Queen, King, Ace, Spy (2011)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Queen, King, Ace, Spy |
| Original title | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy |
.jpg) | |
| Country of production | United Kingdom , France , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| length | 127 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 14 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Tomas Alfredson |
| script |
Bridget O'Connor , Peter Straughan , John le Carré (novel) |
| production |
Robyn Slovo , Eric Fellner , Tim Bevan |
| music | Alberto Iglesias |
| camera | Hoyte van Hoytema |
| cut | Dino Jonsäter |
| occupation | |
| |
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a British spy film from the year 2011 . The thriller is the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by John le Carré , which tells the story of a mole in the British secret service during the Cold War in London in the 1970s.
action
In the autumn of 1973, the secret agent Jim Prideaux received an unofficial special order from Control , the head of the British secret service , in his private apartment: He was supposed to go to Budapest and meet a Hungarian general there on October 21. He wants to overrun and give him the name of the Soviet mole who sits in the leadership of the Circus (as the secret service is called internally). But the meeting turns out to be a trap and Prideaux is gunned down by a Hungarian agent while trying to escape. Control , known only by this code name , is retired because of this failure and dies soon after after a long illness; together with him, George Smiley , who is considered a confidante of Controls, is released.
Percy Alleline appointed new chief of intelligence, having already previously and his followers Bill Haydon, Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase of control over contact with a high-ranking source from Moscow get picked up and for the responsible for the secret State Secretary Oliver Lacon payments outside the official budget would have. With this connection, known as Operation Witchcraft , these four secure their power and status, because it provides the secret service with exclusive information about the Soviet military, such as the movements of the Soviet Navy in the Black Sea . However, Control and Smiley found the received material suspicious even at the first presentation, and the ongoing costs of the operation are a thorn in Lacon's side.
Over time, however, the information turns out to be of such high quality that Alleline gets permission from the minister to pass it on to the Americans in exchange for access to their findings. But then Lacon gets a call from the young agent Ricki Tarr, who is convinced of a mole in the management level of the secret service. Lacon instructs Smiley to find out whether these allegations can be corroborated, as Control expressed the same suspicion to Lacon shortly before his death - which he then took as an expression of his paranoia.
Smiley, who was abandoned by his wife some time ago, begins the investigation together with Peter Guillam, who is still working for the circus , agent leader Tarrs, and Mendel, who is also retired. In Control's apartment, Guillam and Smiley discover five chess pieces that Control provided with pictures of the suspected moles: They carry photos of Haydon, Bland, Esterhase, Alleline and Smiley himself. Smiley adds Karla , his Soviet opponent in Moscow , to the pieces . He had Guillam procure copies of secret service documents and questioned some people from Control's environment and former employees.
He meets Connie Sachs, who was fired by Alleline after she was convinced by filming that Alexei Polyakov, a Soviet cultural attaché in London, was an agent leader trained by Karla . Smiley also finds a receipt for a payment to a working name Prideaux two months after his death - so Prideaux must still be alive. When he returned to his house, he found Tarr, who was in hiding, and told him how he got the information about the mole: Originally, he was supposed to recruit the Soviet trade delegate Boris in Istanbul in November 1973 , although he was himself a secret agent recognized.
Instead of returning to London as ordered, he approaches his wife Irina after a marital argument. She - also an agent - asks him to contact Control and to start a new life in the West; in return, she could reveal the name of the mole. But when Tarr reported this to the London headquarters on November 20, the latter replied hesitantly. The KGB people in Istanbul react faster, kill the English resident as well as Boris and kidnap Irina to Odessa .
Tarr lays an escape trail to Paris and Smiley instructs Guillam to get the duty officer from last November. He succeeds in doing this with a trick, but he is almost caught and called to the hearing of the head of the secret service, where he is suspected of being a traitor because of Tarr's escape. Tarr is accused of killing the resident in Istanbul and receiving £ 30,000 as a defector. But Guillam insists that he has not had any contact with Tarr since November. Back at Smiley he meets Tarr and accuses him of treason; However, it turns out that the pages of the night in question are missing from the logbook, which substantiates Tarr's account and makes the existence of a mole seem plausible. A flashback shows that Smiley's wife Ann was having an affair with Bill Haydon.
