Just watched the first episode of The Little Drummer Girl. Brilliant. Florence Pugh is note-perfect, likewise Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Shannon. 
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Can't believe I hadn't spotted Little Drummer Girl when I started this thread! Recorded (and looked forward to, given the comments on the Television thread)... and to be watched, along with Berlin Station!Originally posted by Stanfordian View Post
Good autumn for espionage junkies
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Episode 1 of the John Le Carré - VERY atmospheric! Certainly looks like a winner in this household.Comment
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Agreed! (Also mentioned on Caliban's thread for spy story junkies)Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View PostJust watched the first episode of The Little Drummer Girl. Brilliant. Florence Pugh is note-perfect, likewise Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Shannon.Comment
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No spoilers
I have nearly always** been disappointed by dramatisations of Le Carré novels - on the strength of the first episode, this looks like being an exception. It is leaping off the page. The big screen version was a disaster - directed by George Roy Hill, who by then was in the early stages of Parkinson's and who never spoke without using the "f" word, it was at least notable for containing Le Carré's first cameo role, created hastily to fill a hole in the script at rough cut stage. The character of Charlie was closely based on Le Carré's half sister Charlotte Cornwell, at that stage a successful stage actress with the RSC who moved in Workers Revolutionary Party circles with the Redgraves, plus the odd TV part (anyone remember her in "Rock Follies" in 1976, with Julie Covington and Rula Lenska?). JLC, who was (is) close to his sister, talked to her at length about the life she led after watching her play Beatrice in a touring RSC production of Much Ado in Cornwall, rain drumming on the corrugated iron roof of the community hall where they were playing. The character Charlie's backstory is close to Charlotte's own (in the book, that emerges in one of Le Carré's signature set-piece interview scenes, which should be in episode 2). Le Carré wanted Charlotte to play, in effect herself, but she was not considered enough of a draw and, utterly bizarrely, and Hollywood being what it is, the part went to Diane Keaton. Some time later, the director said to Le Carré "David, I f***ed up your movie".
(**Other exceptions - the Alec Guinness TTSP and Smiley's People, The Constant Gardener.)Last edited by Guest; 29-10-18, 08:37.Comment
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I felt there wa something odd about this film. I wonder - cannot be sure - whether 1979 wasn't quite accurately portrayed. Did young women wear sunglasses on the top of their head then? Was 'you guys' in use then in Britain? I don't mean to nit-pick (although I am) - just trying to understand my mild unease with this episode.Comment
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It all seemed pretty hammy to me - yes, young women did wear their shades on top of their heads, which i can remember for as long as I have been alive - but in other respects 1979 was unrecogniseable, so I think I'll be giving the rest of the series a miss.Originally posted by kernelbogey View PostComment
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'Guys' - non gender specific - was certainly in at the end of the 70s. I definitely remember noticing it c. 1978, so probably quite a new arrivalOriginally posted by kernelbogey View Post
[Here ends my contribution to thread 
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It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Didn't Audrey Hepburn wear sunglasses on the top of her head in 'How to steal a million' circa 1965?Comment
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Originally posted by pastoralguy View Post
Parodied by a Hepburn "lookalike" in a fairly recent particularly naff TV ad for some product - I never bothered to find out what.Comment
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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Four eyes a jolly good fellow.Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View PostShe wasn't the only one:
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... and six are better than four:Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View PostFour eyes a jolly good fellow.
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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I'm glad we've got those issues sorted. With regard to S_A's point, I suppose, apart from the clothes, the cars, the hair (eg the girl bomber), the banks of pre-digital surveillance equipment and cameras.....
I'm looking forward to hearing what fellow JLC buff Petrushka makes of it all, if indeed you can be bothered with it, Pet
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Galaxy chocolateOriginally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
Parodied by a Hepburn "lookalike" in a fairly recent particularly naff TV ad for some product - I never bothered to find out what.Comment
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