The Langham Gallery in London are holding an exhibition of the work of photographer Nick Delaney. Nick is a fashion and style photographer who is beginning to make a name for himself in art photography. As you can see from these images (both of which are in the exhibition Nick has almost painterly eye for colour and composition. The image below, of street art in Barcelona, is a great example of this.

Barcelona Wall by Nick Delany

This exhibition of work is from his personal collection of Urban Landscapes taking in cities such as New York, Budapest and Madrid. These are beautiful and arresting images, with a real sense of place. One more image to whet your appetite, below.

54th and Broadway by Nick Delany

The exhibition is at the Langham Gallery in Lamb’s Conduit street, recently featured in Monocle magazine as one of the best living community streets in the world. Nick’s work is clearly going to appreciate in value over the coming years, so here is your opportunity to invest while you can. Go, view and enjoy.

Details:

The exhibition runs from Monday 17th November till Saturday 13th December.

Opening hours 10-6 Monday to Friday, 10-4 Saturday.

The Langham Gallery is at 34 Lamb’s Conduit Street, London WC1 3LE

Tel: +44 (0)20 7242 0010

Email: info@langhamgallery.com

Website: www.langhamgallery.com

Here is a link to an interesting, well written article by the Daily Telegraph’s David Gritten.  He talks of the necessity of rebooting the Bond franchise and some of the changes wrought in the Daniel Craig movies. 

I disagree with him with him on two things.  Firstly that Ian Fleming would have approved of the Daniel Craig Bond.  I do not think he would have, and I suspect that David Gritten knows this.  For Fleming, style was everything, and worldliness was better than athleticism in his book (literally).  Daniel Craig is a great Bond, but he is a downmarket Bond.  Just as Fleming thought that Sean Connery was too lower-class to play Bond, I suspect that he would have thought the same about Daniel Craig.

Secondly, when Casino Royale came out, there were a lot of journalists eager to rubbish Pierce Brosnan’s Bond and David Gritten does not consider Brosnan a good Bond.  However from a fan’s perspective Pierce Brosnan was a great Bond.  We were grateful that he rescued our hero from the unfortunate movies with Timothy Dalton as James Bond.  Brosnan had real class and looked as though he were duplicitious enough to work in an evil world.  There was also a cruelty about Brosnan that was pure Fleming, such as the moment when he shoots his lover and adversary Elektra King (Sophie Marceau, The World is Not Enough) without a moment’s hesitation.  Pure cynicism but real panache.

The article is very good and is here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/20/bfbond120.xml

I cried today.  Levi Stubbs is gone. 

I still have his voice, on every Four Tops album I ever owned.  But the man is gone and I hope gone somewhere where he will be celebrated for his wonderful talent.   

Like almost all of Motown’s great stars, Levi Stubbs was born in Detroit.  He met Abdul “Duke” Fakir in high school and met the other two Tops at a house party.  They sang together under various names until Berry Gordy convinced them to join Tamla Motown and they became the Four Tops. 

The Four Tops were the sound of my early twenties, friends, clubs and dances, good clothes and Motown.  The minute the DJ played any Four Tops song, we were on the floor.  We had a friend called Bill, big guy, last on the floor, but up and dancing as soon as “I cant help myself (sugar pie honey bunch)” came on.    

We loved the Tops, their clothes (we all wanted those mohair suits, but were not so sure about the long high-point collar shirts), the snappy footwork and their infectious high-energy songs.  They were black guys and we were white but we had a common bond, we liked to dance and loved women passionately, if not wisely.  At least, that was how we saw it.  

We loved the songs, and looking back I loved them because of Levi’s vocals, the hard urgency of his voice.  Levi sang like a man who had something to lose, who knew he really loved that girl.  He sang with conviction and if his vocals were a bit rough-edged by Motown standards, they made up for that with real feeling.  If Marvin Gaye sounded sad, Levi Stubbs sounded bereft.

Grahame Parker, the English R and B/Rock singer famous in the Eighties once talked about dancing in soul clubs in London.  He went on to say that one of favourite songs was the Four Tops “Bernadette” which in his opinion “had a bit of spit and some grit in it, like a good soul record should”. 

When Soul went out of fashion, the Four Tops kept going.  In the seventies they had hits with unlikely (for Motown) material like “If I were a carpenter” and “MacArthur Park”.  I urge you to listen to “If I were a carpenter” it is one of the most soulful records ever made and Levi Stubbs vocals made it that way. 

I saw the Four Tops in 1981, in London, and after twenty years of touring they still had a soul and energy that lifted everyone up.  The audience ended the night on their feet and dancing.      

Even in the Eighties, when Soul and Disco were distant memories, the Tops had hits, including “When she was my girl” and “Loco in Acapulco”.  The first time I heard “When she was my girl” it all came flooding back, the huge vocal, the tightly-timed chorus, the slinky percussion.  All I needed was a dance-floor.  If you are a Four Tops fan, you know the feeling you get when you hear them, you feel eighteen years young and ready to dance all night. 

Only Abdul Fakir of the Four Tops is still alive.  Lawrence Payton and Obie Benson are dead.  But in their day they had more joy and energy than almost anybody else.  If you listen to their music I am sure you will agree.       

Thanks for the wonderful songs Levi.  May your journey be good.

 Soul Music

I am annoyed because I keep seeing a type of article popping up in magazines.  The article is called “the top ten soul records” or ten top soul songs.  I read one in a Scandinavian magazine a couple of days ago and it was absolute nonsense. 

Yesterday I read a similar article by a man named Wayne Hemingway, in a magazine called Shortlist, which included artists such as Gil Scott-Heron and the Tom-Tom club who are definitely not soul, could not be Soul even if God called down from heaven and declared them to be such.  Nonsense. 

I was going to ignore it, but yesterday Levi Stubbs (lead vocalist of the Four Tops) died.  I wrote about it here and it made me think I ought to make my contribution to the discussion.  Soul is an important part of my life, made me smile, lifted me up during the tough times, got me some of my best dates.

