Curio: Tinker Tailor Condor Spy
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 6:55PM Alexa here. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was one on my favorite movies this year, so I was a bit disappointed this morning at its lack of notice by the Academy for Best Picture. But I wasn't surprised, what with most of the predictions not mentioning it (including Nathaniel's). Perhaps it was too professorial, too quiet, too stodgy for most. Thankfully Gary Oldman got his nomination for managing to seep George Smiley from every pore, and its le Carré-adapted screenplay got notice.
Thinking about it while listening to the nominations I was reminded of another one of my favorite spy-intrique films with a 70s setting, Three Days of the Condor, similarly ignored by the Academy in its time (save for an editing nomination), despite its timely post-Watergate release. Sydney Pollock's film is certainly the sexier of the two, with Redford and Dunaway in their heyday, but one glance at Max Von Sydow's glasses and you know you're in a similar landscape to Tinker Tailor. Here is a cheesy Rona Barrett's Hollywood magazine I bought simply for it's coverage of the film, and its entertaining barely-there tidbits about the filming of this classic, 35+ years ago. Add it to your queue if you haven't seen it.
[Filming of] Condor took place entirely on location in and around New York City...During one exterior scene that called for a winter rain, the co-eds of the nearby Finch College cut classes to gawk at the publicity shy REDFORD and scramble for his discarded paper cups! But ROBERT's presence was felt [also] by the appreciative crew, which got careful instruction from the superstar-ecologist on how to defoliate the plant life used in the scene without harming them.
Co-star MAX VON SYDOW gingerly commuted between Denmark and Manhattan while finishing up [on a] Scandinavian film. FAYE DUNAWAY seemed not only to enjoy doing the film but loved having the chance to love a few weeks in her beloved New York City. She and her husband, PETER WOLF, maintain a Central Park West apartment where married life definitely agrees with them.
Curio, Faye Dunaway, Robert Redford
Reader Comments (5)
Like you, I am disappointed but not altogether surprised. It is gratifying, though, to see Alberto Iglesias be nominated for his understated, but crucial music.
Oh, Faye, wtf happned?!
I do remember it quite well, Alexa, as I saw it on TV at least a couple of times when I was a kid. I liked it very much (still one of my favorite films and political thrillers); I remember it as being tighter than Pollack films can sometimes be, possibly one of his best? I was uncomfortable with the "making love with your captor" theme, which is such a stereotype, but if your captor is Robert Redford in his prime - come on, who wouldn't?
Faye was great in this too - such a prickly presence. I love that she never seemed to go for "likeable"; it would be very hard for an actress to do that now. (Actually La Kidman often plays that, but her box office reflects it. Are audiences less accepting of a wide range of roles for women than they were in the '70's?)
shame about faye!!!
Janice, I couldn't agree more over the usually icky loving-your-captor theme that somehow, in these hands, works. Redford here was at his least wooden. And I always loved Faye's specific type of aloofness, even in tripe like Eyes of Laura Mars. Rooney Mara can dare to dream.