Gary Oldman, oscar-nominated for his performance in the spy thriller ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ reveals, “The title of the story is taken from the name of a nursery rhyme: ‘Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief.’ Some of these are used to refer to the high-ranking men under suspicion. Just about everyone and everything has got a code name.”

Screenwriters Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan accordingly retained many of the code names and monikers that John le Carré mapped out in his original novel. To name but a couple, there are the ‘Mothers’ in the typing den and the ‘Scalphunters’ out in the field. Casting the Circus ensemble around Oldman as Smiley “wasn’t that hard,” says producer Robyn Slovo. “We had a great screenplay based on an iconic novel, with a great actor in the lead role. We got our first or second choices at every turn.”

Director Tomas Alfredson adds, “We needed strong actors who could balance each other. I think we achieved that; when you see the Circus conference table with these guys gathered, well, it was like a candy shop for me as the director.” Producer Tim Bevan notes, “We had people coming to the table because these kind of character roles aren’t around so much in films these days. Actors want to play them.”

At the top of the Circus is Smiley’s friend and mentor, known only as Control, played by two-time Academy Award nominee John Hurt. Oldman says, “I’ve admired John’s work since before I became an actor. I loved every minute of being in his company.” Hurt comments, “Control is not an enormous part. In fact, I call it the shortest leading part I’ve ever played. It is one, though, because it’s central and what he knows – or suspects – about the mole gets carried through by Smiley right to the end of the film.”

“Once Control becomes privy to the fact that there is a mole at the top of MI6 – a huge hole in his own outfit – it causes him great agony, because these are the people that he works with and this has been his life’s work.”

Even though Control is close to Smiley, he still counts his friend among the suspects. But in line with the rhyme, the lineup begins with ‘tinker,’ Percy Alleline. Percy is able to wrest oversight of the Circus from Control, as a result of a botched mission – the ripple effect of which is gradually revealed during the course of the film.

Toby Jones, cast as Percy, sees his character as, “to a certain extent, the vehicle for change, in the sense that his own ambition means that he seeks to reform the way that the Circus is organized. But every character in this film is potentially both a pawn and a knight, as it were. So while Percy thinks he’s pushing, he’s also being pulled.

“Percy lacks respect for the way in which things have been done previously at the Circus. He is that dangerous reforming spirit who appears to be without caution, and it’s exactly that kind of spirit which can be conditioned and controlled by someone with malevolent intent. His weakness in his desire for power is exactly the kind of weakness that could be exploited.”

The power shift atop the Circus that occurs early in the story benefits the personable Bill Haydon, portrayed by Academy Award winner Colin Firth. Given that Haydon is better-attired than the other senior members of the Circus, he is the ‘tailor’ among the mole suspects. Firth comments, “Haydon wields considerable power in dealing with foreign operations.

He’s very much looked up to by some of the younger members of the organization, with hero worship. They’re subscribing to his self-image; dashing, with a kind of glamour and rather cavalier – for example, he’s the one who rides his bicycle into the office and through the typewriter pool. That’s indicative of the confidence and flair that he operates with…

“But all these characters are extremely lonely. I remember somebody misinterpreting John le Carré’s work as ‘boy’s stuff without any emotion’, and I think that couldn’t be further from the truth. All of these men are highly trained, but their idealism has been bruised. Each of them is vulnerable in some way, and they’re not particularly capable of intimacy. Even when they are, there is betrayal. Through it all, these are men that cannot afford to indulge their emotions.”

The workmanlike Roy Bland, played by Ciarán Hinds, is tagged as ‘soldier’ by Control. Hinds sees Roy as being part of “this cabal who senses opportunity when the power balance suddenly shifts. With Control out, Roy is able to move forward and pursue his ideas more aggressively. He’s direct, but he’s also learned to play games.

“His colleagues are not aristocratic; I’d say they’re middle-class or probably upperclass. Roy comes from a sort of working-class home. He’s well-read and was able to get into a ‘red-brick’ university. I saw him as being motivated a lot by his father’s ideas of politics, which would have been more radical, more left-wing. This serves him well in terms of making contacts in the Eastern Bloc.”

Several names from the rhyme are not borrowed by Control for the suspects’ IDs, in part to avoid confusion and in part because there are only so many suspects. Oldman opines, “When Smiley discovers that he’s on the list, I think his admiration for Control – which is already high – soars!” The ‘poor man’ label is ascribed to Toby Esterhase, played by David Dencik.

The character “allies himself with Percy Alleline, because he knows Percy’s taking over with Control out,” notes Dencik. “Esterhase seeks out what will be best for himself. He speaks several languages, he came over from Hungary, and he wants so much to integrate into British society.

“The Circus is very segregated; people very much hold information for themselves, or share it with some colleagues but not others. Esterhase likes and respects Smiley, who helped him somewhat to get to where he is today.”

