Movie, 1965

Bleak, eerie and nihilistic existences in the Cold War, partly set in London, Berlin and other locations in Germany. A poetic despondency hangs over this film depicting the lives of an aging operative and a young Communist idealist, who both seem to exist and to not exist, and are both played in a strange, murky world full and empty of rain, pettiness, flamboyant despair and effective palette of cityscapes, desolate countryside and rather good jazz score. This is a really seedy film with seedy characters caught in traps by powers that be. Great, too, for the period London detail, but more so for capturing a cold war atmosphere.