Still Great After All These Years

Good call mate.

I agree. The concept initially sounds risky (And I haven't read the book either), but it WORKS.

I think the time devoted to the film within the film, as it were, was sufficient enough in length to lose us. There was just enough balance betwixt the fictional movie and the making of it to allow us to follow both stories without confusion nor complacency.

There's 3 ways a man can wear his hair; front-parted, side-parted or departed

Isn't it, though? The screenplay is dazzling. I think it's actually better than the book. The novel's idea of different versions of the story gets a little wearying. The movie retains enough of the book's Hardyesque atmosphere to be fun but then develops the visual style at the end into a post-Morris aesthetic interior that is all light and space. Gorgeous. Pure pleasure from beginning to end.

I'm inclined to agree with you wholeheartedly. It takes a genius like Harold Pinter to lift us out of the original text and place the story on screen, thus opening our eyes to his marvellous interpretation. Of course, wonderful actors like Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons lift the interpretation to new heights which only goes to show what limited imaginations most of us earthlings possess.

Much the same argument applies to the "Smiley's People" stories by le Carre. It took a brilliant Director and an actor of the calibre of Alec Guinness to lift a rather, long, if well written novel on to a higher plane that most of us can enjoy again and again.