While Esterhase looms in the Circus’ future, Connie Sachs lingers in its past; the lone female Circus player in the story, this former “Queen of Research” is one of the few people Smiley trusts, even though she is permanently out of the spy game by the time his investigation begins.

Kathy Burke, cast as Connie, clarifies, “She’s still a smart cookie who doesn’t miss a trick, and remains very into the Soviets and what they’re up to and what they’re about. She feels particularly close to Smiley, because she sees him as incredibly smart, and loyal. He’s always treated her as an equal.

“Hearing that Control has been ousted devastates her, because she knows that it’s the end of an era. She remembers when everybody was a team, and there was no fear that somebody amongst them could be working for the other side. She wants to remember everybody as they were, and I do think she was in love with a colleague at some point.” Connie is a particular favorite of many who have read le Carré’s book.

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The majority of Academy Award nominee ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ unfolds as Gary Oldman’s George Smiley makes his moves in and around London; in addition to U.K. location shooting, Inglis Barracks in Mill Hill, North London was a mini-studio, dressed for the interiors of ‘the Circus’ offices and other interiors as well.

The field activities for the characters Jim Prideaux and Ricki Tarr were filmed in Budapest, Hungary, and Istanbul, Turkey – where Ricki falls in love with the unhappily married Irina. Producer Robyn Slovo remarks, “This isolated some of our actors from the main ensemble – at least temporarily. Mark Strong played out Jim’s mission over four days of location filming in Budapest; it’s a major set piece.”

Strong marvels, “Working in Budapest, you had instant access to the gray, concrete world of the story. There’s a lot over there that dates back to the 1970s. The opening sequence looks amazing on-screen, and it did while we were over there filming it, too.” Elsewhere, Slovo notes, “Tom Hardy, as Ricki, and Svetlanta Khodchenkova, as Irina, had all their romantic and dramatic scenes opposite each other in Istanbul. We also had Tom for a few days in the U.K. But Gary Oldman never left the U.K., since Smiley does not.”

Oldman points out that, no matter what the location, much of the film’s “tension and atmosphere come to life through [director] Tomas Alfredson’s vision of the movie – and of its editing, soundscape, and music. We would discuss the sense of paranoia and the tightening of the screw.” Alfredson enlisted his ‘Let the Right One In’ cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema to shoot the movie; he notes, “You get good ideas when you’re close to Hoyte. He’s like a muse in that way.

“We have a constant dialogue about imagery, but we try to avoid referencing other films – and copying other filmmakers. I’m also not a director who likes a lot of takes, so when we’re on the set everyone is on their toes.” Actor Benedict Cumberbatch feels that the duo’s approach benefited the material enormously, citing their mapping out of “a different sort of geography than what you’d expect. In this film, you’ll rarely see two men talking in a car in profile, like in so much of the spy genre.

All conversations feel exposed, out in the open. There’s a continual tension with the camera angles.” Colin Firth concurs, noting, “Tomas is very good at nuance. In keeping the camera moving from, say, the other side of a piece of glass, you get the sense that this is a world where someone is always looking in. He also is aware that spaces don’t have to be filled up with noise.”

Accordingly, producer Tim Bevan confides that “it was a quiet set – quite like a Coen Brothers set, really; Hoyte and Tomas were very close on the set. But everyone on the cast and crew was focused.”

The director had pre-planned how to visualize the intricate world of the Circus, with its rabbit warren of corridors and staircases. He notes, “The actual MI6 in those days was, as described to me, a closed building in so many ways. Corridors with closed doors; people sitting behind those closed doors. I knew that wouldn’t be very interesting on film…!

“So what we needed to do was to create an interpretation of the functions of the building, the different levels of hierarchy, and make it believable.” The solution? “Taking the audience through a low-tech world, yet also rendering enough mechanical advances to be modern for the time period,” reveals the director.

“On the top floor of the Circus building it is quieter. That’s where the barons sit. We’ve created these soundproof cubes standing in this ‘open’ landscape, where they have their secret meetings. The lower you get in the building, the more crowded it is, including with the filing. All the way, the windows are blocked.”

Firth muses, “Seeing this technology in its raw form has a beauty to it, an aesthetic appeal; the recording devices that have spools, for instance. What you see is the human application that was required to record voices, to reproduce documents, to photograph things.” Slovo says, “Beginning in development and pre-production and then certainly on any given day of the shoot, here was a film which was looking and feeling like it was being made in the 1970s.”

To that end, Alfredson enlisted production designer Maria Djurkovic. She remembers, “The art department walls got covered from floor to ceiling in references. Tomas is so visually literate; it’s quite extraordinary, and what he likes is generally not the obvious. He is so bold that I was able to push things.

“For example, there is a grim scene in a prison cell. The set dresser and I found this wallpaper which was pink and pale blue squares with little gold flowers. I showed it to Tomas, and he said, ‘I love it!’” Together, Alfredson and Djurkovic outlined what they didn’t want as much as what they did. The monochromatic and saturated palette Djurkovic and her department executed may be distinctive, but her main objective was to create “atmosphere and authenticity.

