Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Country: FR/GB/GER
Technical: col/2.35:1 127m
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, David Dencik, Kathy Burke
Synopsis:
1973: MI6 Control is convinced there is a mole in the section, but is ousted, along with his protégé George Smiley, when an operation to uncover same goes badly wrong. However, Whitehall becomes persuaded that there is a leak, and Smiley is brought back to head an undercover investigation of recent events.
Review:
Suitably sombre filming of a book whose TV adaptation presented for many a definitive version of Smiley's world, and a definitive Smiley. Alfredson was the perfect choice in his skill with mood, pacing and surgical injections of violence, all seen in Let the Right One In. The mise en scène is a wonderfully accurate portrait of the shabby, desultory world through which we moved back then, and evokes a range of movies, including The Ipcress File and The Looking Glass War. Rarely have we seen acting as good as this in the espionage genre, though, and the camerawork, though at times showy (note a pronounced use of telephoto distortion in the airfield sequence) is never allowed to detract from it.
Country: FR/GB/GER
Technical: col/2.35:1 127m
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, David Dencik, Kathy Burke
Synopsis:
1973: MI6 Control is convinced there is a mole in the section, but is ousted, along with his protégé George Smiley, when an operation to uncover same goes badly wrong. However, Whitehall becomes persuaded that there is a leak, and Smiley is brought back to head an undercover investigation of recent events.
Review:
Suitably sombre filming of a book whose TV adaptation presented for many a definitive version of Smiley's world, and a definitive Smiley. Alfredson was the perfect choice in his skill with mood, pacing and surgical injections of violence, all seen in Let the Right One In. The mise en scène is a wonderfully accurate portrait of the shabby, desultory world through which we moved back then, and evokes a range of movies, including The Ipcress File and The Looking Glass War. Rarely have we seen acting as good as this in the espionage genre, though, and the camerawork, though at times showy (note a pronounced use of telephoto distortion in the airfield sequence) is never allowed to detract from it.
Country: FR/GB/GER
Technical: col/2.35:1 127m
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, David Dencik, Kathy Burke
Synopsis:
1973: MI6 Control is convinced there is a mole in the section, but is ousted, along with his protégé George Smiley, when an operation to uncover same goes badly wrong. However, Whitehall becomes persuaded that there is a leak, and Smiley is brought back to head an undercover investigation of recent events.
Review:
Suitably sombre filming of a book whose TV adaptation presented for many a definitive version of Smiley's world, and a definitive Smiley. Alfredson was the perfect choice in his skill with mood, pacing and surgical injections of violence, all seen in Let the Right One In. The mise en scène is a wonderfully accurate portrait of the shabby, desultory world through which we moved back then, and evokes a range of movies, including The Ipcress File and The Looking Glass War. Rarely have we seen acting as good as this in the espionage genre, though, and the camerawork, though at times showy (note a pronounced use of telephoto distortion in the airfield sequence) is never allowed to detract from it.