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Heist Film
The heist film or caper film is a subgenre of crime film focused on the planning, execution, and aftermath of a significant robbery. One of the early defining heist films was ''The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950), which ''Film Genre 2000'' wrote "almost single-handedly popularized the genre for mainstream cinema". It featured robbers whose personal failings ultimately led to the failure of their robbery. Similar films using this formula were ''Armored Car Robbery'' (1950), '' The Killing'' (1956), and '' The Getaway'' (1972). By the 1990s, heist films began to "experiment and play with these conventions," incorporating things like comedy into heist stories. Characteristics of the genre While there is sometimes some confusion as to what counts as a heist film, there are characteristics that most films in the genre follow. The most basic of these is that films in the genre tend to follow the planning, execution and aftermath of one large robbery. While there can be smaller crimes lead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subgenre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a Category of being, category of literature, music, or other forms of art or entertainment, whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria, yet genres can be aesthetic, rhetorical, communicative, or functional. Genres form by conventions that change over time as cultures invent new genres and discontinue the use of old ones. Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand-alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have individual styles, but genres are amalgams of these texts based on agreed-upon or socially inferred conventions. Some genres may have rigid, strictly adhered-to guidelines, while others may show great flexibility. Genre began as an absolute classification system for ancient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ''film noir''. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. The term ''film noir'', French for 'black film' (literal) or 'dark film' (closer meaning), was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Frank is believed to have been inspired by the French literary publishing imprint Série noire, founded in 1945. Cinema historians and critics defined the category ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rififi In Tokyo
''Rififi in Tokyo'' (French: ''Rififi à Tokyo'') is a 1963 French-Italian crime film directed by Jacques Deray and starring Karlheinz Böhm, Charles Vanel and Barbara Lass.Monaco p.160 Synopsis The veteran gangster Van Hekken arrives in Tokyo to pull off a heist of a precious diamond from a bank vault. However, when his planned second-in command is killed he has turn to the dead man's friend Carl Mersen. Cast * Karlheinz Böhm as Carl Mersen * Charles Vanel as Van Hekken * Barbara Lass as Françoise Merigné * Keiko Kishi as Asami * Michel Vitold as Pierre Merigné * Eiji Okada as Danny Riquet * Masao Oda as Kan * Dante Maggio Dante Maggio (2 March 1909 – 3 March 1992) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 115 films between 1940 and 1975. Born in Naples into a family of actors, Maggio had a turbulent adolescence that led his father to send him in an institu ... as Luigi * Hideaki Suzuki as Itoushi * Eijirô Yanagi as Ishimoto References Bibliography * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
How To Steal A Million
''How to Steal a Million'' is a 1966 American heist comedy film directed by William Wyler and starring Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith, and Charles Boyer. The film is set and was filmed in Paris, though the characters speak entirely in English. Hepburn's clothes were designed by Givenchy. Plot Prominent Paris art collector Charles Bonnet forges and sells famous artists' paintings. His disapproving daughter, Nicole, constantly fears that he will be caught. Late one night at their mansion, Nicole encounters a burglar, Simon Dermott, holding her father's forged "Van Gogh". She threatens him with an antique gun that accidentally fires, slightly wounding his arm. Wanting to avoid an investigation that would uncover her father's fake masterpieces, Nicole does not contact the police, and instead takes the charming Simon to his lavish hotel, driving him in his expensive sports car. For an important exhibition in Paris, Charles is lending to the Kléber-Lafay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topkapi (film)
''Topkapi'' is a 1964 Technicolor heist film produced by Filmways Pictures and distributed by United Artists. The film was produced and directed by the émigré American film director Jules Dassin. The film is based on Eric Ambler's novel '' The Light of Day'' (1962), adapted as a screenplay by Monja Danischewsky. The film stars Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell, Robert Morley and Akim Tamiroff. The music score was by Manos Hadjidakis, the cinematography by Henri Alekan and the costume design by Theoni V. Aldredge. The film won an Academy Award in 1965, with Peter Ustinov taking home the trophy for Best Supporting Actor, his second such award in 4 years. Plot Elizabeth Lipp ( Melina Mercouri) visits Istanbul, where she sees a traveling fair featuring replicas of treasures from the Topkapı Palace. Next she cases the Topkapı, fascinated by the emerald-encrusted dagger of Sultan Mahmud I. Leaving Turkey, she recruits her ex-lover, Swiss master-criminal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seven Thieves
''Seven Thieves'' is a 1960 American film noir heist crime drama film shot in CinemaScope. It stars Edward G. Robinson, Rod Steiger, Joan Collins and Eli Wallach. Directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Sydney Boehm, it was adapted for the screen by Sydney Boehm, based on the 1959 novel ''The Lions At The Kill'' by Max Catto. Technical advisor was Candy Barr, who, as choreographer, taught dance routines to Collins. ''Seven Thieves'' received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design Black-and-White (Bill Thomas). Plot A discredited expatriate American professor, Theo Wilkins, has called on a young protégé and sophisticated thief, Paul Mason, to come over from the US to the south of France and help him pull off one final heist. He has masterminded a caper to steal $4,000,000 in French francs from the underground vault of the casino of Monte Carlo, Monaco. Wilkins has recruited a team of thieves – including Melanie, an exotic dancer – but he needs someone h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The League Of Gentlemen (film)
