Thief

Michael Mann’s first feature film foreshadows his later stylistic hymns to concrete jungles and the characters of absurdly competent criminals. James Caan excels as Frank, a diamond thief longing for retirement, and Tuesday Weld as Jessie, an essential piece of the puzzle of Frank’s dreamed crime-free life. They are seconded by well-known names such as Jim Belushi and Dennis Farina. Thief is an exemplary demonstration of both Mann’s shaping and enliving of the urban spaces through music, shadows and neons, and his approach to showing the “creative process“ of his criminals in – literal – extreme close-up. Narrative elements such as complex protagonists and the conflict happening simultaneously in the streets of Mann’s favourite cities and the minds of his characters develop further throughout both his filmography and this section. (bk)