Le dossier 51

Dossier 51
Directed by	Michel Deville
Produced by	Philippe Dussart
Written by	Michel Deville Gilles Perrault
Starring	Françoise Béliard
Music by	Jean Schwarz
Cinematography	Claude Lecomte
Edited by	Raymonde Guyot
Distributed by	Gaumont
Release date	30 August 1978
Running time	108 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	$2 million

Dossier 51 (French: Le Dossier 51) is a 1978 French crime drama film directed by Michel Deville and based on a novel by Gilles Perrault. Deville and Perrault won a César Award for Best Writing for their adaptation. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.

Intelligence service (though this is never made clear) attempts to coerce a French diplomat into working for them. Their reports build main line of film.

The book resembles a dossier (file) containing notes, memos, wiretap transcripts, expense reports and interoffice correspondence (including administrative details, even some bickering) written in various personal styles. Every department in the organization is identified by a Greek or Roman god: Jupiter, Mercury, Esculape, Mars, etc. The targets of their investigations have their names replaced by numbers: 51 for the target, 52 for his wife, and so on, further dehumanizing the proceedings.

...
Wikipedia