So, as an original London Soul Boy, here are my top ten soul tracks.

It takes two:  Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston

Definitive dance music, from the frenzied violins at the start to the perfect old time soul call-and-response of Marvin and Kim.  If you had a good partner who could keep time this was the one to dance to.  Infectiously happy, it pulls you onto the dancefloor.

 You can buy it in the Uk here or the US here

This old heart of mine: The Isley Brothers

Right from the strange recorded-in-a-baked -bean-tin intro through to the drums being thrashed like a kicked dustbin, this is great dancefloor material.  The lyrics race to get you into the blistering chorus, getting you ready to unleash your best moves.  Fast and furious, sweaty and passionate, a soul dancer favourite.

  You can buy it in the UK here and the US here   

Who’s making love:  Johnny Taylor

To give the full title “Who’s making love to your old lady while you are out making love.”  A thumping, bubbly bass line on top of a simple four-beat drumsound.  On top of this goes Johnny Taylor’s sharp, streetwise lyrics.  It just makes you want to dance and with a beat this simple, you can.

 You can buy it in the UK here and the US here     

I’m a road-runner baby: Junior Walker and the all-stars

Great getting-going song.  That wailing saxophone, drum sound like an aluminium wall being beaten by the Incredible Hulk and the tinny ping of the guitars all building up to the chorus.   The loose rambunctious sound of Junior Walker came straight out of the back-country soul clubs of Alabama and Indiana.  Junior Wallker somehow ended up on Motown, but he was really a wild man from the backroads. 

You can loosen up on the floor with this song, with its fat, syncopated rhythm section knocking out a hard beat, with the added genius of that brittle tambourine sound that Motown threw into so many choruses.   

 You can buy it in the UK here and the US here    

Get up (Sex Machine)

Everyone knows this one but leaving it out is talking about religion without mentioning God.  The beat is everything.  Real men danced to this, with a soul strut and lots of hip rolls.   To sweat to.

 You can buy it in the UK here and the US here    

I can’t stand the rain: Ann Peebles.

There has to be slow one, and this slow one was filled with lust and melancholy. Ann Peebles voice moves from her natural deep vibrato to a high-pitched wail on the chorus, while the relentless backbeat helps you to keep a slow sexy rhythm.  Filled with loss and rich, bitter, sexy regret.  When Ann Peebles sings “do you remember?  How sweet it used to be?” you know she was not talking about having coffee together.  It smoulders, just don’t dance to it with your ex.

 You can buy it in the UK here and the US here       

Hold on, I’m coming: Sam and Dave

Well, there was Motown and there was Stax, Sam and Dave were on the Stax label.  We considered Stax to be the real deal, authentic black dance music untouched by commercialism.  But we were fooling ourselves, we were dance whores, we would dance to anything that was soul. 

The power and heartfelt emotion of Gospel singing mixed with down and dirty lyrics made this a great dance track.  From the magisterial horn sound to the thudding beat anyone can dance to this and look like they are in time.

 You can buy it in the UK here and the US here      

I‘ll take you there: The Staples Singers

This was the Staples urgent, gritty and slightly ambiguous shouter.  The 4/4 backbeat was perfect for a soulful strut, with all the hip rolls you could get in.  This was the one you showed off to, the one you tried to impress your partner with.  When Mavis Staples sang “I’ll take you there” I think she meant Jesus but when we mouthed it to our dance partners it was definitely a promise of sex.     

 You can buy it in the UK here and the US here   

It’s better to have (and don’t need): Don Covay

This is hi-energy dance music, with its politically incorrect lyrics and a fast, raw sound.  Don Covay sings of sex, over a cascade of high-hat cymbals and some of the best R+B piano that ever got on record, a powerful bass holding it all together.  This was made in 1974 when Soul was almost dead, but Don Covay reached back pre-motown and put a raw soul sound on this fast n furious song.  For those of us who love to dance. And Don Covay is an unrecognised genius.   

 You can buy it in the UK here and the US here     

Let’s get it on: Marvin Gaye

Always end on a slow song.  A true love song, from the opening wah-wah guitar to Marvin’s passionate sexy lyrics.  The sound, lyrical saxophones, tumbling drum breaks and the anguished croon still sound fresh today.  It works because Marvin had such timing and discipline that his vocals never obscure the insistent beat.  This is the one song where you find your best girl and dance out the promise of what you are going to do for her later……

 You can buy it in the UK here and the US here      

What it is about

My brother was a DJ and he was playing a track one time.  As it ended a guy came up to him and said angrily “Why did you not play the New Orleans mix, with the extended fadeout?”.  My brother turned to me, shrugged, smiled and said “Everyone loves a trainspotter”.  This is my problem with articles that talk about finding obscure, hand-pressed discs from collector’s stores in Vancouver.  Soul music is dancing, not stamp collecting.   

It’s an information world out there and the temptation is to make everything information.  That is not what Soul music is.  Find a club.  Dance. Be a Man.  Be Sexy.  Sweat.  Enjoy.

Still to come:

When Soul became Disco

Style and the boys: White Soul 

Book Review: Modern Menswear

Hywel Davies

In Modern Menswear, Hywel Davies attempts to unify current menswear design around a single theme.  Davies’s believes modern menswear is primarily concerned with communicating individuality.  That contemporary menswear gives men a huge range of clothes to express themselves in, both in terms of design and the types of manhood they might want to express.

Davis refines his definition of modern menswear with the belief that the old rules no longer apply and that definitions of formal and casual are unimportant.  Now on one level I found this useful, because there are very few books that discuss non-formal men’s clothes with any degree of knowledge.  However Davis then goes on to say youth and youthfulness has come to define modern menswear.  I do not agree with this, especially in the light of the huge investment that brands like Corneliani, Zegna and Ralph Lauren have made in non-formal menswear.  These are not brands that consider themselves to be aimed at a youth market.  However they are not included here and Hywel Davies illustrates his argument well, with designers such as Aitour Throup and Raf Simons, who do appeal to younger men.          