There were so many details that we got from research, like that everybody had a glass pad on their desk so that the indentation from writing in a notebook could not be revealed. I don’t think I’ve ever had such pleasant feedback from actors on a shoot, and when you hear them speaking in slightly clipped cadences in our settings, hopefully you are straightaway taken back to the 1970s.”

Even so, she cautions that “what we absolutely wanted to avoid were those loud, overt bits of clichéd 1970s-ness that we’ve all seen too much of – the great big wallpaper with brown-and-orange geometric designs. Given this story and its characters, we went for something comparatively low-key and subtle; their conference room is completely lined with acoustic foam, not wallpaper.

“So there is still a certain heightened quality, but it was all about setting the dial to a certain volume – and Jacqueline Durran’s costumes were perfectly in tune, from the first day.”

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The adaptation of John le Carré’s ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, has impressed the critics around the world and is currently set to compete at the Academy Awards next Sunday, February 26. During pre-production, after Peter Morgan had written a draft, Tim Bevan of Working Title Films found that the screenwriter “wasn’t available to keep going with the script, so we went to the team of Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan to write the screenplay adaptation. They worked very closely with Tomas [Alfredson, the director] for almost a year.”

Le Carré offers, “When I read Bridget and Peter’s first draft, it was a piece of dramatic and intellectual architecture that I could admire. I knew I couldn’t do something like that. At that point, I joined their work. It was not the film of the book; it was the film of the film. I think they did it splendidly.

“The greatest compliment all of the filmmakers paid to the book, as far as I’m concerned, was to make their own film from it. I was there as a resource, that’s all; I knew the material very well, and I offered what mental agility I have.”

“Their first draft was so promising,” remembers producer Robyn Slovo. “It helped make the development process very quick, and we started casting the movie by the time there was a third draft.” Staying faithful to the period when it was written and published, the feature unfolds primarily in 1973 (progressing into 1974).

Bevan adds, “The team’s script represented the book, retained the complications of the book, and had integrity at its heart. As a producer, you’re always looking for a compelling story, compelling emotion, and compelling characters. Their script had those elements, and it is very much their script that was shot.”

The script was now in the hands of a director making his first English-language film. Alfredson muses, “I’m unpredictable with my career moves; something comes up and I’ll feel, ‘This is the right thing to do next.’ “This picture is certainly a big step for me. I’ve been doing films and television for almost 30 years, so it was a big change to work in a different language. But everyone was so helpful.”

Particularly so, he says, were the eyes and ears of the female half of the screenwriting team, Bridget O’Connor, who passed away just as filming began and to whom the finished film is dedicated. Alfredson reflects, “Since I wasn’t interested in doing it like the usual thriller, talking with Bridget about her interpretation and having her female eye on it was important. These men had to make use of their feminine sides and abilities. I needed that different perspective, and she helped me get it.”

In his research, Alfredson was fascinated to learn that “there was a lot of homosexuality in this world. At that time in Britain, it was not accepted, and there were spies and agents who could not be open about their sexuality because they could then be blackmailed. So Bridget and Peter were able to delve into this in the adaptation.”

To the director, the story particularly resonates and reverberates with “eternal and dramatic questions of friendship, betrayal, and loyalty. “Also, as we’ve now reached a little distance from the Cold War era, we can look at what happened; were the bad guys truly the bad guys? We should know about our shared history, especially this piece that still echoes today.”

Alfredson muses, “There’s also the factor of, ‘I know something that you don’t know.’ Say that, or hint that, to someone, and you’ve got their attention and are getting into their head.”

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Few writers comprehend the world of espionage as well as John le Carré, the author of over 20 novels. This comes from experience; he is a former member of Britain’s MI5 and MI6, and he worked undercover at the height of the Cold War in the mid-20th Century, which infused his work with an unrivaled credibility.

George Smiley is his most famous character; introduced in 1961 with the publication of the author’s first novel, Call for the Dead, the quiet spy would return in some of le Carré’s most famous works. Among them was what is often regarded as his finest book, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, published in 1974 and acclaimed as a masterpiece of espionage fiction.

The shadow of Smiley, and the shadow world that he lived and worked in, have long loomed large over others’ explorations of the business of espionage. The Berlin Wall ultimately fell, and the Cold War ultimately thawed; in the two decades since, storytellers have endeavored to revisit the years of paranoia and tension with fresh, objective perspectives.

So it was, that when screenwriter Peter Morgan suggested a potential film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tim Bevan, co-chair of Working Title Films, one of the world’s leading film production companies, felt that – to quote Smiley – “now is the time.”