Guillam and Smiley seek out Jerry Westerby, who was released shortly after Connie Sachs and who was on Control's request the night Prideaux was shot . Westerby reports that when he showed up, Bill Haydon told him that he had heard the news of the events in Budapest at his club. Since the news ticker in this club was no longer running at this time, he could only have the information from Smiley's wife Ann, who was called by Westerby and with whom Haydon spent the night during Smiley's stay in Berlin. In addition, Haydon had driven Westerby to Prideaux's apartment that night to clean up traces. Smiley finds Prideaux, who - back in England - works as a teacher under his Hungarian code name "Ellis". Prideaux describes how he got the job from Control in his apartment with the chess pieces and the code designations "Jack, Queen, King, Ace" and how he was severely injured by the Soviets brought to a military hospital and tortured for months after its failure and had to watch how Irina was shot in front of his eyes. Karla , who interrogated him, would have known exactly about Prideaux's mission and just wanted to know how far Control had come with his search. Upon his return to England, Esterhase provided Prideaux with a car and some money for a new life, sworn him to silence and told him to forget Control's “king ace” theory. Smiley now asks himself and Guillam how Esterhase knew about "King As".
Smiley meets with Lacon and the minister and reports on the status of his investigation: Alleline, Haydon and Bland as well as Esterhase met regularly with Polyakov under the code name of Operation Witchcraft in the secret house financed by the minister to give him information. But instead of delivering worthless material to Polyakov, the mole had betrayed real secrets to the KGB. The information leaked to Witchcraft from the Soviet side was authentic, but was deliberately passed on by the Soviets in order to give the infiltrated British secret service a good negotiating position with American colleagues. An exchange of information between the British and US intelligence services was in the Soviet interest, since the Soviets gained access to the US material via the mole.
Esterhase, who is kidnapped by Guillam and Smiley to a remote airport, confirms Smiley the existence of the secret house and the exchange of information, but believes Polyakov is real for a British agent and witchcraft . When Smiley Esterhase threatens to be extradited to Hungary, where he is still on the wanted list, he receives the address of the meeting point from him. Smiley does not tell Tarr that Irina was killed and assures him that he will seek her release. In return, Tarr is supposed to actually go to Paris and send a telex from the resident there to the headquarters, in which he claims to have crucial information for the security of the circus . Alleline, Haydon, Bland and Esterhase then meet in the circus , and Tarr again receives a hesitant answer. Meanwhile, Smiley waits in the witchcraft house and after the session in the circus overhears Polyakov's meeting with the mole, where they are discussing Tarr's elimination, and then confronts her. Bill Haydon, who is brought to Sarratt for interrogation, turns out to be a traitor. Smiley visits him there and learns that Haydon had seduced Ann on instructions from Karla in order to hit the sore spot of a capable agent and tarnish his judgment. Haydon himself also seems to have had a relationship with Prideaux, because shortly before he left for Hungary, Haydon warned Haydon about Control's suspicions - also so as not to endanger his own fate - but thereby sealed it all the more. Haydon, in turn, brought Prideaux back to England from the Soviet torture.
Haydon firmly expects his exchange with Western agents, but Prideaux, who now knows his traitor, shoots him with a rifle from a distance while walking around the court. When Smiley returns to his apartment, Ann is back home. He returns to the secret service as head of the circus .
criticism
“ Queen, King, Ace, Spy sees, hears and feels just right. Alfredson's film conscientiously reproduces the mood of the novel. However, the script by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan is not an example of clarity. I have to admit that [during the movie] I was confused at times and really lost in places. The viewer has to keep many characters, even more events and an almost infinite number of possibilities in mind. "
"This counting rhyme looks like a weightless slow-motion nightmare that takes place in an aquarium that is filled with poison gas instead of water."