Hothouses of menswear design 

For Davis, the exciting work in modern menswear is being done in London and Antwerp, which he sees as hothouses of new menswear design.  However the book ranges across all of Europe, finding designers to support his thesis in Germany and Italy, amongst others.

Davis surveys thirty-five modern European designers, talking about their clothes and their history.  Designers range from the successful (Paul Smith, Burberry Prorsum) to the very trendy (Viktor and Rolf, Blaak) to the cult (Martin Margiela, D Squared2).  Each designer gets a handful of pages, in which we get a short tour of their design philosophy, and more importantly, a view of their clothes.  Where the pictures (the illustrations are beautiful) the designer and the author all click together the book is fascinating and leaves you wanting more of that particular fashion house.  Many of these pieces could be fruitfully worked up into much bigger articles.   

This is a useful book and Davies does a good job of describing the vision of these designers, especially considering that, with the honourable exceptions of Paul Smith and Yohji Yamamoto, they are not a very articulate bunch.  Frankly one or two of the designers included here are too concerned with building an art concept, and while fashionable, lack any sense of style and connection to men’s lives.  This makes commercially-oriented designers like Marc Jacobs and Stephan Schneider (both included in the book) look even more defined and concrete.  I found that, with a few exceptions, Modern menswear reinforced my preferences about which designers I liked and which I did not.

Menswear Guidance 

Modern Menswear works best as a guide or reference book.  The book is beautifully designed and handsomely produced.  It would make a fine gift for any man interested in style.  Visually stunning, knowledgeable and concise, this is a practical book for men who are building or updating their wardrobe.  I remember my own evolution from teen style to young adult and this book would have been really valuable back then.  It is also useful for those going in the other direction, mature men who need to lighten their style for less formal occasions.  Here is the one-stop reference to finding those less formal clothes.  It contains a reference list of the designers, which includes their websites.     

This is a well-conceived and valuable book, in an area of menswear where not much is being written.  I enjoyed it and expect to return to re-read it in the future. 

Modern Menswear

Author: Hywel Davis 

Laurance King Publishing Limited, 2008.

ISBN 13:  978-1-85669-540-4  

 Happy Birthday Nicholas Van Rijn                   

Well, no-one knows the real birthday of Poul Anderson’s glorious swashbuckler, but today is St Dismas day and as Nick Van Rijn’s patron saint was St Dismas, it is appropriate to honour him on this day. 

Nick Van Rijn is the larger-than-life hero of Poul Anderson’s stories and novels of the merchant trading league of space, the Polesotechnic league.  He is big, brash, bold and clever.  As Anderson describes him, Van Rijn is of mixed Indonesian and Dutch descent, has black ringletted hair and a stylish goatee.  He is big, with a full round belly that covers a lot of solid muscle.  He dresses expensively but carelessly, more concerned with life than appearance.  

Van Rijn’s love of life is legendary, he always has a drink and is never drunk.  He admires beautiful women and more importantly, he can see the beauty in all women.  He is Rabelaisian and has a pedigree that goes back to Shakespeare’s Falstaff.  He knows that good food and good company help us suffer the difficult times that we all must pass through.       

Poul Anderson has given us a paean of praise to the big man.  Men, remember that the big man can have style.  A big man with style and personality can fill a room with his presence.  Women are drawn to him for his warmth and the security of his company.  Never underestimate the style of big men.  Think Orson Welles, Peter Ustinov, Phillip Seymour Hoffman.   

Van Rijn is smart, wealthy and brave.  He is the magician in every man, able to turn the world to his benefit.  He is also the warrior, because regardless of how smart he is, he knows that what changes the world is action.  Thinking and talking set the scene, but only action will make a difference in the world.  Van Rijn is the smart man as action hero.  A man can learn from Nick Van Rijn.

Poul Anderson wrote several books of Nick Van Rijn’s adventures. Here is a link to the Poul Anderson entry on Wikipedia, which lists them.

The Bank Job

Based on a true story, The Bank Job starts in the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean, where a “British royal princess” is frolicking in the shallows.  She takes her frolic into a nearby beach villa where it quickly turns into a hot threesome with an athletic man and another young woman.  Unknown to her she is being photographed through an open window.

Suddenly we are back in grey wet London.  It’s the early seventies and Terry Leather (Jason Statham) is trying to sell second-hand cars out of his lockup garage in South London.  Terry is up to his ears in debt to a loan shark whose heavy crew are demanding payment or punishment.  

The royal photographs are worrying the upper class spooks in charge of MI5.  The photos have fallen into the hands of Michael X, an afro-Caribbean radical whose politics are a cover for racketeering and prostitution.  His possession of the photographs prevents the police from moving against him. 

Roger Donaldson (director of the superb The World’s Fastest Indian) paints his picture of 70s London with verve and economy.  Business is depressed, activist politics are on the increase, and a corrupt London police force is taking payoffs from the vice lords.  In scene after short scene, Donaldson shows London’s sleazy underbelly, with drugs and prostitution fuelling organized crime.

MI5 discover that the photographs are in a safe deposit box in Baker Street,.they need a way of getting them without arousing suspicion.  Luck comes their way, in the form of Saffron Burrows, a model with a past.  In return for a deal she recruits Terry to rob the bank.

Jason Statham gives a really finely graduated performance as Terry.  Tough and manly, he is too smart for South London but too desperate to say no to the easy money he can get from the robbery.  He and Burrows’ Melanie circle around each other, Melanie playing to Terry’s unspoken desire for her.  The interplay between Statham and Burrows is subtly portrayed and they act out these scenes with a worried intensity which is both believable and captivating.

Comedy
The tension of the movie is alleviated by the comic strand that runs all through the Bank Job.  Terry’s mates are a pair of likely lads, Dave, a part-time porn actor and Kev, a wedding photographer who lives in a fantasy of being David Bailey.  Terry beefs up the team with a tough Greek welder/mechanic and an upper-class con man for a front man.  But it is Dave and Kev who give The Bank Job the sort of droll down-to-earth comedy that made The Italian job so much fun to watch.
   