Bevan explains, “20 years on from the Berlin Wall coming down, it’s a very different world, and I felt that doing a film about the Cold War with the benefit of hindsight would be quite an interesting idea, particularly when I saw [the Oscar-winning foreign film] ‘The Lives of Others’. I thought, why not make an English-language thriller on the topic, entailing who the enemy was then, and what the context was.

“Once Peter mentioned the book, I well remembered it as John le Carré’s seminal work and the definitive Cold War story. So I approached him personally.” The author took to the idea. “He was quite enthused,” notes Bevan, who promptly began prepping the feature with his Working Title co-chair Eric Fellner and then recruited producer Robyn Slovo, who had teamed with company before. “The book had been very successfully adapted for television [as a 1979 U.K. miniseries] with Sir Alec Guinness playing Smiley.

That was a highly esteemed production, and it was therefore quite brave of le Carré to give us his blessing. It had been a long time since the miniseries, and we were setting out to make it for a contemporary audience. “I also think he realized that he could open himself up to a whole new audience – certainly, a younger one. The appreciation and acknowledgment of his work is increasing.”

Le Carré remarks, “I make my living and my reputation out of writing books – that’s where my heart is. But the vast majority of the public doesn’t read. Therefore, if they have access to the story through another medium, I’m delighted. If it inspires them to go and get the book, I’m doubly delighted.

“It’s a huge thrill to get together with very creative people and watch from the outside as they work in a different medium.” Working Title has long worked with authors, “treating them with an enormous amount of respect,” reminds Bevan. “We’ve adapted a number of books into movies over the years.”

When le Carré accepted Working Title’s proposal, he insisted that the filmmakers should not remain slavishly loyal to the book. Bevan remembers, “He said he wanted us to make it as a period movie, but that we must reinterpret it.” Le Carré reflects, “With Alec Guinness and a wonderful crowd of British treasures from the National Theatre, the television version was made, in a curious way, as a love story to a fading British establishment. It was done with great nostalgia; even the smallest, nastiest characters, were in some way huggable.

“The Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy that has now been made today is without sentiment, sexier, grittier, and crueller; it had to be.” The author adds that he believes that people continue to relate to the story because it is “not so far from corporate life, from the ordinary world. At the time of writing the novel, I thought that there was a universality that I could exploit.

The book definitely resonated with the public; people wanted to see their lives in terms of conspiracy, and that remains central to the relationship between man and the institutions he creates. “I wanted to make a secret world accessible; these are still ordinary people going about their personal and professional lives.”

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The season of the golden statue is upon us, and the heat is increasing in the top categories. Where is the wind blowing this year? One of the most coveted awards, along with the Leading Actress trophy, is that of Best Male Lead.

This year, the battle is between experienced and seasoned performances, all around age 40 and up. At the same time, there are many first-timers, despite their years in the business, with only one of the nominated already having an Oscar to show for it. Nothing is certain until Sunday, February 26, live from Hollywood, but here are the predictions.

Demián Bichir for ‘A Better Life’

American audiences primarily know 48-year-old Demián Bichir from the TV series, Weeds, and as Fidel in Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Che’. However, Bichir is a huge name back in his native Mexico, part of a family of celebrated actors, and his presence on this year’s nomination list will be his first. In Chris Weitz’s A Better Life, he plays the gardener, Carlos, who has worked hard to make a life for himself and his estranged son in the States. When his truck is stolen, father and son, albeit virtually strangers, set out to recover it in hopes of a better life.

There were reports of confusion when Bichir’s name was read among the nominees as some believed the choice was made at the expense of the highly acclaimed ‘Shame’s Michael Fassbender. While Weitz’s film was celebrated, it was not widely watched. However, the nod to Bichir is the only one for the movie, and despite the initial surprise, or maybe because of it, it seems unlikely that he will take home the award.

George Clooney for ‘The Descendants’

Already a groomed candidate with seven nominations in his pocket and a win in the Supporting category for ‘Syriana’ in 2006, 50-year-old George Clooney has placed himself firmly in the front. Unlike Bichir, Clooney is ‘Hollywood royalty’, and the story goes that a bet was made between him and fellow Tinsel royal, Brad Pitt, that if one of them got the nomination this year, the other would perform a favor.

Clooney’s was to spend the day with Brad and his partner Angelina Jolie’s pack of kids – which he allegedly loathes. With that deal already sealed, the question is if ‘The George’ will up the ante by making an actor’s Oscar hat trick – winning both Leading and Supporting Actor; something only five other actors have done before him.

Is the part worth it? Many great things have been said about The Descendants, and it is no wonder; the adapted screenplay hit a chord with critics and movie-goers alike, and Clooney’s character, Matt King, is relatable as he struggles to keep the pieces of his reality together. Already winning the Golden Globes this year is a huge plus, which tempts us to believe that the night will be Clooney’s time to shine.

