How exciting to receive Will's new screenplay, his first original screenplay since A Waste of Shame / Man To Man in 2005.
Berlin, 1961. It's a sinewy world, where no one can be trusted, and though the plot's complicated, it's set out very lucidly. Dominic Cooper's good as the spy, particularly in moments of action (though occasionally, if I'd been the director, I might have said 'do less' here and there). We like he has friends - Romane Portail (Severine), a former lover, and Seumas Sargent, though can either be trusted? We know his secretary Eliza (Leonie Benesch) definitely can't be, as she's working for the Stasi (or someone) to keep her boyfriend out of trouble (he's a sort of folk rebel). Talking of the latter, I notice that the songs rhyme in German but not in English and I'm wondering if Will wrote them in German - I wouldn't put it past him.
Good writing in that the women have important roles. Good visual writing too. Like the burglar who needs 'no stairs or doors'. Brilliant (and very tangy) ending - the usual Boyd trick of planting fictional characters into a real situation.
Ingenious use of props - camera in book, book of matches.
Johanna Wokalek is the jazz-loving photographer / artist (shades of Sweet Caress). And there's a murder by pen (shades of Restless - not that I'm complaining - it's one of the best bits). With Rupert Vansittart, Adrian Lukis, Ben Münchow, Tonio Arango.
Thomas Franz production design, editor Marcel Peragine.
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| A macabre scene |
A German production shot in the Czech Republic of course.
Via Mala is a real film for a change (it does appear in the stock footage, after all), from 1961, starring Gert Frobe.
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