Men and Machines
The Bank Job intercuts between the cynical old Etonians running MI5 and Terry’s slightly shambolic gang.  The movie steps up the pressure when Terry starts the robbery.  Here director Donaldson is on his favourite territory, men and machinery, and the Bank Job really starts to accelerate.  Terry and his crew dig a tunnel from the basement of an empty shop to the vault of the bank.  Donaldson goes the whole hog, with pneumatic hammers, thermic lances and pickaxes.  This is a bank raid in force, a visual and aural feast as the gang literally dig for gold. 

Donaldson directs the Bank Job at a cracking pace and sheer excitement drags the viewer along.  He gets amazing performances from every one of his cast and their characters all become very real in a short space of time.  He does this by dint of a tight articulate script that exposes the real feelings that his players have.    

Once the caper has gone down the gang realize they are in something much bigger and much more dangerous than they ever expected.  The Bank Job  becomes darker and more desperate and the caper starts to unravel, as weaker characters begin to get into trouble. 

This is a hell of a movie.  Donaldson directs with a real passion, the Bank job is fiercely suspenseful and once the vault is robbed, every scene is fraught with danger.  There is not a dud moment in the movie.  Jason Statham gives a magnificent performance, as an ordinary man called upon to show extraordinary courage.  His performance is by turns smart, loving, tough and desperate and there is not a scene that he does not carry with style.  Once again we are on Donaldson’s home turf, showing the strength of will that some men can conjure up, the determination to beat all odds.

Donaldson also makes the women in the Bank Job very real and Saffron Burrows as Melanie gets almost as much screen time as Statham and even when she is out of her depth her character never loses her guts.  There is also a visceral passionate scene between Terry and his wife (Keeley Hawes) that simply makes you hold your breath.  These are not  bit-players but living, breathing women in a world of danger.  

There are too many great performances to count.  Peter Bowles as a ruthless scheming MI5 boss almost steals the movie, as does David Suchet as the murdering vice lord in league with Michael X.  

It is such a pleasure to see a British film that is this good.  The Bank Job has character, plot and action and is a really satisfying film on so many levels.  The way it plays out the corrupt connections between the police, vice and the establishment has never been done so well.  

Go and see this movie.  It is sheer enjoyment from beginning to end and virtuoso moviemaking. The Bank Job  has all the hallmarks of a great British movie.     
 

The Bank Job goes on general release in the UK from the 28th February and in the US from the 1st of March.

Trailers for the Bank Job are here:

Windows Media      

High Definition Trailer

Medium Definition Trailer

Low Definition Trailer

Real Player

High Definition Trailer

Medium Definition Trailer

Low Definition Trailer

Here is my third post on Caper Movies; this one contains my top ten favorite caper movies.   

No 10: The Italian Job (1969 Original)

The most daunting caper movie to review, having been acclaimed by experts and the one that put down so many markers for this sub-genre. 

We know the story.  Michael Caine at his sexiest, is smart as a whip as Charlie Croaker, clever London thief and man-about-town.  He gets a heads-up on a plan for robbing a gold shipment in Turin, Italy.  He pitches the plan to Noel Coward’s criminal mastermind Mr Bridger.  Bridger offers to bankroll Charlie and off our criminals go.  The Mafia get wind of the plan and threaten to kill the English gang for poaching on their turf.  But Charlie has a plan that involves a pervy professor and three beautiful English mini-minor cars.

Why is it still so good?  Firstly the tone of the film is was perfect for it’s time .  The gang’s irreverence and cheerful disregard of authority was new to the movies and done really well here.  Secondly the gang do not exude menace so much as shambling stupidity.  Caine’s frantic attempts to get his thick-eared gang not to screw up are still hilarious, even after seeing the movie many times.  And finally of the course there is the mini-minor car chase, the most unorthodox chase ever filmed (at that time).  This was all new and fresh, the colours vivid and the cinematography lively, the driving stunts excite in a way that special effects never can. 

It still has that feel about it, even though clever visuals are now so far in advance of what The Italian Job was capable of.  Overall The Italian Job has a feelgood factor that few movies are capable of achieving.

The Italian Job is available in the UK here and in the US here

No 9:  Foolproof

Three smart yuppies-in-training plan interesting robberies and take-downs.  They are meticulous, daring and clever but the twist is that they have no intention of executing their crimes, its all for fun.  This all changes when a real professional criminal gets hold of one of their plans and blackmails them into executing a crime for him.  The premise is very similar to that of Steal but Foolproof does it better.

Foolproof starts off with this slightly confusing not-real game but turns into a superb caper movie.  The story becomes clever, complicated and and has a real keep-you-guessing edge.  The pacing of this movie is excellent. Likewise the script is quick and the dialogue witty and sharp.  I laughed out loud at some of the interplay between the characters.  The actual takedown is great, full of smart moves, clever gadgets and tense moments, as our team hit a hi-tech vault for $40 million in bearer bonds.

The strong characters carry the movie past its wobbly beginning and really develop as our three heroes try to get out from under.  Each of them are pushed to their limits as they try to steal the bonds from the formidable vault.  Ryan Reynolds (looking incredibly young here) plays Kevin, leader and scammer, Kristin Booth plays Sam, athlete and pickpocket.  These two give dramatic performance which really make Foolproof come alive.  But the best performance comes from Joris Jarsky, acting his head off as Rob, the brains of the outfit, who wants to take things just that bit too far.  David Suchet makes a smooth but very menacing gang boss and gives a gloss of quality acting to the movie.   

Foolproof bombed when it was released but really did not deserve the harsh reviews.  I think Foolproof is one of the best caper movies.  Do yourself a real favour, rent or buy this one, it is really really good.      

Foolproof is available in the UK here and in the US here. 