Jean Dujardin for ‘The Artist’

At the tender age of 39, Jean Dujardin is not well-known in the States. Dujardin is funnily enough referred to as the French George Clooney, and the liking is merited after an evening spent in the company of The Artist - the smile says it all!

The Artist, in itself, is an incredible achievement that has reaped rave reviews around the world, with the exception of some disgruntled movie goers on the British Isles, and much of the magic is thanks to Dujardin’s charming, yet heartbreaking performance as the silent movie star, George Valentin, who fades into obscurity as the ‘talkies’ take over.

Not only is his performance a delight, but an immense amount of respect and awe goes into the challenge of performing ‘old school’; the whole cast had to abandon their experience to embrace a performance style of the past. A dark horse in the race, but a secret favorite of this reporter. Will the French finally get a leading man on the podium?

Gary Oldman for ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’

While younger generations connect Gary Oldman with good and helpful franchise characters (Harry Potter, Nolan’s Batman), most of the mature viewers know that Oldman earned his badges as the ‘bad boy’ and other villainous characters. Evidently, the tide has turned for the 53-year-old native Englishman who embodied the anti-Bond character of George Smiley in the adapted espionage drama, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, to such taste that the Academy nod was inevitable.

Even though Oldman has been around for years and is the eldest of this year’s nominees, it is the first time he has been nominated for an Oscar. Sadly, the predictions are that the honorary inclusion in the ranks of the Academy is the only thing he will be getting next Sunday.

Brad Pitt for ‘Moneyball’

So far, Brad Pitt’s career at the Academy Awards has been scattered and less eventful than you would have thought, considering his status in Hollywood. When he made the bet with George Clooney, his odds were statistically lower – curiously amusing to consider now that Moneyball is the movie that got him the nomination.

The role of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics who takes a chance on a numbers game in order to win the League, is a powerful tale of grandeur against the odds. It has been awhile since baseball filled the main plot line of a big-name movie, and critics have applauded the production team for reigniting the on-screen excitement for the game.

Some hint that the fuss over ‘The George’ might blindside observers and allow the 48-year-old father-of-six to channel his character’s underdog qualities, but as it stands, Pitt will enjoy the show and settle for the party.

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“When I first met John le Carré, he was very clear about his wishes regarding the film version of his novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” says the movie’s director Tomas Alfredson in a statement. “‘Please don’t shoot the book or remake the TV miniseries. They already exist. I’m not going to interfere, but you can call me any time if there is anything you wonder about.’

I think we have obeyed him to the letter. Of course, you cannot encompass every detail in a book of 349 pages at the movies. But you can take themes and strands and moments, and try to describe what you see. With ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, I think we’ve made a film about loyalty and ideals, values that are extremely relevant – perhaps mostly because they are so rare these days?”

This statement was made in August last year, and since then, the classic bestselling novel by John le Carré has made it to this year’s list of Oscar nominees. The thriller is directed by Tomas Alfredson (‘Let the Right One In’) and the screenplay adaptation is by the writing team of Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan.

The time is 1973. The Cold War of the mid-20th Century continues to damage international relations. Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), a.k.a. MI6 and code-named the Circus, is striving to keep pace with other countries’ espionage efforts and to keep the U.K. secure. The head of the Circus, known as Control (John Hurt), personally sends dedicated operative Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) into Hungary. But Jim’s mission goes bloodily awry, and Control is forced out of the Circus – as is his top lieutenant, George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a career spy with razor-sharp senses.

Estranged from his absent wife Ann, Smiley is soon called in to see undersecretary Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney); he is to be rehired in secret at the government’s behest, as there is a gnawing fear that the Circus has long been compromised by a double agent, or mole, working for the Soviets and jeopardizing England. Supported by younger agent Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), Smiley parses Circus activities past and present.

In trying to track and identify the mole, Smiley is haunted by his decades-earlier interaction with the shadowy Russian spy master Karla. The mole’s trail remains cold until maverick field agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) unexpectedly contacts Lacon. While undercover in Turkey, Ricki has fallen for a betrayed married woman, Irina (Svetlana Khodchenkova), who claims to possess crucial intelligence. Separately, Smiley learns that Control narrowed down the list of mole suspects to five men.

They are the ambitious Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), whom he had code-named Tinker; suavely confident Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), dubbed Tailor; stalwart Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), called Soldier; officious Toby Esterhase (David Dencik), dubbed Poor Man; and – Smiley himself.

Even before the startling truth is revealed, the emotional and physical tolls on the players enmeshed in the deadly international spy game will escalate. . .

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The gritty spy thriller ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ will be represented at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony in the categories Original Score, Adapted Screenplay and Best Leading Actor.

The narrative of the film centers on George Smiley; fresh from his unwanted retirement, he uses all his accrued skills and knowledge to unearth a Russian mole who has burrowed deep within MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service establishment known in the story as the Circus. “The story, at its core, is a whodunit,” says Tim Bevan of Working Title Films. “Who is the double agent? But that core spirals into helixes, and the story moves through a couple of different periods of time.

