Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Of all the various sub-genres in cinema, the paranoid thriller is pretty close to the top of my list. Probably the only sub-genre that could rival it in my personal pantheon is film noir. While revisiting Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy I found myself musing on the similarities between the two genres. Most apparent is the fact that both rely heavily on ambiance. In both cases plot comes in as distant second to mood. I can be absolutely lost in terms of narrative (eg: The Big Sleep or Tinker) while still being absolutely enraptured by the overall tone of the piece.

It's particularly interesting that traditional noir died out in the late 50's and paranoid thrillers started to become a thing in the early 60's. Would it be too far of a reach to say that much like how birds evolved from dinosaurs, paranoid thrillers evolved from film noir? They do share a common skeleton on which everything else is built. At their hearts both genres share the basic human emotions of guilt and loneliness. It's no accident that when someone in Tinker gets shot in the cheek, the wound drips like a tear.