No 8:  Ocean’s Eleven

The casting of George Clooney as Danny Ocean  in Soderbergh’s version of Ocean’s Eleven was pure genius.  Clooney’s lazy cool energy is the trademark of the movie and all the other plays adopt the same tone.  It is the simple fun of men being men together. I always feel that, if these guys were not planning a caper they would be sitting in a bar, joking and telling yarns.  It’s the same kind of easy energy.

So if the energy of the players is slippery and slow (excepting Don Cheadle’s irascible cockney safecracker Basher) the pace is provided by Soderbergh’s knowing and clever direction, moving quickly from shot to shot but always making sure we are there with him.    

There are too many great moments in Ocean’s Eleven to list and Soderbergh gets great performances from the entire crew.  The script is sharp funny, clever, with Matt Damon’s Linus making a great straight man for Clooney and Pitt.  The caper is really well executed, has perfect integrity and is very satisfying.  The ending is the best of any caper and really seals the deal.   It shows the closeness and camaraderie between Ocean’s gang and if you did not love them before, at that final moment you will.  

 Ocean’s Eleven is available in the UK here and in the US here

No 7:  The First Great Train Robbery

Set in the Victorian England of the 1850’s, two thieves set out to steal a consignment of gold bullion.  The bullion is intended to pay the army engaged in Britain’s war in the Crimea.  Once a month the gold consignment is loaded on a steam train from London to Folkstone, from where it is shipped overseas.  Our thieves conclude that the only way to successfully steal the gold is from the moving train.

Our thieves are Sean Connery as Edward Pierce, gentleman thief and Donald Sutherland as an Irish safecracker.  They discover that they need four unique keys to open the gold safe on the train and so the shenanigans begin. 

There is great fun to be had in this movie as we watch Connery’s imposing Pierce leading pompous English officials around by the nose.  As the movie progresses Connery sets Sutherland more and more difficult tasks, to which Sutherland responds by whining and complaining.  Connery, dominant and completely self-assured, ignores Sutherland, to great comic effect.  Lesley Anne Down as Connery’s put-upon mistress is also good, being obliged to play both an upscale French whore and a grieving young woman with a coffin, to advance the caper. 

The caper itself is conducted in stages, including a night break-in at the railway station where the train will leave from.  This is cleverly done, with our thieves coming within a knife-edge of discovery.   The assault on the train looks and feels very real and for the first time we see Connery’s mastermind make a mistake. 

Connery is the ultimate manly male in this movie, handsome and extremely virile.  Dressed in Victorian frockcoats and brocade waistcoats he radiates power and self-assurance.  This is Connery the sex-symbol at large.

Directed by Michael Crichton from his own novel, the First Great Train Robbery is partly based on a real crime.  Crichton gives us a film that feels historically correct, is great fun and has a clever caper to enjoy.

The First Great Train Robbery is available in the UK here and in the US here.
 

No: 6  Nine Queens

A latin sting, with some judiciously timed capering thrown in at the end.  Two con men meet during a supermarket sting in Buenos Aires.  One offers the other a job as his apprentice and off we go.  Ricardo Darin is Marcos, the admitted amoral master conman and Gaston Pauls is the likeable but callow Juan. 

This is an unlikely start for what is one of the best con/capers I have ever seen.  This was director Fabian Berlinsky’s first movie and gives us a crook’s tour of modern Buenos Aires, introducing us to the quirkiest and most entertaining characters.  Amazingly all of these characters have an integral place in the movie and the story almost tells itself.  9 Queens is a joy to watch, effortless and fluid, picturesque and colourful.  The two leads dominate the movie and the way they play off each other is great cinema and by turns funny and tricky.         

As if by accident, our two con men get themselves into a big caper.  Suddenly the clock is ticking as they see the big score in front of their eyes, with only a few hours to seal the deal and make the steal.

Arrogant businessmen, valuable stamps and Marcos’ beautiful but pissed-off sister all get thrown into the mix.  Nothing goes according to plan and our leads spend more time patching their caper than they do executing it.  But it all comes together.

As I write this I feel like the more I write about 9 Queens, the less I say.  Buy or rent this and watch it.  This is a great caper movie.  Great movie  
 
9 Queens is available in the UK here and in the US here.

   
No 5: The Good Thief

A remake of Bob Le Flambeur, the classic French heist but with a life and joy all of its own.  Bob, gambler, heroin addict and American smart-ass, eking out a living in low rent card games in the arse-end of the French Riviera (the slums of Nice, smelly and dangerous).  Bob is played by Nick Nolte, never more grizzled and handsome, never more charming.  One of Nick Nolte’s best ever performances, a man at the bottom who knowingly gets himself into a caper of great danger.

One last job, the Casino Riviera in Monaco.  Bob gathers two crews, for two separate capers, all the while knowing he is going to be betrayed to the cops.  Great interplay between Nolte and the boss cop (Tcheky Karo, in an inspired performance) and superb ensemble playing from a charismatic and sometimes downright weird French cast.  Topped off with a slinky sexy Russian femme who is only just on the right side of jailbait.   

Sly and adult, with pinpoint-sharp man-to-man repartee.  This caper has the best lines of any caper I have seen.  These guys know it could be jail or death but, hey, no need to get too serious about it. 

Neil Jordan directs with some sharp visuals and contrasting locations that keep you glued to the movie.  He really captures the light and seductive colours of the Riviera and throws the slums of Nice and the wealth of Monaco into sharp contrast.  He makes Monaco at night the glittering prize for the hard-bitten heist gangs.  Add a superb soundtrack and some good changes of tempo and The Good Thief qualifies as a top-class caper.  The heist is well-established and played out with integrity.  There are a couple of dud scenes but really the Riviera has not looked this exciting since Grant and Hitchcock in “To catch a thief”.   Plus a really satisfying ending.
 
The Good Thief is available in the UK here and in the US here.
  

No 4: Heist

Heist kicks in with an electric opening as crooks Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) and Bobby Blane (Delroy Lindo) rob a high-end jewellery store, in a city in a state somewhere below the 69th Parallel  (might be Oregon, might be Illinois).  Hackman loses his mask in the robbery and the store’s security video captures him full-face.    

