Smith
Short Description –
[SMITH] In his 30s, lean, good looking, shady and dangerous, he's an American CIA agent working undercover to gain the trust of the KGB. He has a long, tension-filled, possibly sexual history with Mireille and seems disappointed that she's engaged to John. A gambling addict with debts in the 100,000 franc range, he uses Mireille as a courier for his dirty business with the Russians. Under everything Smith is a true patriot and will do anything to protect US interests in the dark and shady espionage world. A man used to making hard decisions...
Long Description –
In some ways the simplest of all our characters. Smith is selfish. He wants to win, and have his own way. The fun for us is that the world keeps getting in the way. He’s sexy, charming, amoral and dangerous. He’s also a true patriot and a man who believes that the Commies are a danger. He’s still fighting a war he’s determined to win. Doesn’t mean he can’t have fun on the way, though.
Smith isn’t a Yale educated, Skull and Bones society CIA man. He’s a former Army officer who served in the occupying force after the war and saw action in Korea (something he shares with John Lancaster, though they never met). He knows the horrors all out wars bring, which is why he’s determined to stop it happening again by waging a clandestine intelligence campaign. He moved from Army Intelligence to the CIA. He’s a field man, not averse to getting his hands wet.
He also knows how to have fun. And hell, he’s stationed in fucking Paris. Women come and go, he’s not interested in domestic bliss and if he was, the job precludes it. He’s a shark. Which is why he’s got a thing for Mireille. Takes one to know one and he admires her skills and talents. Smith really wants and needs a woman who will be his equal. But they aren’t too thick on the ground. And even if you find one – they’re about as likely to settle down as you are… Catch 22.
When we meet Smith, he’s enjoying living a cover as a dissolute, gambling, drinking spy. He’s convinced Viktor he’s a double agent, betraying the West. He’s on top of his game and feels like he’s winning. The events of Episode One change all that.
His relationship with Mireille is friendly and full of sexual tension. Her relationship with John bothers him. Smith can’t, or doesn’t want to, believe
they are in love, that Mireille will get out of the life. But he also can’t find an angle to it. A reason to call it false. It looks totally for real. He knows he should be happy for them, but deep down will miss Mireille and their secret life together… Deep down where he never admits to, he’s probably in love with her. We’ll know that way before he does.
Yann
Short Description –
[YANN] In his late 30s, powerfully built, a shaven headed Algerian gangster who speaks French, he's the shark-like owner of the Libertine night club, where anything goes and any kind of high (including sexual) is available for a price. Yann's hooked in all over Paris and was formerly a fighter in the Algerian war. For a gangster he's got a code of honour which means everything to him. Volatile temper. Has a close, long standing partnership with Brigitte.
Long Description –
A fireball of intelligence, intensity and North African macho pride. Yann is a loaded gun always in danger of going off. Brigitte is the leash that holds him. Yet he is more than a thug – he holds the reins of a serious empire, Brigitte in the shadows behind.
Yann made his reputation fighting against the Vichy in North Africa during the war. A soldier of crazed bravery and unmatched savagery. He was determined to see of the Nazis and their sympathisers. After the war he killed the wrong man and had to flee to Paris where he was welcomed into the underworld and given a place by Brigitte. Soon feared and respected. His work for Brigitte became a partnership. The Libertine is their flagship and mask.
Now, via his North African connections, Yann runs the heroin trade in Paris with an iron fist. Much of the profit goes back to his Algerian comrades. Yann is a criminal and a gangster but he detests oppression and the strong overpowering the weak. Anyone in his field is fair game but he has scruples. He doesn’t encroach into other gangs’ endeavors if they leave him to his.
His relationship with Brigitte is deep and complicated. It has never been sexual though he is probably in love with her deep down. They are partners though their views differ on almost everything except making money. But he’d run into a burning building to save her hat if she told him to…
John Lancaster
Short Description
[JOHN PHILIP LANCASTER III] 28, hip, charismatic, and mischievous, a very good-looking American man, he's the son of a famed General, and heir to the
Lancaster Armament Empire. A former war hero, John got screwed up in the Korean war and has a dark past as a junkie. His body is lean, bordering on skinny, and scarred. He still enjoys drink and drugs, but he's also ready to settle down with Mireille as his wife, until his vengeful ex, Alice, takes advantage of him while he's tripping on acid. John has no idea about Mireille's secret identity as the assassin "Noir"
Long Description
Mireille’s ‘love interest’ across the first few episodes. He is the war hero son of a famous American general and industrialist. Of long WASP lineage. His father had plans for him to be the Kennedy of the 70s. Presidential material. The problem for John is the war that made him a hero – Korea – fucked him up badly. And all he can see is world going down the same road again.
So John fled – America, his father, expectations, his nightmares – to Paris and the beginnings of an avant garde counter culture that rejects everything he is meant to stand for. John found solace and refuge in drugs and rink, music and humanity. Sex, sensation, pleasure.
There is an element of self loathing at the heart of this – at one point almost a death wish. Pushing his intake of all those things. Desperate to feel and yet avoid his deepest feelings. He’s the life and soul of a party because he doesn’t want to be alone. He’ll dive into group sex so he doesn’t have to have a one on one. Declaring himself a Libertine at odds with the world means he doesn’t have to connect with it.
The death of a girl in Berlin shook him – he almost died of the same overdose. Smith saved him (and his father) from serious embarrassment and probably prison. The two of them became friends. Initially because Smith had a babysitting brief, and later because they shared things in common. They both went through the same war. John isn’t ashamed. He’s fleeing expectation, the idea of being a hero when he feels like a coward. No one has any expectations of Smith, he deliberately stayed in a world where the things the war taught him are an advantage. And yet he shares the pursuit of intense pleasure – because he knows death can be just round the corner. Both men think “life is too short” but for very different reasons.
This friendship took John to Paris and an introduction to Mireille. He was blown away by this beautiful free spirit with no boundaries and no expectations. Mireille made sure of it. She let John see the damage in her past, allowing him to do the same. And then she didn’t judge him for any of it. She pursued her own pleasure with the same intensity – untroubled by expectations or what others think. She is exactly what he wishes to be. And she loves him right back. He wants to spend the rest of his life with her.
And we join them right after he proposed…
Alice
Short Description –
[ALICE] 24, a stunning, jealous, and catty blonde American woman, "pure '60s sex appeal," not the brightest bulb, she's a model and cokehead who used to date John. She still loves him and can't understand why he chose Mireille over her. Alice takes advantage of John sexually while he's tripping on acid. Alice cares nothing about repercussions and doesn't really think ahead. Everything is about Alice getting what Alice wants...
Long Description –
Is a fly in the ointment. A crazy, sexy, funny one. She’s John’s ex, model and party animal. A forerunner of Anita Pallenberg or Kate Moss. Totally divorced from reality, her looks have been a passport to whatever she wants since the age of 5. Like she says “men having been trying to fuck me since I was ten years old, and I’ve been letting them since I was 13.” She’s someone’s little princess gone totally off the rails.
John is the first person to reject her, making her love him all the more. She is obsessed with getting him back. Therefore, she hates Mireille and isn’t scared to show it. Can’t get why that blonde is any better than her.
Alice is that terrifying animal – someone who cares only about their own desires and will do anything to get them. Meantime she’ll snort every drug and down every drink presented to her. Sexually, she likes to push the envelope, and gets into a thing with Smith that he knows is stupid but can’t resist. All she wants is dirt on Mireille…
