We're going to the movies
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddymanTonight, all being well, we are scooting off early and disappearing off to the new Westfield Centre in Stratford to watch Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. This could be the first time since we left Whetstone there’s been a movie that we have managed to organise ourselves to see. We have intended to go to the movies quite often, but not managed it for one reason or another.
We could have gone to the local cinema in Ilford, but this is an excuse to look at the offerings of the new centre and get a bite to eat, too. We have deliberately left off going to Westfield before to let (hopefully) the initial crowds subside.
I don’t recall ever watching the original TV series of TTSP, though I was certainly aware of it. I have the vague feeling that I didn’t have a TV at the time. Anyway, that’s a good thing, because it means that I can enjoy the movie on its own merits and not get trapped by pointless comparisons between Gary Oldman’s or Alec Guinness’ respective portrayals of George Smiley.
I can’t remember the last time I watched a good old-fashioned British spy movie. I have a horrible suspicion that it might be DVDs of The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin. I’m deliberately excluding the Bourne movies, because good as they were, they were hardly old fashioned spy movies. And Bond has never counted in this context.
Ronin is an excellent movie too, but again I’m not sure that it’s entirely the genre I mean. It has more of the feel of The French Connection (which, in any case, is American and based in America), The Odessa File, or Day of the Jackal (the proper one with Edward Fox) and in any case, each of those is getting a little long in the tooth. There are some splendidly atmospheric French movies with Alain Delon (?), but I think they may be more police investigative offerings.
So: looking forward to it.
We could have gone to the local cinema in Ilford, but this is an excuse to look at the offerings of the new centre and get a bite to eat, too. We have deliberately left off going to Westfield before to let (hopefully) the initial crowds subside.
I don’t recall ever watching the original TV series of TTSP, though I was certainly aware of it. I have the vague feeling that I didn’t have a TV at the time. Anyway, that’s a good thing, because it means that I can enjoy the movie on its own merits and not get trapped by pointless comparisons between Gary Oldman’s or Alec Guinness’ respective portrayals of George Smiley.
I can’t remember the last time I watched a good old-fashioned British spy movie. I have a horrible suspicion that it might be DVDs of The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin. I’m deliberately excluding the Bourne movies, because good as they were, they were hardly old fashioned spy movies. And Bond has never counted in this context.
Ronin is an excellent movie too, but again I’m not sure that it’s entirely the genre I mean. It has more of the feel of The French Connection (which, in any case, is American and based in America), The Odessa File, or Day of the Jackal (the proper one with Edward Fox) and in any case, each of those is getting a little long in the tooth. There are some splendidly atmospheric French movies with Alain Delon (?), but I think they may be more police investigative offerings.
So: looking forward to it.