The Little Drummer Girl is a 6 episode TV miniseries aired on BBC One in the fall of 2018 as an adaptation of a novel by John Le Carrè.
The series, which has passed very quietly on TV schedules, boasts a stellar cast but above all a direction that to define overwhelming is almost belittling.
Behind the camera of all 6 episodes is the Korean director Park Chan Wook, author of the revenge trilogy of which we have all certainly seen at least "Old Boy".
A name little known to Western audiences but which for years has been considered one of the best filmmakers on the square.
If you want a demonstration of these statements then this series can give you irrefutable proof that Park Chan Wook is a champion.
The series is beautiful, tense, fascinating but the plus gives him the direction. It's one of those products that is worth looking at even just to see a champion of the cinema struggling with a TV series.
Fantastic machine movements that are often sudden and go from long, very long planes to close-ups. The camera runs behind its characters, defines them in images, creates the action. Park Chan Wook is a master at dwelling on details, it is not unusual for eyes or hands to speak in individual scenes. The director does what a director should do, giving the individual images, the individual sequences a meaning that is by images and not just by words or contexts.
In short, the series is worth the price of the ticket already and only for what the director can offer.
Who are You?
Who Am I?
Spy Story and much more
We talked about Park Chan Wook. At his side a group of formidable actors that we will talk about later. And the story?
The story is seductive and comes from the mind of that genius of Le Carrè who lately is becoming an inexhaustible reservoir for contemporary seriality.
The setting is that of Europe and the Middle East in the period immediately preceding the 1980s. The world is in the grip of the Cold War but in this geopolitical context the situation in the Middle East begins to exacerbate. The Munich Olympics, mentioned several times in the series, had created a furrow between empathy towards the Israelis and the Palestinians because of the massacre at the Olympic village.
For the public opinion the Palestinian question was secondary in the sense that it was perhaps in those very years that the myth of a people not subjugated but unexpectedly violent and devoted to terrorism was created. The Israelis began to play the part of the victims, gaining more and more favors in the international intelligence and making the well known Mossad proliferate.
So we start with an attack by the Palestinians but in a foreign land, in Bonn to be exact, in an increasingly torn and ambiguous West German capital.
We start from these premises to enter into a classic spy story made of intrigue, dark places, men faithful to the cause, cynicism where the end justifies the means, as long as you look from your own point of view.
The masterful direction of Park Chan Wook and the subtle interpretation of characters perfectly chiseled in their imperfections and drama.
The series therefore travels on the edge of drama and action but manages to flow very quickly thanks to the lightness of the background that is given to stories and protagonists with many acute dialogues and often devoted to irony and sarcasm.
Excellent cast
If directing is the flagship of the series, the acting department is no less important.
In particular, there are 3 outstanding performances.
On all of them stands Michael Shannon who with his Marty manages to penetrate the screen thanks to his impenetrability. At the head of the Israeli task force he will present himself as a wise man, experienced and experienced but in the grip of a thousand dilemmas and doubts that he never reveals to the eyes of others. Michael Shannon is a great actor, one with a capital A who too often is not considered among the greats. Here he gives yet another demonstration of histrionic talent always characterized by a note of surrealism and subtle humor.
Skaarsgard, fresh Emmy winner for Big Little Lies, here plays Gabi, a man of action but with great intellect who uses his destructive and manipulative empathy to absolve the cause of the young Charlie, British actress called to enter the operation for the test of life.
The reality is the theater, Charlie and Gabi the actors. Skaargaard is not one of those actors who show and demonstrate their talent with micro-expressions, funny faces or dramons, but with a face often mono-expressive and an important corporality, a bit like Ryan Gosling. What he does it well, indeed very well and for this part it seems perfect.
The real revelation is the youth