Now Hackman knows it is only a matter of time before he is tracked down and sets his mind to planning his last big job, the one that will get him out from under.  He is hampered by his weaselly fence (Danny DeVito as a menacing slimeball) who demands participation in the big caper.  The clock is is ticking and the complications numerous. 

So Hackman sets up the big caper, a gold bullion robbery from an airliner which is about to take off.  The time for the caper is measured in minutes and seconds and while it is running the sense of impending disaster, arrest and capture, is massive.  This is a great caper, with tools and timing and some great evade and escape tricks.  Hackman’s method for getting the gold out of the airport is, well, simply genius.   
   
Heist is tight, the caper team are tight, the direction and plotting are tight, never a wasted  moment, economy of vision translating into a crisp action movie that keeps moving and keeps its audience engaged.  This is a movie about tough people, men and women of few words, squeezing their communication out in a few terse sentences.  This caper feels real, you can taste the determination, the fear and the greed.  

Other capers have humour, Heist has Hackman at his sarcastic, smartass best.  There are some great lines in this movie and great interplay between Hackman and Delroy Lindo as the pro thieves.  David Mamet directs with absolute certainty and gets deep, insightful performances out of his actors.  Hackman is superb, as is Danny DeVito, but it is the ensemble playing that makes this movie shine.

Once the gold is liberated, alliances break down and the double-crosses start.  Only the person with the most tricks up their sleeve will win.  Misdirection and deceit take their toll and only at the very last moment do we see who is the last man standing.

Great caper, great acting, one of those movies where you see something new every time you watch it.                

Heist is available in the UK here and in the US here 

No: 3  Confidence

This is a caper that really sparkles!  Ed Burns leads a team of grifters trying to get out from under, get revenge and make the big score.  Aided by a superb script that really cares about its characters and some fast direction (James Foley), Confidence tells a story of a caper in Los Angeles.  Burns is the grifter, Rachel Weisz is his shill and Paul Giamatti provides the vicious put-downs as the smart sidekick.  Dustin Hoffman, who I have never previously warmed to, is a truly repulsive bad guy.  

This is a clever, confident movie with a real tension in the story.  Ed Burns is manly, smart and stylish.  But, as Hoffman points out to him “Style will get you killed”.  Needless to say that is not a sentiment we agree with here on What Makes a Man.  So I was rooting for Burns. 

There are so many good things about this movie, it is difficult to know where to start, or stop.  The script sketches all of the characters really well, making it easy to identify with them.  All of the actors produce superb performances, with Burns, Weisz, Hoffman and Andy Garcia slightly outclassing the other players.  The scenes between Burns and Hoffman are electric and a sheer joy to watch.  Everybody gives a great performance and the ensemble playing is just magical. 

The cinematography is colourful and in places downright beautiful, in some places stopping just short of lush.  A couple of the night scenes are contenders for the Michael-Mann-LA-is-beautiful award.  James Foley directs like his life depends on it. This movie is quick, and I mean really quick and clever.  The scenes move quickly, the dialogue moves quicker and the characters move quicker still.  The movie sets the caper up for us but you really have to watch it closely.  This is not a movie you can watch with half your attention, this is a movie that demands you engage.

Confidence draws you in and you want Burns and his crew to win.  See it and see for yourself.

Confidence is available in the UK here and in the US here.
 

No: 2 The Italian Job

Fast, fun and warm-hearted.  On its release it was hammered by lazy English journalists who did the ready-made “not a patch on Michael Caine” story.  In my opinion, the remake is miles better than the original.  The opening caper, involving a safe, Venice and some fast speedboat work, makes grown men roar with appreciation.  Adrenaline-charged fun with boats.  

Everybody in this film acts their heads off, from Mark Wahlberg as Charlie Croaker, criminal genius, to Charlize Theron’s beautiful but slightly brittle safebreaker.  Jason Statham gets a role where as “Handsome Rob” he is a getaway driver who is irresistible to women.  Statham shows he is a real actor and gives a great performance.  Moss Def is droll and very funny as the ultra-cool explosives expert.  They make a colourful, confident gang and the scenes between them have real warmth.

F. Gary Gray directed the movie, with a real eye for action and some quirky moments, including a pompous politically correct Ukrainian fence and a huge Samoan gang boss who must weight 30 stones if he weighs a pound.  This is exactly what a caper movie should be, with a twisty plot and great characters.  Occasionally it shows a hard edge, with a truly amoral villain who cannot be underestimated.  The Italian Job has the qualities of being very carefully crafted and great timing. 

The final caper is magnificent and like the job in Venice, will take your breath away the first time you see it.  Los Angeles makes a colourful and surprisingly varied caper venue, giving us some real surprises of location.  The scenes with the mini’s have all the excitement and charm of the original, with the added twist that the mini’s are being chased around Los Angeles by helicopter. 

This film has a huge heart, a truly great caper and every second of the movie radiates style.  Simply the best.    

Postscript
There is supposed to be a follow-up to the Italian Job, working title is the Brazilian Job.  However like many movies, it has been delayed by the Hollywood screenwriters strike.  The problem with information on the web about forthcoming movies is that it promises great movies in the future.  The end result is that you wish your life away waiting for the movies you want to see.  Still I hope the Brazilian job does get the original cast and director together and gets made.     

The Italian Job is available in the UK here and in the US here.

No 1:  The Thomas Crown Affair

The caper is ingenious and this movie leaps off the blocks, as the caper is committed during the very first scenes of the movie.  A determined gang of thieves set out to rob a large New York museum.  Their entry into the museum is outrageously daring and their progress through the museum is painstakingly tracked by the camera, excitement building all the time.  John McTiernan, master of action movies such as the Hunt for Red October, makes these scenes urgent and tense.  At this point in the movie we do not know where our loyalties lie and we are held at arm’s length, as McTiernan manipulates us, the audience, into place.

