The Thomas Crown Affair

Take one playboy millionaire, a gorgeous woman, a bank heist and sprinkle with a fabulous though dated soundtrack and you have the type of film that US movie-makers in the 1960's were experts at producing. I look forward to seeing the re-make, but I know it won't be as good as the original. The directing was slick and the characterisations were brilliant, even though you need only to analyse McQueen and Dunaway. The only thing that marrs the film is the split screen direction at the beginning which probably was state of the art at the time, but appears passe now. As you watch the film you notice that the scenes with Dunaway and the detective are fast-paced and strained, whereas McQueen's scenes are drugged and relaxed, a bossa-nova backing tune never far away. The infamous chess scene is a tongue-in-cheek masterpiece that could never be equalled although the fact that recent films love to parody this suggests that it is rather dated. Although Crown is essentially an immoral character, you have to like him - you want to be him. There are certain similarities with The Great Gatsby in that Crown has so much cash that he is after absolute perfection. Unfortunately he can't get it, but unlike The Great Gatsby, this is by no means a tragic film, much more of a romantic thriller with a twist.