John le Carré: Der Taubentunnel

Maybe it's me, but having tried and failed to watch this through TWICE, let me just say this emperor is buck naked. The magic of Errol Morris's early documentaries seems to have faded into an overly dramatic, pretentious, and stylized flow of irrelevant images and superfluous rambling -- and John Le Carré is the perfect subject for this treatment, endlessly tooting his own horn and holding forth in pompous windbag mode for what seemed like an eternity. Plus, there is really nothing new here, no revelations. Le Carré has been interviewed ad nauseum over the years, and regaled us with tales of his con man father and super spy exploits. In fact, his tales of British spies and Communist moles have been told in other far more insightful documentaries. I suppose if you are a super fan of Le Carré's books, it might be nice to view his final interview, but despite the glowing reviews, I think many will find this a boring and repetitious rehash of very familiar narratives.

As "The Pigeon Tunnel" (2023 release; 93 min) opens, Le Carre and the film's director Errol Morris are discussing the making of this film (supposedly the last interview LeCarre ever gave). LeCarre (real name: David Cornwell) then reflects on his upbringing, which he admits was anything but easy. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary...

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from Oscar-winning director Errol Morris ("The Fog of War"). Here he reassesses Cornwell/Le Carre's life and times. And how does Morris exactly do that? For the most part he simply lets the interviewee do the talking. It's almost as if we get a glimpse of what Le Carre is such an accomplished writer. The movie is at its best when Le Carre explains how his own real life experiences as a spy for the British secret service influenced the novels he wrote. Morris uses film clips to illustrate various points. At a certain point, it blurs the lines of what is real and what is fiction. I found is rather fascinating. THe movie also benefits tremendously from the delightful original score by Philip Glass and Paul Leonard Morgan, who has scored several earlier Morris documentaries.

"The Pigeon Tunnel" premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in early September, earning immediate critical acclaim. There is good reason why this movie is currently rate 95% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie just started streaming on Apple TV. If you are a fan of John Le Carre or of Errol Morris' earlier documentaries, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I never read John le Carre books, but I appreciated the movies that were made from them and now that I have heard the author speak about his life, I am even more enthralled. He admits that at times he is not even sure what's real and what is fiction.

He educates us on what it takes to make a good spy - and made me happy that I am not of that ilk, but did appreciate that he was.

He explained what made him a write and why he titled his biography "The Pigeon Tunnel". It was all very educational to us, the viewer, if we really listened.

The filming of it was brilliant and quiet. Quick quips of photos and some news prints and the stories behind them.

He lead a complicated life and shared it with us, in books and this documentary.

He died at age 89 in 2020, so we were lucky at all to have had this time with him, but we still have his books.

Enjoy!

This would be of particular interest if the viewer enjoyed the authors fiction which I did. This is a remarkable movie about a remarkable author living in Cold War times.

LeCarré somehow manages to capture the colour of the paint (tobacco brown) on the walls of the meager interrogation rooms and offices in his prose, and the underlying violence is subtle and implied rather than evident. And although there are sides to take his writing never demands this of the reader.

His skill in capturing the zeitgeist of the Cold War years is his brilliance which somewhat diminishes in the post war era when he still continues to shine in a more contemporary way.

See the video, LeCarré is the star.

Director Errol Morris has made some pretty great documentaries in his career like "The Thin Blue Line, A Brief History of Time, and Fog of War" as Morris provides some interesting insightful documentaries and stories. With this one focusing on the career and life of John le Carré, Morris takes an interesting look of Carré's personality, career and the outlooks of the Cold War era and for the most part, it was solid.

John le Carré being the main subject provides some good and interesting conversations and discussions about his ideas and career with some pretty interesting dramatic reenactment moments to demonstrate the setting and environment. Throughout, the production was solid with the camerawork being good although nothing too special about it's presentation and colors. The conversations between Morris and Carré are strong as if there was good chemistry between the two of them.

However, the engagement wasn't the strongest as since topics about spy career isn't my most favorite genre of literature, there were some pacing moments that did feel a little sloppy that made certain subjects feel uninteresting to discuss about. There were certain discussion moments that I wished they had focused a little on more. The soundtrack does end up getting obnoxious as the soundtrack distracts certain moments.

Overall, it's an interesting documentary but it's not my favorite from Morris.