The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Martin Ritt's film of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold sticks so closely to the John le Carre novel it's based on that if you read the novel after watching the film (which I did), it gives an intense sensation of deja vu. Both are great, though, and well worth your time!

Anyway, here's my comps for the DVD cover. They're generally pretty straightforward--Berlin wall, Richard Burton, cold war spy stuff. Luckily, with a title that evocative, you don't have to do much to get the point of the story across. This was an occasion where my first instinct was actually the direction we wound up going in, pretty much un-altered, so I'll save that one for last.

The second cover I worked up I had a strange fondness for because there's basically no logic to why that inset photo of Richard Burton should work at all--but for some reason it does, and that kind of inexplicable thing is always kind of fun. But of course, at the end of the day it's a big movie star head in the inset, which is maybe a little tacky.



This next was my (misguided) attempt to bring a little color into the mix, give the whole thing kind of a '60s spy novel flavor... it winds up being a little too "pop," though. The composition wouldn't be bad if rejiggered into black and white (maybe leaving "SPY" in some color), but is kind of a plot spoiler anyway, and the focus is a bit too much on the girl rather than the spy in question. (I do like the way she's looking at "SPY" though.)



This one's pretty simple, just Richard Burton sitting on the Berlin wall. There's nothing wrong with it, but nothing groundbreaking either.



And finally, the winner, a really simple shot of the Berlin wall with some strong type overtop. It's a little bookish, but in a good way, I think. Not using Richard Burton was an initially controversial choice (we don't get many movies starring well-known American movie stars around here, so generally we like to spotlight them at least a little), but ultimately I think leaving him out focuses your attention on the themes of the film, which is for the best. Plus, I just think it's pretty striking, frankly!



Anyway, all of those were sent around at the same time, and that last was the consensus choice. For contractual reasons, Martin Ritt's name had to be removed from the cover, which was a shame (both for design and content reasons), but not the end of the world. And thus you have the final cover: