Filmfetish Friday: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, 50/50, Carnage

Dec 16, 2011 | by Anouk | Art, Event

About the author

As a freelance journalist, Anouk (26) usually writes about what other people do or like. In her precious spare time she watches arthouse films. Not a few. A lot, thanks to her trusted Cineville pass. Here she can finally share her film-fetish with the world.

To watch or not to watch? I will tour around Amsterdam’s cinemas and answer this crucial question every Friday. Without mercy, of course. Sucky movies will be slaughtered, cinematographic pearls will be appreciated as such. Or the other way around. After all, good taste is in the eye of the beholder.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Forget James Bond, meet George Smiley. Smiley is the leading figure of John le Carre’s espionage thriller novel Call for the Dead. Written in 1961 (the first Bond in 1953), Smiley represents the complete opposite of Bond. No glamour, no slick lines, no exotic women and definitely no Martinis. After a BBC-series in 1979, now director Tomas Alfredson made a film about this classic piece of work. The Swede got international recognition for Let The Right One In, a film about a boy who falls in love with a vampire girl. Hollywood ogled, but Alfredson stayed in Europe. Tinker Tailor is a very British film, unlike the Bond films, with marvellous actors such as Gary Oldman (Smiley), John Hurt, Colin Firth and Toby Jones.

O right, the story! George Smiley has to find a double spy that doesn’t just work for ‘his’ MI6, but also for the Soviets. Excellent espionage thriller material.

Watch this film in Cineville’s Cinecenter, Kriterion and Het Ketelhuis. Also in Pathe (City, Arena and Tuschinski).

50/50

My sister told me she cried during this film, so I was intrigued, because films hardly make me cry. Would 50/50 do the trick? The story seems promising. Nice guy Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets cancer, his best friend Kyle (adorable Seth Rogen) supports him by scoring chicks and driving him to the hospital. It’s all okay at the beginning, “Adam, you will be fine”, but after a while the whole cancer thing gets more serious. Adam could actually die! (How bizarre!) I found the original jokes better than the feeling for drama in this film. I laughed a couple of times, but crying? No. 50/50 is too light hearted for that kind of stuff.

Watch 50/50 in Cineville’s Kriterion. Also in Pathe (City, Arena and De Munt).

Carnage

Okay, I can just say one thing: GO SEE THIS! Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz (the ‘jew hunter’ from Inglorious Bastards) and John C. Reilly prove that acting is a true form of art. Director (and child rape suspect) Roman Polanksi gives them all their time to shine. The story is simple: two couples try to settle a fight between their 11 year old sons. In only 80 minutes they completely lose all sense of common decency. Awesome!

Watch this film in Cineville’s The Movies and Cinecenter. Also in Pathe (City and Tuschinski).