan , though was known more for her eroticism and sensuality rather for her stunning classic beauty. At 18, she answered an announce in newspapers about a man looking for spouse. She married Netherland Colonial Official and they moved to Indonesia , at island of Java. But the marriage was a disappointment and the couple early separated in 1903. Meanwhile she practices Indonesian traditions, uniting a local dance company learning the exotics jigs. Later she revealed her artistic name, Mata Hari, for 'eye the day' of the sun. She moving back to Europe , winning fame and fortune as exotic dancer. She was one of the leaders of the contemporary dancers, such as Ruth Dennis and Isadora Duncan that looked to Asian world for inspiration. During WWI, as neutral origin citizen was able to cross national borders freely , she travelled among Netherland, France, Germania, Spain but her several movements inevitably attracted attention. In early 1917 the German staff in Madrid transmitted messages to Berlin referring the activities of a German spy , code named H-21. French Intelligence intercepted it and identified as Mata Hari. Then she was detained and put on trial, framed of spying for Germany and condemned death warrant , accused to cause deceasing of at least 50.000 allied soldiers. She was founded guilty and executed by firing squad at the age of 41.Another better rendering based on famed courtesan/spy are: a silent version with Magda Sonja , classic adaptation by George Fitzmaurice with Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro and Mata Hari, agent H 21(1964) by Jean Louis Richard with Jeanne Moreau and Jean Louis Trintignant.

This film is a complete waste of time and celluloid. The actors (and I use that term lightly) wasted their time making this film. The people who went and saw this film (alas, I was one) wasted their time. Do you see a pattern here? This film STINKS, plain and simple. Don't waste your time on it. There are other sources of information about this famous woman. Utilize them instead of seeing this!