To celebrate the launch of John le Carré’s 23rd novel, A Delicate Truth, a newly commissioned short film has been released on le Carré’s website. Directed by Kim Gehrig and produced by Somesuch & Co and The Ink Factory, the film draws on the plot and includes an portrait of the writer whose hand oversees it.
Sarah Churchwell, who has reviewed the novel in today’s New Statesman, writes:
If 2001’s The Constant Gardener was le Carré’s attack on Big Pharma, A Delicate Truth is an attack on what he calls “Big Greed” – the transformation of a market economy into a market society. Big Greed is ruining le Carré’s Britain, which is becoming less great by the day: there are no George Smileys left in this atomised society. Instead, a toxic individualism holds sway, which can only be answered by the increasingly rare consciences of honest men fighting their way through a dishonourable world.
The short brings together crew from both Skyfall and the movie adaptation of le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Director Gehrig said she “wanted to make something draws you in and gives you an indelible sense of the world of the novel,” which “at the same time preserves the experience of reading the book itself.” See for yourself.