Topaz

Alfred Hitchcock - 1969
We have, with the thoughtful direction to an infinetewsimal level almost, every single move and moment creates something new, a cinematic feeling. A little shot as a body suddenly appears after a track. Huge amounts of miming.
A couple of other directors particularly came to mind here. It reminded me in many ways of the gangster films of Melville; that kind of blankness, impassivity, the twitiching of the eyes; lonely men. That there is one absultely great scene, and the rest of the film slightly defalted around it (I mean, of course, the photograph espionage) is also a bit like the structure of the railway heist in 'Un Flic' (though the rest of that film is a great psychological 'portrait', or lack of one, too, to be fair).
And there's clearly thought of Lang here as well. The idea of giving clear, simple information with little movements, a static camera for many shots (with Hitchcock also having huge dollies and so on also, of course). The main Langian thought was that idea of a world almost like clockwork (and Franju's homages...). The toy figures, action men pushing around, the bookcase that turns and so on.
We have an unknown man here, we are giving nothing, he knows nothing we basically, as comes clear, no nothing of the actual situation either (of the MacGuffin, obviously). This strange figure has no interest in his family, seemingly, he likes espionage, he likes America; he likes what he doesn't have, really.

no interest in his family, seemingly