There are few documentary filmmakers with a more distinct interviewing style than Errol Morris. But having seen nearly everything he’s directed over the years (The Thin Blue Line, the Oscar-winning The Fog of War, A Brief History of Time), I can’t think of a film or subject of his that he seemed closer to or friendlier with than espionage fiction master John le Carré in The Pigeon Tunnel. Here, the subject (real name: David Cornwell) walks us through his troubling childhood, his career as a former British spy, and how he took both of those massive parts of his life and combined them into his novels, such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Tailor of Panama, and The Constant Gardener. Le Carré passed away in 2020, with most of these interviews taking place in 2019, so it’s perhaps not by accident that the writer’s confessional tone with Morris feels like someone coming to terms with his extraordinary and often dubious life.
Le Carré's father was a con artist who had various properties and other extravagances but could never seem to pull together enough money for the basics for David and his brother. His mother left the family because she couldn’t take her husband’s many affairs, and knew that if she’d tried to take the children with her, his many lawyer friends would make life impossible for her. The author sees that part of his life as something he struggled through, for certain, but it also worked as an endless source of inspiration and gave him an unusual personality, a quite charming and mission-focused one—something he was able to use during his time in intelligence gathering.
As with many of Morris’ documentaries, he combines these remarkably candid interviews with rare archival material, clips from the many film and television adaptations of his works, and a healthy dose of re-creations, all of which combine to form a life story in which even le Carré is not always sure which parts are fact and fiction, much as he admitted in his memoir that gives this film it’s name. I won’t explain the title (his description of what a pigeon tunnel is is both tragic and the perfect metaphor for how he views his life), but The Pigeon Tunnel takes this enigmatic figure in popular culture and makes him as human as the rest of us. The results can be a touch dry at times, but le Carré’s connection to Morris is clear from their interview sessions, and that’s what ends up being the most invaluable material in the film and a fitting tribute to a beloved artist.
The film is now streaming Apple TV+ and opens Friday, October 20 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
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