Another instance of this is a short scene involving Peter Guillam. Smiley warns Guillam that they might come after him and if he has anything that needs cleaning up, now is the time. Then comes a scene where Guillam painfully breaks it off with his male lover. I have seen some people carping someplace on the internet about how it was unnecessarily politically correct to make Guillam gay. His sexuality was not mentioned in the novel. I admired this scene as another bit of Tomas' efficiency in storytelling. After Guillam received Smiley's warning, Tomas needed a way to demonstrate Guillam's commitment and loyalty to Smiley. This 15 second vignette demonstrated it perfectly in a way that fit the period (a homosexual would have been seen as a security risk - subject to blackmail), didn't take up much screen time, and didn't affect any of the character's other motivations in the story.
Yet another scene was the one where Irina gets shot in front of Prideaux. The violence is sudden, not glorified or dwelt upon, but also not down played. Something I very much associate with Tomas. Also, you can hear the sound of spent shell casing bouncing on the floor right after the shot. More Alfredson attention to subtle, non-visual detail. However, while this scene in itself typifies a lot of the things that make Tomas a great director, I'm not sure that in the context of the entire story the scene makes sense.
In the logic of the story, what is Karla's motivation for having Irina shot in front of Prideaux? I can understand how Irina's death furthers the storytelling - it leads to that wonderful scene where Smiley lies to Rikki Tarr about Irina without blinking an eye. It was an excellent way of demonstrating the ruthlessness that Smiley is capable of. I just can't figure out what Karla's motivation for doing it would have been. Prideaux had no idea who she was. I suppose Karla would have known that word of it would get back to Smiley, but how would it further what must have been his main goal at the time: protecting Haydon?
Did he perhaps think making it known that Irina was dead would remove any leverage that Smiley had on Rikki? In this case, how would Karla know that Irina was important to Rikki Tarr? Also, what would make him think that Smiley would be willing to give up an advantage by telling Rikki about her death (indeed, he was not). This one I can't figure out.