''The League of Gentlemen'' is a 1960 British heist action comedy film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Roger Livesey, and Richard Attenborough. It is based on the 1958 novel ''The League of Gentlemen'' by John Boland and adapted by Bryan Forbes, who also starred in the film. Plot A manhole opens at night in an empty street and out climbs Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Hyde (Jack Hawkins) in a dinner suit. He gets into a Rolls-Royce and drives home. There, he prepares seven envelopes, each containing an American crime paperback called ''The Golden Fleece'', halves of ten £5-notes and an unsigned invitation from “Co-operative Removals Limited” to lunch at the Cafe Royal. The envelopes are sent to former army officers, each in desperate or humiliating circumstances. When they all turn up looking for the other halves of the £5-notes which are handed out, Hyde asks their opinion of the novel which is about a robbery. They show little enthusiasm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Deal On Madonna Street
''Big Deal on Madonna Street'' ( it, I soliti ignoti; released in the UK as ''Persons Unknown'') is a 1958 Italian comedy caper film directed by Mario Monicelli and considered to be among the masterpieces of Italian cinema. Its original Italian title literally translates as "the usual unknown ones", which is roughly equivalent to the English phrase "the usual suspects". The name of the Roman street in the English title is a slight mistranslation, as the Italian name of the fictional Roman street on which the midnight burglary in the film takes place is the ''Via delle Madonne'' (The Street of the Madonnas) rather than "Madonna Street". Compounding the confusion is the fact that the real Roman street on which the scene was filmed is the ''Via delle tre cannelle'' (The Street of the Three Spouts), rather than the ''Via delle tre Madonne'' (The Street of the Three Madonnas). The film is a comedy about a group of small-time thieves and ne'er-do-wells who bungle an attempt to burgle a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ladykillers (1955 Film)
''The Ladykillers'' is a 1955 British black comedy crime film directed by Alexander Mackendrick for Ealing Studios. It stars Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, Jack Warner, and Katie Johnson as the old lady, Mrs. Wilberforce. William Rose wrote the screenplay, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay. He claimed to have dreamt the entire film and merely had to remember the details when he awoke. Plot Mrs Wilberforce is a sweet and eccentric old widow who lives alone with her raucous parrots in a gradually subsiding lopsided house, built over the entrance to a railway tunnel in Kings Cross, London. With nothing to occupy her time and an active imagination, she is a frequent visitor to the local police station where she reports fanciful suspicions regarding neighbourhood activities. Having led wild-goose chases in the past, she is humoured by the offi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lavender Hill Mob
''The Lavender Hill Mob'' is a 1951 comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T. E. B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass. The title refers to Lavender Hill, a street in Battersea, a district in London SW11, near to Clapham Junction railway station. The British Film Institute ranked ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' the 17th greatest British film of all time. The original film was digitally restored and re-released to UK cinemas on 29 July 2011 to celebrate its 60th anniversary. It is one of fifteen films listed in the category "Art" on the Vatican film list. Plot Henry Holland lives the life of luxury in Rio de Janeiro, and spends an evening dining out with a British visitor. During their meal, he narrates a story concerning how he changed his life by instigating an intricate gold bullion robbery. One year ago, Holland served as an unambitious London bank clerk, who for twenty years was in char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Le Flambeur
''Bob le flambeur'' (English translation": "Bob the Gambler" or "Bob the High Roller") is a 1956 French heist gangster film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and starring Roger Duchesne as Bob. It is often considered both a film noir and a precursor to the French New Wave, the latter because of its use of handheld camera and a single jump cut. Plot Bob is a gambler who lives on his own in the Montmartre district of Paris, where he is well-liked by the demi-monde community. A former bank robber and convict, he has mostly kept out of trouble for the past 20 years, and is even friends with a police commissioner, Ledru, whose life he once saved. Ever the gentleman, Bob lets Anne, an attractive young woman who has just lost her job, stay in his apartment in order to keep her from the attentions of Marc, a pimp he hates. Bob declines Anne's advances, instead steering her to his young protégé Paolo, who soon sleeps with her. Through Jean, an ex-con who is now a croupier at the casin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rififi
''Rififi'' (french: Du rififi chez les hommes) is a 1955 French crime film adaptation of Auguste Le Breton's novel of the same name. Directed by American Hollywood blacklist, blacklisted filmmaker Jules Dassin, the film stars Jean Servais as the aging gangster Tony "le Stéphanois", Carl Möhner as Jo "le Suédois", Robert Manuel (actor), Robert Manuel as Mario Farrati, and Jules Dassin as César "le Milanais". The foursome band together to commit an almost impossible theft, the burglary of an exclusive jewelry shop in the Rue de la Paix. The centerpiece of the film is an intricate half-hour heist scene depicting the crime in detail, shot in near silence, without dialogue or music. The fictional burglary has been mimicked by criminals in actual crimes around the world. After he was Hollywood blacklist, blacklisted from Cinema of the United States, Hollywood, Dassin found work in France where he was asked to direct ''Rififi''. Despite his distaste for parts of the original novel, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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