Masterly British understatement, sang froid in the chilly corridors of secret service during the cold war. Superlative acting, as expected from a brilliant cast, does not fail to deliver the complexities and twists of a Graham Greene novel, equally well scripted by Tom Stoppard. The plot is not clever for cleverness sake but full of insight, dealing with many sensitive issues, personal and political. Yet the cast portray all this quite naturally, as people caught up in their professional and emotional dilemmas. Sound boring? Well it is entitled The Human Factor. Perhaps the ever shrinking attention span of the modern "culture" factory can account for this excellent movie's inexplicable disappearance. It's as pertinent and poignant now as ever. Must confess I saw it for the first time only a week ago on the telly.