Two weekends ago, Sophie Marceau was the guest of honor for Focus on French Cinema's 5th Annual French Film Festival. Her film LOL (Laughing Out Loud) premiered the festival on Friday night followed by an extravagant gala. Saturday evening's special film showing was Les femmes de L'ombre.

The film follows five young women who are sent on a mission by the British Secret Service during WWII to rescue a geologist who was caught by German soldiers on the beaches of Normandy. The film's main character, Louise Desfontaines, played by Sophie Marceau, endures the entire movie through brutal conditions and many times narrowly escaping death. The movie is a testament to this woman's courage and strength.

You can tell how good a movie is based on what it gets you to think about. While I was watching this movie, I remember grimacing at the violence and being overjoyed during the last few scenes when Louise finally has her revenge and completes her mission.

Sophie and the other girls effortlessly wielded weaponry twice their weight and kidnapped and harbored a man across countries so easily that it could only be done by a woman.

I remember thinking how realistic the movie was. One of the youngest members of the "agents" was not able to stand torture when captured and no matter how much she was instructed before their mission to never give away secrets, she couldn't help it. She was so scared that she couldn't control her bladder and relieved herself in front of the torturers. Just when I thought all of her heart wrenching scenes were over, she begs Sophie's character for a cyanide pill so that she may be able to commit suicide for giving away important secrets of the mission.

During the Q&A session after the showing of the film, Sophie mentioned the previous scene as one of the hardest she had to prepare herself for. The character of the woman who killed herself wasn't supposed to be more than 20 and Sophie spoke about how her age played such a significant impact on the execution of that scene ("she was old enough to play my daughter").

Practicing shooting and all the other physical aspects to the movie was nothing compared to the hard work put into delving into these real women's lives. A mission Sophie and her crew accomplished brilliantly.