Pierce Brosnan, previously introduced as corporate financier Thomas Crown, is suddenly revealed as the caper boss, and steals a priceless Monet.  He escapes, the crew are captured and the New York police are called in to clear up the mess.  At this point Rene Russo’s insurance investigator appears.   

The ensuing duel of wits between Brosnan’s art thief/Mergers and Acquisitions financier and Russo’s insurance agent sparks and pops all the way thorough the movie.  Russo is old enough and stylish enough to take on Brosnan’s “self-involved, successful loner” (as the movie puts it).  The message is obvious.  For a real man, only a real woman will do.  

Several things put the Thomas Crown Affair in a class of its own.

The movie uses the device of intercutting scenes of Thomas Crown with his therapist into the main story.  This is masterful, it isolates Crown from the action and really allows us to see the man he is.  As an added masterstroke the therapist is played by Faye Dunaway, who played the insurance investigator in the original Thomas Crown Affair. 

The second thing that the movie has is John McTiernan’s direction.  All of McTiernan’s movies have something intelligent to say about real men and Thomas Crown is his masterwork.  In scene after scene he shows Brosnan as a dominant rogue male, powerful, ambitious and slightly contemptuous of the rest of the world.  Brosnan is tired of Wall Street and can now only find excitement in tougher games, breaking the law.  

There is no political correctness here, Brosnan is always ahead of Russo, always in control.  The war between them moves and sways, but Russo’s is always on the back foot, until the final confrontation.  For as Brosnan has been seducing Russo, he has fallen in love with her.  This is brilliantly done, as Brosnan unwittingly reveals a chink in his armour.         

This is McTiernan and Brosnan’s masterpiece.  McTiernan directs a celebration of the
Alpha male.  Brosnan, immaculately dressed by Italian master tailor Gianni Campagna looks every inch the billionaire financier and crucially has the manners and persona to match.  Brosnan gives the best performance of his career, powerful and confident.  The Thomas Crown affair has real style and taste.    

This a movie that transcends the caper genre, it is sexy, stylish and has the timing and grace of an Aston Martin.  It is the examplar of caper movies and in my opinion one of the best Hollywood movies ever made. 
 

The Thomas Crown Affair is available in the UK here and in the US here

Some thoughts on Caper Movies.

I realised while writing this piece that the best caper movies are those where the capers have an integrity of their own.  Where the actual take-downs are given centre-stage and are not cheated in order to make way for more action or laughs or provide a vehicle for a star.  Capers are like music and have to have the right tempo, be it the silky bossa nova of Ocean’s Eleven or the angry jazz of Heist.  The caper has to be the centre-piece or the movie falls between the stools of action and contrivance.

Also, the more style a caper movie it has, the better it runs.  If a gentleman thief is gonna go a-robbin’ then it has to be for the best.  Style, charm and great clothes might just carry the day, when tougher crews have failed.   

Still to come 

This post concludes my look at caper movies.  Later I will post a review of a new caper movie; The Bank Job. 

This seems to be a good year for caper movies.  Later in the spring Michael Caine and Demi Moore star in Flawless, writeup and trailer here.  

Great Caper Movies 20-11

My last post was a celebration of caper movies.  In that post i included the first 10 (30-21) of my favourite caper movies. Below are movies 20-11.  I think there are one or two little-known gems in this section. Enjoy. 

No 20: Steal

The hipster’s caper movie.  Steal’s caper gang are cool, young, and unorthodox.  Led by Stephen Dorff they take down bank scores in a unnamed US city.  Dorff’s crew are athletic extreme sports guys, and they favour clever methods that allow them to evade the law rather than confront them.   In their first takedown, which opens the movie, they escape on skate boards.  Great action moviemaking.  

Professional and successful, this gang movie quickly onto their second big score, only to discover that tougher and meaner criminals are onto them.  The net tightens and the gang are forced to work for the type of violent thugs they have always despised.  Dorff frantically looks for a way out from under, while setting up ever more inventive capers. Life gets even more complicated when Dorff finds out the woman he has just started dating (Nastasha Henstridge) is a cop, and worse, a cop on the strike force that is looking to bust his gang.

This is a fast exciting movie with original and ingenious capers.  This is a laugh out loud, applaud the screen great caper movie.   It was directed by Gerard Pires, the French moviemaker who had a huge hit with “Taxi” and Steal has the same rollicking energy. 

However the acting on Steal is variable and lets the movie down.  The two lead bad guys (one of them is Steven Berkoff as a hellfire preacher cum mob assassin - appalling) are really bad.  Natasha Henstridge is saddled with a role which, even after repeated watchings I do not clearly understand and she looks uncomfortable throughout the movie.  Dorff is excellent throughout and his gang are good but it makes the movie a little lopsided. 

If you stick with this and give due consideration for some of the acting, this is a cracking caper movie.

Steal is available in the UK here and in the US here.
  

No 19:  Bob Le Flambeur      

Bob is a gambler, ex-con and gentlemen thief, living by a strict code of honour.  Smartly dressed and very cool.  Bob haunts the Paris underworld gambling in illicit card games in smoky backrooms.  Bob’s taste for real crime has been reduced by a spell in prison.    

However Bob’s life gets more complicated.  His young sidekick Paolo idolizes him and wants him to take down one last big score.  Further complications arrive in the form of Anne, a beautiful teenage girl with an innocent face, who is much too sexy for her own good. Anne is in love with Bob and Paolo is in love with Anne.  Bob will have nothing to do with Anne and sets her up with Paolo, but his good intentions become the seeds of trouble. 

This film is a masterpiece of elegant manly men and a world of crime that ordinary people never see.  I first saw this movie some twenty years ago and the images and stories within have stayed with me since.  Better qualified film critics have lavished this film with praise for nearly half a century, it has a tragic romantic quality and a dryly humourous, brave performance from Roger Duchesne as Bob.    

