The Spying Thing
Overview of films
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Stopover in Dubai + Cairo Affaire
Two excellent contemporary examples of the relationship between espionage and cinema, situated in the Near East. Chris Marker’s last work and Mauro Andrizzi’s fascinating mini-triptych.
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Captured
Impressive docudrama set in Korea about interrogation techniques used on prisoners. Was not allowed to be screened for 45 years.
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Ninotchka
Garbo laughs! Even if it takes a while before the female spy melts for the classic Lubitsch dialogue by Melvyn Douglas: “A Russian! I’ve been fa
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The Mackintosh Man
An almost forgotten, unloved John Huston Cold War espionage film – or anti-espionage film? – with Paul Newman as a British(!) secret agent
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Skid
The Iron Curtain closes in on a man suffering from amnesia after a terrible accident when the West German intelligence service sends him back to Pragu
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Hear My Cry
As a protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, an ordinary Polish accountant set himself alight at a harvest festival. More than
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Là-bas
Akerman couldn’t leave her room in Tel Aviv due to terror attacks. From her apartment, she spies on neighbouring apartments. A truly voyeuristic
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Sunset
Nemes (Son of Saul) made this irresistibly beautiful pre-WWI paranoid thriller. Mysterious Irisz arrives in Budapest and is suddenly confronted with h
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Gefängnisbilder
Before the rest of the world was confronted with the omnipresence of cameras, prisons were filled with surveillance equipment to spy on the inmates. I
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Stopover in Dubai
Chillingly simple and riveting found-footage documentary on a reconstructed murder. The original film was produced by the Dubai State Security service
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Spione
Even though Spione set the tone for all later espionage films, nevertheless this silent thriller shot by Fritz Lang after Metropolis can still be rega
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My Son John
Anti-Communist drama produced during the height of McCarthyism. A mother discovers that her returning son has a head filled with strange ideas.