The Ipcress File perfectly brings everyday domesticity to the spy thriller and creates a main character that reflects this. Harry Palmer loves cooking, we see him at the supermarket (not a place James Bond would traverse), he enjoys classical music and reading and is from a working class background.
The film brought kitchen sink realism to a genre that was known for its flashy, glamorous and rather unbelievable plot lines. Ipcress is firmly rooted in everyday London, with it's grime and drudgery, this is the other side to the swinging sixties dream. Based on the novel of the same name by Len Deighton the film also owes much to the novels of Graham Greene and George Orwell's dystopian, 1984. The story reflects the Cold War paranoia that was prevalent in Britain at the time, with it's fears of scientific experiments, defection and brain washing.
However in spite of it's bleak setting Ipcress has it's fair share of humour. Palmer has a laconic attitude and Caine brings his characteristic witticisms to the role. It's also a taut thriller, as who is who, is not fully revealed until the end.
It is a film of secrets and double crossings and so the audience views the characters from the margins. Situations are seen through car windows, telephone boxes, light shades, from behind shoulders-often what we see is partially obscured, as it is for many of the characters. Ironically Palmer has a habit of leaving doors open, something which both his superiors bring him up on, but this could denote his more open, relaxed manner in the face of so many lies.
Sound is incredibly important in the film, and it's not just the brain washing noise of the Ipcress. From the beginning the small everyday sounds are heightened and pre eminent, where in many other films they would be softened. Everything from an alarm clock to a coffee grinder, noise in the street to footsteps. We become aware that this is a film in which every sound has a meaning and sounds can be dangerous. This cacophony of little sounds all lead to the finale of the torture room in which sound is used for a deadly purpose.
4/5