“Suggestive film adaptation of a novel by John Le Carré, which consistently deconstructs images of the hero and masculinity of the agent film genre. Against the dreary Cold War scenario, the cunning, labyrinthine and slowly developed film shows an unglamorous world of espionage, in which mistrust and opacity reign and the political and professional subvert even the most private relationships, with ideals and loyalties falling by the wayside. "
“It took five hours to film the 400-page book three decades ago. Tomas Alfredson has condensed it into a good two: In his constant, rapid montage, he moves the present in front of the eye in a close-up perspective, then the film shows scenes from the past again as if in a distance. [...] It is one of the great achievements of this film adaptation that it exposes the traces and wounds that isolation and the obligation to secrecy have left in the characters. All life seems to have escaped behind the masks. Only the masked Lenin has a good laugh. "
"In any case, DAME, KING, AS, SPY generally lack the depth and meaning. Over two decades after the end of the Cold War, antics with the Russians seem amply dated. While le Carré had dealt with his own departure from the secret service at the beginning of the 1960s due to a Russian spy from the Cambridge Five in his novel , the BBC series from 1979 still seemed anchored in current affairs. Certainly Russia does not have to be replaced by China , for example, in Alfredson's film , only the potential and subversive danger is never really tangible. Neither is the urgency of Smiley's investigation. Alfredson seldom manages to captivate the viewer's interest over a longer period of time - and however, hardly a scene (for example the opening scene by Jim Prideaux in Hungary) lasts more than two or three minutes. "
production
development
The project was originally initiated by Peter Morgan , who wrote a first draft of the script and submitted it to the production company Working Title Films . After Morgan stopped working on the script due to an illness in his family, while still serving as executive producer, Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan were hired to rewrite the script. In July 2009 it was announced that the Swedish director Tomas Alfredson would direct his first English-language film. The majority of the $ 21 million financing was provided by the French company StudioCanal .
occupation
The director cast Gary Oldman as George Smiley because he had "a great face" and the "calm intensity and intelligence" needed. Although there were various rumors and casts regarding other roles, Oldman was permanently confirmed as the leading actor. In the meantime, David Thewlis was offered a role. Even Michael Fassbender was offered the role of Ricki Tarr. Since the filming overlapped with that of X-Men: First Decision , Tom Hardy was cast instead . Also, Jared Harris , who at the same time Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows turned, was replaced. Instead, Toby Jones played the character of Percy Alleline. In September 2010 it was announced that Mark Strong would star in the film. In the scene when the hymn of the Soviet Union is being played at the circus Christmas party , John Le Carré has a cameo appearance .
Filming
The film was shot between October 7th and December 22nd, 2010. Blythe House in the London borough of West Kensington served as the backdrop for the circus building , while former army barracks in Mill Hill in North London were used for the studio recordings . The storyline with Jim Prideaux's arrest and torture was moved from Czechoslovakia in the literary original to Hungary in order to use the 20% reimbursement of the production costs of the Hungarian film subsidy (MMKA). The café scene in Budapest was filmed in the Paris courtyard (Párizsi udvar).
Post production
It took six months for the film to be finished. The chanson La Mer , interpreted by Julio Iglesias , served as the film's final song because the film team toyed with the idea that this would be exactly the music that George Smiley would hear when he was alone. Alfredson commented on the election that the song describes everything that "the world of MI6 is not". A scene was also filmed with Smiley listening to this song. However, it was not used in the final cut.
Awards
- a nomination at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Production Design
- one award at the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Adapted Screenplay , as well as two nominations ( Best Actor , Best Editing ).
- Eleven nominations for the British Academy Film Awards 2012 for Best British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay.
- Four nominations for the European Film Prize 2012 , awarded in the categories Best Production Design and Best Editing
At the 2012 Academy Awards , Gary Oldman was nominated for Best Actor and Alberto Iglesias for Best Score. There was also a nomination for the best adapted screenplay.
publication
The film had its world premiere on September 5, 2011 at the Venice International Film Festival . After it was regularly released in cinemas in Great Britain on September 16, 2011 and since then grossed over 80 million US dollars worldwide, it was shown in German cinemas on February 2, 2012.
Trivia
George Smiley is a recurring character from four spy novels by John le Carré . In the film adaptation, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, George Smiley is the officer in charge of British spy Alec Leamas. Alec Guinness plays George Smiley in the multi-part BBC television films Dame, König, As, Spy from 1979 and Agent on his own behalf from 1982 .
The English-language original title is a modification of a counting rhyme:
Tinker, Tailor,
Soldier, Sailor,
Rich Man, Poor Man,
Beggar Man, Thief.
In the German dubbing, these code words are replaced by playing cards as in the translation of the novel. However, their assignment differs in detail. In the film, Control only explains the four playing cards from Ace to Jack and mentions not having assigned any numbers. For Smiley, therefore, only the wild card would remain. In the translation of the novel, Smiley was given the code name "Dame" and Esterhase "Zehner".
literature
- John le Carré: Queen, King, Ace, Spy. Translation by Rolf and Hedda Soellner. Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1974. ISBN 3-455-00819-4 .
Web links
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Queen, King, As, Spy in the German dubbing index
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Official English website
- Official German website
- Expert opinion of the German film and media rating
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for queen, king, ace, spy . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2011 (PDF; test number: 130 925 K).
- ↑ Age identification for queen, king, ace, spy . Youth Media Commission .
- ^ Roger Ebert : Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ( English ) suntimes.com . December 14, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ↑ Peter Bradshaw: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ( English ) guardian.co.uk . September 15, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ↑ Queen, King, As, Spy. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Jörg Schöning: Agent thriller "Lady, King, As, Spy" . Spiegel Online . February 2, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
- ↑ Florian Lieb: "DAME, KÖNIG, AS, SPION" . dasmanifest.com. September 18, 2014. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
- ↑ Christina Radish: Screenwriter Peter Morgan Exclusive Interview HEREAFTER; Plus a TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY Update ( English ) Collider.com. October 14, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ↑ Phil de Semlyen: Tomas Alfredson To Direct Tinker, Tailor ( English ) empireonline.com. July 9, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ↑ Tomas Alfredson to direct Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy ( English ) Screen Daily. July 9, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ^ Louise Tutt: How to tailor a spy classic ( English ) Screen Daily. December 8, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ↑ Peter Hoskin, Simon Mason: Interview - Tomas Alfredson: outside the frame ( English ) The Spectator. October 23, 2010. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
- ↑ James White: Cast Confirmed For Tinker, Tailor ( English ) empireonline.com. July 8, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ^ Matt Goldberg: Tom Hardy Replaces Michael Fassbender in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ( English ) Collider.com. September 3, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ^ Matt Goldberg: Jones Replaces Harris in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ; Hurt, Graham, Lloyd-Pack, Dencik, and Burke Join Cast ( English ) Collider.com. October 22, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ↑ Ethan Anderton: Mark Strong Lands a Role in 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' ( English ) FirstShowing.net. September 17, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ↑ Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ( English ) In: screendaily.com; Registration required . Screen Daily. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ^ Location of the month , filmlondon.org.uk, accessed February 11, 2012.
- ^ Louise Tutt: How to tailor a spy classic (English), screendaily.com of December 8, 2011, accessed on February 11, 2012.
- ^ Louise Tutt: How to tailor a spy classic (English), screendaily.com of December 8, 2011, accessed on February 11, 2012.
- ↑ January Gradvall: Tomas Alfredson Jag avskyr intryck just nu ( Swedish ) di.se . December 3, 2011. Accessed on January 21, 2012: "Julio Iglesisas version of La Mer blir allt som MI6-världen inte är."
- ↑ Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ( English ) boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ↑ see Tinker, Tailor in the English Wikipedia .