The Russia House
I must confess, this is easily my favourite film. I have watched only a handful of films more than once. This film I have watched at least twenty times but by the time you read this it will be many more since I watch it at least every 6 weeks or so. I sit down with a bottle of genuine Russian vodka, a small tin of red caviar and some hard white bread, I turn up the dolby 5.1 and soak up the experience. Why is this film so good? Well for a start it is from a book by John LeCarre who must be our best living author. Who else researches a book so thoroughly? Every location has been checked, every character totally believable, with an intelligent plot.
Secondly the screenplay by Tom Stoppard is faultless. Having read the book first, I could not believe how faithfully Stoppard made his screenplay- chunks of LeCarre dialogue are faithfully copied. Then there is the acting. There are memorable performances from Sean Connery (Barley) and Michel Pfeiffer(Katya), the beautiful Russian heroine. Klaus Maria Brandauer wins my "best supporting actor" award as the totally believable Russian scientist. There are so many memorable lines of dialogue in this film. Brandauers line "If I will be a hero, will you act like a merely decent human being" always brings a lump to my throat. Barley's tongue in cheek replies to his CIA interrogators are wonderful. What gives this film such a feeling of authenticity are the locations which are all genuine Moscow and St Petersburg. Already Moscow has changed a lot since this film was made. The lovely old National hotel shown in the film has been demolished and replaced with a modern nonentity, so this film is rapidly becoming a piece of history. The buildings are changing but the same faceless KGB operators are still there. How can one flawed man fight the power of the spymasters. Barley shows how to do it. What a hero! Does it have any faults?If only Ken Russell had stuck to directing and left acting to actors.
