Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

[idun]

I went to see this last night.

Gary Oldman, excellent. I enjoyed it and for a 2h7min film it flew for me.

I've read the book too much and some of the casting was 'off' for me, not the acting, just the way I had imagined the people.

Very worst music score I think I have ever heard and I usually love film music.

[cooperlola]

I've read some very good reviews so it's now on the DVDs to buy list.  However, I will find it hard to get Alec Guinness out of my head, I think - mine and Mr C's most-watched DVD!

[idun]

I never saw the mini series, we didn't have a tv then. I have heard it on Radio 4 and that was good, as 'my' faces fit the characters.

'My' problem was with Alleline, Prideaux and Esterhause, their faces didn't fit my imagination at all, and everyone else, may think that they got them just right. I really should stay away from book reading![:-))]

[cooperlola]

[quote user="idun"]

I never saw the mini series, we didn't have a tv then. I have heard it on Radio 4 and that was good, as 'my' faces fit the characters.

'My' problem was with Alleline, Prideaux and Esterhause, their faces didn't fit my imagination at all, and everyone else, may think that they got them just right. I really should stay away from book reading![:-))]

[/quote]There was a thread recently about Tom Cruise being cast as a Lee Childs character.  I've never read him but shortly after the thread was started, I saw him interviewed on the box and he said that he reckoned only about 2% of the readers of any book would ever agree with any casting so really it didn't matter that much.  It's always been the problem with adaptations.  I was disgusted when Colin Firth got cast as Darcy, for example, as I could never -and still never have - get David Rintoul's interpretation out of my head.  I thought he was perfect and still after all these years believe so.  And nobody, not even Olivier, will ever be my  Heathcliffe (imo the sexiest man in literature)!

[idun]

I only ever see a young Ian McShane as Heathcliff and no one else, due to the BBC production in the 60's and I hadn't read the book then.

Mr Darcy, I don't think I have read the book or seen other than bits of it, I cannot remember seeing it all, if I have I don't remember. Jane Austen is an author I never got away with.

 

My current sexiest fictional  man is Johnny Porter and I reckon I am going to be in for a great disappointment as I have just looked the book up, and it is to be made into a film now and I cannot imagine any actor playing the part, not one.

[YCCMB]

I was listening to a review of "Tinker Tailor" on the radio the other day, and the point was made that Gary Oldman has now played both George Smiley and Sid Vicious.

Not, in itself, odd, you may think. But, as the reviewer pointed out, what's quite interesting is that Smiley was/is a character of the 1970's, as was Sid. And two more diametrically opposed people would be hard to find.

I look forward to seeing the film. Years since I read the books or watched the TV series (one of my more useless bits of TV trivia is that Bolton Town Hall and its surrounding municipal buildings serve as the setting for much of the East Berlin stuff) but from all I've heard, it's well worth a trip to the cinema.

[cooperlola]

I swear I had got half way through watching The Contender before I twigged which character GO was playing!  The consommate actor, imo.

Good old Notlob, eh?  My part of the world but I didn't know that.

Guinness's portrait of Smiley still brings my Dad to mind - especially the bit where he's pottering about in his flat developing the negative.

[YCCMB]

Indeed, good old notloB. Mind you, it looks even more like 70's East Berlin now than it did then!! Yes, I was also reading an article about Gary Oldman's various roles in a magazine this month. Another almost "blink and miss it" part in which he was fabulous was as Lee Harvey Oswald in "JFK".

[cooperlola]

He's one of those actors who never actually sends me to a movie but whom I often get to the end of one feeling he was the best thing in it.

[Frecossais]

Don't stop reading, Idun. It's true that many heroes/heroines brought to the screen don't fit our idea of them, but they can't spoil things for us. It's the book you'll remember.

What I really hate is when a book is so changed in its film form it has little or no resemblance to what I've read.

Look at War of the Worlds

The Moonspinners

Can't think of any more for now. 

[idun]

[quote user="Frecossais"]Don't stop reading, Idun. It's true that many heroes/heroines brought to the screen don't fit our idea of them, but they can't spoil things for us. It's the book you'll remember.
What I really hate is when a book is so changed in its film form it has little or no resemblance to what I've read.
Look at War of the Worlds
The Moonspinners
Can't think of any more for now. 
[/quote]

 

It's OK I won't stop reading really and Kolymsky Heights is still one of the most exciting books I have ever read. I couldn't read  fast enough at one point, as the story raced along, and I do read quickly, I felt like I was tripping up all the time and had to go back and force myself to read slower, but it was hard and if that doesn't make sense, well it is very hard to explain.

[YCCMB]

[quote user="Frecossais"]

What I really hate is when a book is so changed in its film form it has little or no resemblance to what I've read.

Look at War of the Worlds

The Moonspinners

Can't think of any more for now. 

[/quote]

Bonfire of the Vanities, Silence of the Lambs......

[Frecossais]

[quote user="idun"]

[quote user="Frecossais"]Don't stop reading, Idun. It's true that many heroes/heroines brought to the screen don't fit our idea of them, but they can't spoil things for us. It's the book you'll remember.

What I really hate is when a book is so changed in its film form it has little or no resemblance to what I've read.

Look at War of the Worlds

The Moonspinners

Can't think of any more for now. 

[/quote]

 

It's OK I won't stop reading really and Kolymsky Heights is still one of the most exciting books I have ever read. I couldn't read  fast enough at one point, as the story raced along, and I do read quickly, I felt like I was tripping up all the time and had to go back and force myself to read slower, but it was hard and if that doesn't make sense, well it is very hard to explain.

[/quote]

I've read some books that grabbed me like that, but I can't make myself slow down. I usually rush through them to find out what happens then read them again at a more leisurely pace just to enjoy the writing.

[idun]

I did that with Little Drummer Girl, got to the end and straight back to the first page. BUT Kolymsky Heights just grabbed me, lifted me off my feet and ran with me, in a reading sort of sense you understand and I was just missing too much to not try and go back.

I have had books that I couldn't put down, so would be making say a bechamel sauce with the book in my hand, doing just about anything with the book in my hand, completely distracted, but not racing along either.

[Frecossais]

Now I have seen the film Tinker, Tailor...... Excellent! Subtle and understated, a distinct change from films where your brain can go to sleep because you are being hammered with the blatantly obvious. I didn't think there was a bad performance, and the tension created as Smiley waited for the Mole to show up was palpable.

As for the music, I think probably I'd say it was unmemorable, but it didn't get in my way at all.

See it if you can.

Idun, who wrote Kolymsky Heights? Don't know it, would like to try.

[idun]

I know, not a bad performance was there, I couldn't believe how fast it went by. I have watched action films and thought that they were going on and on, but that, well I was completely engrossed from the first moment.

 

Lionel Davidson wrote Kolymysky Heights. I thought I had found a new author, but in fact he was not 'new', but an old author. I am not even sure if it is in print, although I daresay if they make a film then it will be again. If you get it, let me know what you think. I have read it a couple of times now, and there are not many books that I re-read.

[Gardener]

The Guardian are running ( this week only) a week of John Le Carre audio books which can be downloaded. The last one is tomorrow.

[cooperlola]

If anybody is interested, Amazon have an offer on the original series and it's under £5 delivered (to the UK).  Smiley's People also.  Both superb imo and well worth that sort of money.

[Frecossais]

Thanks Cooperlola, that sounds like a must-buy.

[cooperlola]

A slight caveat, Frecossais, is that you will certainly notice a quality difference compared with modern DVDs but none of the acting is diminished by time, that's for sure.[:)]