BAFTA Preview: Best Director

The under-appreciated get a chance, but can they stop The Artist and Michel Hazanavicius?

The nominees for Best Director are a fine selection indeed. BAFTA has recognised the cinephile work of both Michel Hazanavicius in The Artist and Martin Scorsese for Hugo, as had everyone else, but they have also picked three of the very best and under-appreciated directors of last year. We have the Best Director from Cannes, Nicolas Winding-Refn for Drive, the meticulous Swede Tomas Alfredson for the masterful Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Anyone of these would be very worthy winners, and the competition is very close to call. BAFTA does not pick its Best Director winners lightly. They often go for exceptional filmmakers whose work is not getting rewarded widely. In recent years, Paul Greengrass won for United 93, Peter Weir won for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and Mike Leigh won for Vera Drake.

Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

An unexpected man is atop cinema's circus


Director: Tomas Alfredson
Screenwriters: Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan, based on the novel by John le Carré
Cast: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds and David Dencik
Plot: A mission is botched in Hungary, and the ruling order of MI:6 is sent packing. However, when it emerges that there is a long-standing and high-ranking mole, one of the retired spies, George Smiley, is brought back to "the circus" to find the traitor.
Running Time: 127m 21s
Certificate: 15 - Contains strong language, sex, violence and bloody injury detail

Cinema has a new number one spy. Grey-haired, myopic and a cuckold, George Smiley is a million miles away from James Bond or Jason Bourne, and whereas they would thrill audiences with car chases and gunfights, Smiley exhilarates by interrogating an empty chair.

The fact is that comparisons between those franchises and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are flawed for so many reasons, but if this film is successful (and it has great potential to be so) it will be a great victory for the sort of intelligence which was merely glimpsed in Casino Royale and entirely absent from Quantum of Solace. With a potential trilogy in the offing, could it be that the multiplexes are about to adore a spy who is “small, podgy, and at best middle-aged”?


Read the rest on The Spectator Arts Blog

Films on TV: Let the Right One In

I’ve just seen that Let the Right One In is on Film 4 tonight. The Swedish vampire film was hugely popular amongst dedicated fans upon its release and remains well thought of.

About as far from Twilight as you’d wish a vampire flick to be, the film focuses on a child who is bullied and pretty miserable who gets a new neighbour: a strange, pale girl who gives him new confidence.