A leading French director has made a film inspired by a heroine of the French Resistance after reading her life story in The Times.

Jean-Paul Salomé was putting the finishing touches to Arsene Lupin, his swashbuckling film starring Kristin Scott Thomas, when he was struck by an obituary for Lise Villameur, who died at the age of 98.

He recalled: “There was an article I read in The Times one morning [on April 14 2004] when I was working on the post-production of Arsene Lupin.

“It was a full page devoted to Lise Villameur, a French Resistance agent who worked for the SOE, the Special Operations Executive created by Winston Churchill during the Second World War.”

Inspired, he went on to make Female Agents, which opens on June 27, and stars the golden girl of French cinema, Sophie Marceau, the kittenish villainess in the Bond blockbuster The World Is Not Enough.

Its story is loosely based on Villameur, one of the first two women to be parachuted into occupied France. Risking her life aiding the Maquis and the British underground movement in France, she carried wireless material and secret documents, took part in armed attacks on enemy columns, looked after airmen and sought out suitable landing strips and drop zones to receive parachuted containers of weapons.

The SOE commandant who prepared agents for the clandestine life described her as “quite imperturbable”, a woman who could “remain cool and collected in any situation”.

Parachuted into France in 1942, her mission was to establish a safe house in Poitiers for new agents. With typical sang froid, she chose an apartment near the Gestapo HQ. Her cover story was that she was a widow seeking refuge from life in the capital.

With characteristic modesty, she later downplayed her bravery, saying that “what was needed was cold-blooded efficiency for long, weary months rather than any bursts of heroism”.

In his film, Salomé wanted to pay tribute to the role played by women agents. He said: “When the war was over, General de Gaulle accorded little importance to the role women played. Out of more than 1,000 Liberation Crosses that were awarded, only six went to women... It is this slightly macho view of the Resistance that excluded women.”

He added: “Based on true events, true stories and real heroines, Female Agents is a powerful rendition of the challenges that faced female World War II Resistance fighters, who were constantly in the shadow of men and accorded little importance for the roles they played in a violent and horrific war.”

The screen version is only loosely based on Villameur. Marceau’s character is recruited by the SOE and assigned to rescuing a British agent who has fallen into German hands while preparing for D-Day on the Normandy beaches.

Salomé said: “In the film, she’s lost her husband and withdraws into a certain coldness. She is scathing and demanding. She’s a born leader, determined to complete whatever she undertakes to do. Sophie shaped the character in that mould.”

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