The first time I saw this, years ago, it struck me as gloomy and dull -- the settings, the photography, the story, the performances. Now it strikes me as gloomy and subtly interesting.
It's moral nihilism at its finest. Everything is underhanded. People are manipulated. Everybody traduces everybody else. They double cross them, triple cross them, frame them for ideological impurity and get them killed. The innocent die with the good and the bad. As Cyril Cusack says to Burton, "We can't afford to be less ruthless than they are, even though we are better." I don't think I'll describe much of the plot. Burton is a British spy who passes himself off as a defector in East Germany in order to save the position of a British mole in East German intelligence. His girl friend, Claire Bloom, a sweet and idealistic member of Britain's Communist Party who wants to end war, is swept up in the complicated story.
On first viewing Burton seems one-dimensional -- morose and embittered. But this time I saw more nuance in his delivery. His glances and over-the-shoulder stares are telling. The voice, of course, is unforgettable. He meets his match in the performance of Oskar Werner and the lilt in his carefully articulated English. Werner is likable, even when his character is stern and demanding. Those big eyes and cherubic mouth. Of Claire Bloom it's enough to say that she's an enthralling actress in her own right and a vulnerable-looking dish with an endearing smile that never really gets to exercise itself in this production. Watch her in "The Man Between" and "Richard III." So it's a great deal better than I'd first thought. When it's over, though, I still feel a little like a Trappist who has finally decided to reconcile himself to the demands of the monastery.
It's moral nihilism at its finest. Everything is underhanded. People are manipulated. Everybody traduces everybody else. They double cross them, triple cross them, frame them for ideological impurity and get them killed. The innocent die with the good and the bad. As Cyril Cusack says to Burton, "We can't afford to be less ruthless than they are, even though we are better." I don't think I'll describe much of the plot. Burton is a British spy who passes himself off as a defector in East Germany in order to save the position of a British mole in East German intelligence. His girl friend, Claire Bloom, a sweet and idealistic member of Britain's Communist Party who wants to end war, is swept up in the complicated story.
On first viewing Burton seems one-dimensional -- morose and embittered. But this time I saw more nuance in his delivery. His glances and over-the-shoulder stares are telling. The voice, of course, is unforgettable. He meets his match in the performance of Oskar Werner and the lilt in his carefully articulated English. Werner is likable, even when his character is stern and demanding. Those big eyes and cherubic mouth. Of Claire Bloom it's enough to say that she's an enthralling actress in her own right and a vulnerable-looking dish with an endearing smile that never really gets to exercise itself in this production. Watch her in "The Man Between" and "Richard III." So it's a great deal better than I'd first thought. When it's over, though, I still feel a little like a Trappist who has finally decided to reconcile himself to the demands of the monastery.