Make it too simple, and you under-represent the story’s complexities. But make it too complicated, and you distance everybody. It’s been a real balancing act. “What’s as relevant now as it was thirty-odd years ago, and will be in a hundred years’ time, is how people betray one another’s trust.”

Author John Le Carré offers, “For me, this secret world was also a metaphor for the larger world in which we all live; we deceive one another, we deceive ourselves, we make up little stories, and we act life rather than live it.” Producer Robyn Slovo adds, “With its themes of deceit and betrayal, and honesty and dishonesty, this is a story about people looking into other people’s lives – while not being honest about their own lives. I feel that it’s a universal story.”

Finding a direction

While considering directors for the movie, Tim Bevan fielded a phone call from Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish filmmaker who had caught the world film community’s attention with his striking and empathetic feature ‘Let the Right One In’. Alfredson had heard that Working Title would be making ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, and so he initiated contact. A meeting was arranged. Bevan remembers, “I was expecting some trendy young Swede to come through the door. But this very big man, about my age, came in and he was quite quiet.

“I asked for his take on the material. He said, ‘Well, I think that all of the musclebound guys, they go and they join the army. And the nerds, they are the spies.’ I thought, ‘Now, there’s an angle…’”

Robyn Slovo notes, “Here is a group of men who, on the one hand, are united in their place of work, and on the other are all separate individuals who harbor separate secrets – and are all looking and watching each other. We’re spying on a spy world. This would naturally appeal to a very visually-driven director, but there would have to be a feel for the story as well.”

Bevan adds, “We were looking for a directorial vision from a confident filmmaker to firmly guide the audience through the narrative of this complex story. Tomas was a bit of an unlikely candidate, but le Carré saw Let the Right One In and said, ‘Go with him.’

“The thing about period films is that the only thing ‘period’ about them should be the look. This allows for the viewer to have more of an emotional response. The director must create a world to journey through with the audience. These approaches characterized Tomas’ work on Let the Right One In, and now would again on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”

Slovo notes, “Tomas is Swedish and this is an English story, so that brings an objective perspective; we don’t go down the path of the overly familiar take.” Certainly for le Carré, who had worked with Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles on the successful film version of ‘The Constant Gardener’, having a foreign filmmaker at the helm was a plus.

The author says, “As on The Constant Gardener, I thought that what we would lose in parochial Englishness we would gain in internationalism and universality. Many of the structures of British society are replicated all over the world. I think Tomas as a filmmaker brings amazing originality, and very strong onscreen ‘handwriting.’”

Alfredson remembered the 1979 miniseries, which he had watched growing up in Sweden. He recalls, “When it aired, streets were empty; everybody was watching it. The story concerned something going on that was involving and affecting the whole world, but it had nothing of the 007 style about it — it was quite different from that, almost everyday, which made it extremely interesting.” The director’s subsequent research into the era only intrigued him all the more.

He elaborates, “What many people don’t now realize is that, as a spy, you did your assignment and that was all you knew. It could be, working in a shop in Vienna for a year and writing down who goes in and who goes out of a door on the other side of the street; to do that, you would have had to learn German for months prior.

“Then you would get back and never know what it meant, but you had served your country. All you could say to family and friends was that you had been on a business trip. If you’re in such an existence too long, you can fall prey to lies and paranoia. What does it do to your morale?”

The director concedes that because le Carré’s novel “is such a cornerstone of British literature”, he did feel some pressure in taking on the assignment. “It’s scary to handle material of this magnitude,” he admits. “But you have to put that aside. If you are daring to do the job, you need to have strong connections to the material.

I suppose I understand George Smiley’s soul in some way. When I first met John le Carré, there was a very strong personal connection. It felt like I understood what he was expecting from a film, and I was very surprised that was so generous and open.

Not only in terms of sharing information and details with us for hours at a time, but also in terms of how he said, ‘Make interesting reflections of yourself.’ So I set out to try to make the images I saw in the book, and the humanity of the characters, come to the screen.”

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While John le Carré has always maintained that the spy worlds he creates are far removed from the one in which he lived, the life experiences backing his work comes through especially strongly in the character portraits. The Oscar-nominated ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ is no exception. In George Smiley, he forged an especially detailed one.

Although the late Sir Alec Guinness is most memorably associated with the part, le Carré reminds that there have been several other George Smileys. “James Mason played him,” reveals the author; the character, however, was renamed for ‘The Deadly Affair’, itself the retitled 1967 movie version of the author’s Call for the Dead.

Aside from Guinness, Smiley by name has been portrayed as a lead character by Denholm Elliott, and in cameos by Rupert Davies and Arthur Lowe. On radio, Simon Russell Beale, George Cole, Bernard Hepton, and Peter Vaughan have all starred as him.

For Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Gary Oldman took on the challenge of starring in a feature film as one of fiction’s most iconic spies. Tim Bevan of Working Title films sees Smiley as “a quiet guy who disappears into the woodwork of a room, watches and listens very carefully. He has a hard core to him, but doesn’t need to go chasing or shooting people to make his point.”

Director Tomas Alfredson recalls the character description of Smiley as “‘the perfect spy.’ He is someone you would immediately forget if you saw him on the street. He never expresses anything, never gives away what he’s thinking. He asks questions and gets his answers. So, you might think he’s not a very cinematic character – but he is!”

To prove that point, an actor who is thoroughly compelling even when “not doing very much,” as Bevan says, was essential to the film. The producer remarks, “Gary Oldman can clean his glasses and it’s as electrifying as somebody else punching someone out. “Of his generation, he is probably the finest; Gary is held in very high esteem by his peers.”

Alfredson adds, “When Gary was suggested for the role, the reaction was, ‘Perfect!’ Just look at this actor’s career, and how many different characters he’s played. Gary has all the star quality, yet he is also a chameleon; he doesn’t have this voice that you would recognize through a wall. “Gary tells us so much about Smiley through even the smallest expressions. When he raises his voice even a little, the effect is enormous. It’s a very vulnerable approach, for an actor to work with such subtlety. It’s been fantastic to see.”

Le Carré, who counted Guinness as a firm friend, notes, “I identified with Alec in one way, but with Gary in a completely different one. They’re different beasts in different products. What you feel with Gary is that he has an extraordinary command of himself as an actor; he steps right outside himself.

“With Gary you share Smiley’s pain, share the danger of life, the danger of being who he is. That is much more acute. His is a tougher Smiley. He radiates the man’s solitude, and conveys a little cruelty. I’m hypnotized by his performance.”

Oldman says, “I was very flattered to be asked to play George – just to be involved, really. Smiley is drawn from a world of John le Carré’s personal experience; all of his complex characters are so fully realized. Britain has a long espionage tradition, and I’d say we’ve spied quite well. But we have also held a rather romantic view of it, and le Carré showed the reality. I hope this movie will encourage people to discover his books.

“George Smiley is a delicious character, and a wonderful role for an actor. He is many things at once; mild-mannered, sagacious, and perspicacious. He is a student of espionage, and a great manipulator of bureaucracy who works on his wits. Smiley has a prodigious memory, like a steel trap. He has an innate sense of the foibles, the weaknesses, and the fallibilities of the human condition. He possesses a strong moral sense, even though he recognizes and understands the dark, unethical, and ugly side of what he does.”

As in the novel, Oldman’s Smiley is haunted by a quiet melancholy, born not only of his job, but also of his personal life. Oldman remarks, “One of the reviews for the book, I think it was in The Spectator, said that ‘Smiley is a great spy but an inadequate man.’ For his name to be Smiley – John le Carré is brilliant at coming up with names.

Le Carré describes Smiley as a rather short guy, unattractive, overweight; yet he told me, ‘It’s yours now. Make it what you will.’” In speaking at length with the author, Oldman also “took a few little things from watching le Carré – which I think Alec Guinness may have done as well! I also ate a lot – custard, treacle sponge…I put on a bit of weight, a paunch.”

After having briefly met with Alfredson early on to compare notes on the material and the character, Oldman conferred with him regularly during pre-production. The director remarks, “We would have discussions about Smiley’s silhouette, about if he were wearing a watch. We decided that he doesn’t wear cufflinks, because that would express something.”

In becoming Smiley from head to toe, Oldman started at the top; disdaining a wig, the actor’s own hair was bleached and highlights were weaved in. Silver rinses over the top were then added. Oldman, Alfredson, and costume designer Jacqueline Durran conferred over just which would be the right pair of glasses for Smiley to wear throughout. Ultimately, Durran remembers, “Gary went and found this pair and brought them back to us in England.

Tomas loved them, so they became Smiley’s. We had to have them duplicated in case something happened to the main set.” Alfredson confides, “Gary is open to ideas, but works very intuitively; he will say when something doesn’t feel right. He is always prepared, so sometimes it felt like Gary was getting into Smiley all the time, and it was mind-blowing to see him at work.”

Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays opposite Oldman as Smiley’s Circus colleague Peter Guillam, found him to be “so inclusive to other actors. There’s nothing precious about what Gary does. “But we were doing this one scene, where Smiley is recalling a past encounter, and it became a very thin line for me not to fall over; Guillam is enthralled, and I was mesmerized! Gary was completely inhabiting Smiley.”

Oldman reflects, “I’ve played many an extroverted character, so I loved portraying someone so still, so quiet. Smiley doesn’t act out. In Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, he’s part of a high-stakes chess game, one where everyone is intently watching how – or, if – another person is going to move.”

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The nominations for the 2012 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Film Awards have been announced, and French silent film The Artist leads the field with twelve nominations including one for Best Film.

