This film uses split screens at times to show 2 or more scenes happening at the same time. I don't know about you, but this type of filmmaking I find impressive and clever, although one person commenting about the movie found it outdated. Multi split screens or many screens shown at the same time, what is its technical name? And do you think its a good technique?
THAT SEEMED TO BE A TREND IN THE 60'S...I KNOW THEY DID THAT IN GOOD-BYE COLUMBUS AND A FEW OTHER MOVIES. I LIKE IT. I KNOW MOVIES TODAY HAVE MUCH BETTER VISUAL EFFECTS BUT THERE IS SOMETHING MISSING IN A LOT OF MOVIES TODAY. I ALSO LIKE THIS THOMAS CROWN MUCH BETTER THAN THE REMAKE. I DON'T KNOW THE TECHNICAL NAME FOR IT THOUGH. THIS MOVIE HAD A LOT OF FEELING TO IT. I LIKE THE ENDING MUCH BETTER. THE WHOLE PHYSOCOLOGY OF IT ALL.
shareEXACTLY!!!!I think the original is way better for this reason: People don't make movies like this anymore!! They are so much more intellectual, deep and enticing. They draw you in and make you feel! I don't think the movie-going public of today (for the most part) could appreciate movies of this caliber. Split screen was especially cool because they didn't over-use it. Remember the blockbuster "Incredible Hulk"?? Or was it just called "Hulk"? Anyway, it was pathetic.
shareThe use in Hulk wasn't pathetic, it was in the style of comic books.
shareI found it occassionally clever, but most of the time it was annoying. Especially the scenes of the polo game, where the image is merely repeated multiple times in a checkerboard style. It often looked gimicky, like a child with a new toy.
Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.
"I found it occassionally clever, but most of the time it was annoying. Especially the scenes of the polo game, where the image is merely repeated multiple times in a checkerboard style."
*****
Polo is not a fast game. In fact, the shots shown in the movie seldom come that quickly in practice. The intention was to speed up the action and increase the excitement. It was intended as an introduction to the scene where Faye Dunaway shoots McQueen with her cine camera.
I was going to mention Gran Prix also as someone did above. In that case they often used split screen as an artistic device, with 10-20 of the same image, such as wheels and blurred cars. In this movie it seems to be used more to combine more information into less time. It works for me. Great film.
shareHey, if you've seen one polo game you've pretty much seen them all.
At least, that's what Tommy Crown might have said. He was a very bored man.
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"The bonsai: the ultimate miniature." —Will Hayward, Twin Peaks.
I found it annoying and unnecessary. I did see the movie years ago and was sort of bored at that time being a young college student. I thought the chess scene back then was sexy.
But seeing it all again, didn't have the same impact.
I think the multiple split screens (did you ever come up with the technical name?) work perfectly here. Sure, it's outdated now, though it conveyed the coordination of the heist here very well. It used earlier in "Pillow Talk" in 1959, though I'm sure that wasn't the first film to employ the technique.
shareit was also used rather well in Grand Prix. It seems like a lot of movies made in the '60's did this split screen technique.
"Whenever Mrs. Kissell breaks wind, we beat the dog."
Split Screen is the correct name for it. The Idea to use it in TCA came from the "Expo 67" in Montreal, where there was a cutting edge multi-screen presentation called "In the Labyrinth" which used 35mm and 70mm film projected simultaneously on multiple screens. It was later used on TV shows like MANNIX.
"What rotten sins I've got working for me. I suppose it's the wages." -Bedazzled (1967)
Lousy technique that does nothing for the moment it's used here. The Boston Strangler with Tony Curtis uses it very poorly also. As does Airport.
share1968 seems to have been some kinda high water mark in split screen usage as I don´t think I´ve ever seen quite as much of it in any other film besides this and The Boston Strangler - not even in any of the De Palma pictures... I think.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
The Boston Strangler is a very interesting picture to happen to have been the other one --like an ugly subtext to the dazzling surface of The Thomas Crown Affair.
(FWIW I just watched TCA, and swung by to see whether anyone had noticed the coincidence.)
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"We'll be closing this case for now, or rather the courts will, but there'll be others,
because that's the way the world's built." --Racket Squad, typical episode closing.
I think it's a fantastic technique and it looks stylish and clever. It's surprisingly not copied that often and so when I do see it I think how cool it is.
Also used in a video game called "Heavenly Sword" in one partiuclar dramatic scene - it's done well.
This movie was awesome btw, quite stylish and that multiple scene thing added to it.