Mata Hari is a 1985

1985 in film

-Events:* 3 December - Roger Moore steps down from the role of James Bond after twelve years and seven films. He is replaced by Timothy Dalton.* The Academy Award for Best Picture was won by Out Of Africa, while the highest grossing film was Back to the Future.* Bliss wins AFI Award for best Movie...

 film produced by Golan-Globus

Golan-Globus

The Cannon Group Inc. was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced a distinctive line of low-to-medium budget films from 1967 to 1993...

 featuring Sylvia Kristel

Sylvia Kristel

Sylvia Kristel is a Dutch actress, model and singer. Her most famous role is in the French film Emmanuelle.- Early life :...

 in the title role of exotic dancer

Exotic dancer

The terms exotic dancer and exotic dance can have different meanings in different parts of the world and depending on context. In the erotic sense, "exotic dance" is a often used to refer to practitioners of striptease...

 Mata Hari

Mata Hari

Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida "M'greet" Zelle , a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan, and accused spy who was executed by firing squad in France under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I.-Early life:Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, Friesland,...

, executed for espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The film portrays Mata Hari as an innocent woman manipulated by the secret services

Intelligence agency

An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...

 of Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 into providing intelligence

Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...

, at first unwittingly and unwillingly, and later driven by the nonpartisan

Partisan (political)

In politics, a partisan is a committed member of a political party. In multi-party systems, the term is widely understood to carry a negative connotation - referring to those who wholly support their party's policies and are perhaps even reluctant to acknowledge correctness on the part of their...

 desire to save lives. Eventually she is cynically sacrificed by the French who are aware of her innocence but believe her execution

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 will boost morale

Morale

Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used to describe the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others...

.

The film's convoluted plot is anchored by a fictitious love triangle

Love triangle

A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...

 between Mata Hari and two officers, the French Georges Ladoux

Georges Ladoux

Georges Ladoux was an army captain and the head of French counter-espionage during World War I, described as "a plump, square-faced man given to smoking a pipe and slicking his dark hair back with shiny oils." He transferred from counter-espionage to the Deuxième Bureau in February 1917. He was...

 (Oliver Tobias

Oliver Tobias

Oliver Tobias is a UK-based film, stage, and television actor and directorBorn Oliver Tobias Freitag in Zürich, Switzerland, he is the son of Austrian-Swiss actor Robert Freitag and German actress Maria Becker. He came to the United Kingdom at the age of eight and trained at East 15 Acting School,...

) and the German Karl von Bayerling (Christopher Cazenove

Christopher Cazenove

Christopher Cazenove was an English cinema, television and stage actor.-Early life and career:He was born Christopher de Lerisson Cazenove, the son of Arnold de Lerisson Cazenove and Elizabeth Laura in Winchester, Hampshire, but was brought up in Bowlish, Somerset...

). Ladoux and Bayerling are personal friends but end up on opposing sides of the war, providing ample opportunity to explore the dramatic tension between honor and personal loyalty on the one hand and patriotism

Patriotism

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

 and duty to one's country on the other. Their ethical dilemma

Ethical dilemma

An Ethical dilemma is a complex situation that will often involve an apparent mental conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another....

 is contrasted to the amoral scheming of the main villain

Villain

A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...

, Dr. Elsbeth Schragmüller

Elsbeth Schragmüller

Elsbeth Schragmüller was a German spy during World War I...

 (invariably known as Fräulein Doktor), a doctor

Doctor (title)

Doctor, as a title, originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb docēre . It has been used as an honored academic title for over a millennium in Europe, where it dates back to the rise of the university. This use spread...

 of psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 and leading operative of German intelligence. Mata Hari's efforts to thwart Fräulein Doktor's assassination

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 plot using a concealed bomb

Bomb

A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...

 are eventually successful but lead her to be captured in deeply compromising circumstances by Ladoux, precipitating her show trial

Show trial

The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...

 and execution, which Ladoux fruitlessly tries to prevent. The film ends on a melancholy note with the reconciliation of Ladoux and Bayerling after the war.

The casting of the male leads creates an ironic juxtaposition, as Oliver Tobias, who plays a French officer, is actually Swiss German

Swiss German

Swiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...

 by birth, whereas Christopher Cazenove, who plays a German, is of Occitan French heritage. Like the historical Mata Hari, lead actress Sylvia Kristel is Dutch by birth.