Bob’s last caper is to take down the casino at Deauville, which in those post-world war 2 days was the high society resort for wealthy Parisians.  The script manages the feat of getting the gang into the casino when it is empty so the gang can enjoy a dry-run.  Bob le Flambeur must be the only caper movie which has done this. 

So, the caper is set and ready to run.  But there are several strokes of fate still to be played out.  Once again we are several plot twists from the end.  

Bob Le Flambeur is a great film and a passable caper.  Elegant, stylish and sensual in a way that only the French can manage, this is (in my opinion) director Jean-Pierre Melville’s best film.    

Bob Le Flambeur is available in the UK here and in the US here

No 18:  Seven Thieves

A 1960 classic from the great director Henry Hathaway.  Once again we are in the South of France, our caper is the Casino at Monte Carlo and our seven thieves expect to relieve it of 4 million French francs. 

Our thieves are led by an elderly Edward G Robinson, “the professor”, the mastermind of the caper and Rod Steiger, a tough American with an ambiguous past.  Edward G Robinson has summoned the bitter, paranoid Steiger to Cannes for the venture and the mystery of their relationship winds elusively through the entire movie.  The gang are made up of Eli Wallach’s Pancho, a saxophone player and front man and his on-off girlfriend and dancer Melanie (played by Joan Collins).  Collins was 27 when she made this movie and was never more beautiful.  The other three members are a casino insider, a driver and a pretty-boy safecracker.

The casino director’s private secretary, (Reymond Le May) is a weak and lecherous husband obsessed with dancer Melanie.  The professor uses him to get access to the casino on the night of the Governor’s Ball, a high society affair which will act as the cover for their robbery.  They can get in, they know where the money is, they know how to crack the safe.  The important questions are how do they get to the money, how do they hide it once they have it and how do they get out.  The professor’s caper gives them the answers.       

The caper has to be executed precisely, and parts of it are very dangerous.  This is meat and drink to Hathaway, who has already given all of the thieves real personalities, making us love and hate them.  As the caper gets more and more dangerous, cracks start to show and we begin to wonder whether our thieves will have the guts to pull it off.  As always with Hathaway, the interplay between the players is as riveting as the action.  Collins really makes something of her role as Melanie and the growing love affair between Melanie and Steiger’s Paul is believable and enthralling. 

Hathaway winds up the tension as only he can, nothing flashy, just unexpected incidents, little hesitations that increase the pressure on the thieves.  By the time the caper is underway the suspense is tortuous.  As the movie twists and turns towards its end, we are kept guessing until the last.  Classic movie and classic caper.      

Seven Thieves is available in the UK here and in the US here

No: 17 After the Sunset

Starts with a blindingly good caper heist, as jewel thieves Max Burdett and Lola Cirillo (Pierce Brosnan & Salma Hayek) relieve FBI agent Lloyd (Woody Harrelson) of a “Napoleon” diamond.  Great misdirection and smart heist then into the opening credits.

This must be the most easy-on-the-eye caper movie ever.  Brosnan and Hayek retire to an island in the Bahamas to live the good life.  Cue shots of white beaches, calypso bands and rum punches with cocktail umbrellas in them.  One reviewer described this as (Director Brett Ratner’s) caper cum travelogue and there is some truth in that. 

This is mostly a comedy caper.  Our thieves’ retirement is spoilt by two things.  Firstly Brosnan is too restless to settle down, even with Salma Hayek in designer lingerie.  Secondly Harrelson’s Agent Lloyd turns up smarting for revenge and taunts Brosnan with the news that the last Napoleon diamond will soon be in town, the only one Brosnan has not stolen.  The wheels start turning, for the last caper.

After the Sunset is a little mixed.  Brosnan is in superb form and truly funny in his deadpan, wry way.  However Max Burdett has a luxury villa on the beach island and so Brosnan gets to wear a lot of designer linen.  The problem is that Brosnan’s style type is Full Classic (meaning that he needs to wear classic clothes to look good) and the natural linen look makes him look a little ineffectual, a little seedy. 

Selma Hayek is courageous and clever as Lola, giving Brosnan a run for his money in their scenes together.  Don Cheadle plays a nasty island gangster, in a sub-plot that seems way too harsh for this genial movie.  That said, there is one truly funny scene where Cheadle’s gangboss tells Brosnan how he has achieved spiritual enlightenment by listening to the Mommas and Poppas. 

So Brosnan sets up the final caper, with Harrelson sticking to him like a band-aid.  This gives us some comedy bonding, including the two of them drunk and shooting a menacing shark with a police revolver.  On paper, the last caper is good, but by then there is too much going on in the movie and the climax is rushed and loses some of its impact.              

I like this movie, even though it is a caper-lite, it is funny.  There are also 15 seconds in the opening credits especially for Selma Hayek’s male fans.  Brosnan is disco-dancing on the beach with Selma Hayek in a black bikini.  As the band hits its stride Hayek throws her arms wide, arches her back and does a rock and roll shimmy.  You have to see it and once you have seen it you probably want it on a loop….    
 
After the Sunset is available in the UK here and in the US here

No 16: The Hustle

The Hustle inhabits the territory somewhere between caper, heist and murder mystery.  What elevates this movie to the list of good capers is its strong story and unusual characters.  Bobbie Phillips and Stephen McHattie’s small time grifters seem doomed, until a failed scam leaves them with a chance to play the big con.  The con/caper plays out against a backdrop of wealth and New York privilege, with some truly evil players.

The Hustle (not to be confused with Hustle, the Robert Aldrich cop movie with Burt Reynolds) has an original story around family wealth and betrayal and I was a long way into the movie before I worked out what the scam was.  There is a masterly piece of misdirection early on and the story twists and turns with none of the players being what they seem.  As Bobbie Phillips finds out the true nature of the big con, and the depths to which the players will go, she has to think on her feet and make moves of her own, just to stay alive. 

Acting and direction win out here.  Stephen Mchattie does a good job as the grifter out of his depth and Robert Wagner, few though his scenes are, adds some class and heft to the movie.  Bobbie Phillips is a revelation.  She gives a gre