BAFTA’s announcement of the nominees comes just days after The Artist and The Descendants swept the board at the 69^th Annual Golden Globes Awards, and it seems likely that both films will experience similar success at Britain’s equivalent to the Academy Awards.

The two aforementioned films will go head-to-head in the categories of Best Film and Best Leading Actor (for Jean Dujardin and George Clooney), while their screenplays will each compete in the Original and Adapted Screenplay categories, respectively.

Other Golden Globes winners are included in this year’s nominations, namely: The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn for Best Animated Film; Meryl Streep for her leading role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady; and Octavia Spencer for Supporting Actress in The Help.

Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese, has been nominated for his directorial job with Hugo and will also be the recipient of this year’s BAFTA Fellowship, placing him in such Academy ranks as, Sir Charles Chaplin, Steven Spielberg, Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Dame Judi Dench – all of whom have received the Fellowship since Alfred Hitchcock’s special recognition in 1971 for “outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image. It is the highest honour the Academy bestows”.

Unsurprisingly, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the conclusion to the most successful film series in box office history and one which helped elevate the British Film Industry during the 2000s, failed to pick up any nominations for its acting, directing or screenplay; however, it did earn a place on the shortlist for Best Make Up & Hair, Sound and Special Visual Effects.

The Harry Potter film series has had mixed success during awards season in the past, but it was thought that a last-minute promotional push from Warner Bros. might help Deathly Hallows Part 2 achieve some recognition from the major award voters this season.

Nevertheless, the BAFTA voters have acknowledged one British cinema hit: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of the 1974 espionage thriller novel of the same name. Cast member Gary Oldman has been nominated for Best Leading Actor, while the film itself will vie for: Best Film, Best British Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Music, among several others.

The awards will be held on Sunday February 12 at London’s Royal Opera house, airing on BBC One, and will be hosted by Stephen Fry for the first time since 2006.

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The full list of nominees for the 2012 Irish Film and Television Awards have been announced, with old favourites and emerging talents comprising this year’s selected actors, writers and other creative talents.

The 9th Annual Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA), sponsored by Irish Film Board and RTÉ, will take place on Saturday February 11 at the Convention Centre in Dublin and will bring together the best in film and television that Ireland has to offer, as well as numerous international stars who will be competing in a handful of categories dedicated exclusively to honouring those from other countries around the globe.

Two-time IFTA winner Ciarán Hinds is back in competition thanks to his strong performances in ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’, which has already received multiple recognitions from other award bodies, and ‘The Debt’ in which he co-starred with Dame Helen Mirren. Hinds has been nominated in the fields of Best Actor in a Lead Role and Best Actor in a Supporting Role, respectively.

Brendan Gleeson is another Irish actor who has received double-recognition from the IFTA voters this year, as his roles in ‘The Guard’ and ‘Albert Nobbs’ earn him lead and supporting nominations as well, respectively. ’Albert Nobbs’ leads the field alongside ‘The Guard’ with each film receiving nine nominations apiece.

Gleeson’s co-stars in ‘Albert Nobbs’, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Brenda Fricker, are both nominated in the category of Best Actress in a Supporting Role, while the film itself has received acknowledgement in the Best Film, Best Script, Best Make-up & Hair, Best Original Score and Best Sound categories. American actress Glenn Close rounds off the film’s successful IFTA reception as she earned a spot in the Best International Actress.

Aine Moriarty, CEO of the Academy, released the following statement regarding this year’s festivities:

“The Irish Film & Television Awards is Ireland’s showcase to the world of what our small but outstanding film and television community has to offer: excellent and challenging feature films and dramas; entertaining television and engaging factual content. The Irish industry consistently delivers world-class standards of work that is watched by a global audience.

Ireland’s economic struggles have been well documented, but against this pressure it’s heartening to see how Ireland’s hard-working creative community continues to punch above its weight and really deliver.”

The Academy’s shortlist for the Best Film category would appear to be reflective of their endeavour to ‘showcase’ the best in Ireland’s original content, with the four nominated titles covering such topics as cross-dressing (‘Albert Nobbs’) and sociopaths (‘Charlie Casanova’), while delving into black comedy (‘The Guard’) and questions of religious faith (‘Stella Days’).

The final choices for Best International Actress are also of note considering the pairing of Kristen Wiig – for her role in ‘Bridesmaids’ – with Glenn Close, Meryl Streep and Tilda Swinton, each of whom represents a film with a much greater sense of gravitas (‘Albert Nobbs’, ‘The Iron Lady’ and ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’, respectively).

HBO’s fantasy series ‘Game of Thrones’ and Showtime historical drama ‘The Borgias’ were among those honoured in IFTA’s main television categories. The awards will be hosted by Simon Delaney and will be broadcast live on RTÉ One at 9.30pm on Saturday February 11.

For the full list of this year’s IFTA nominees, click here.

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