A figure who started out as nothing but a glorified bank robber becoming inextricably associated with art could be considered a little bit troubling – a depressing indictment of the art world’s obsession with secrecy and deals. For that figure to be lionised as a popular hero is even more troubling. Unless, of course, we are considering the figure of Thomas Crown. He has been played by Steve McQueen in 1968 and Pierce Brosnan in 1999, and now it’s the turn of Michael B. Jordan, who directs and stars in The Thomas Crown Affair (2027), the trailer for which has just dropped. Reader, this could be the most enjoyable experience of next year.
The opening lines of the trailer set the mood. In provocatively portentous tones Jordan and his co-star, Adria Arjona, confirm one another’s names. ‘Mr Crown,’ she says; ‘Miss Bennett,’ he replies. ‘Tell me something, does this billionaire thing really work?’ she asks. ‘Usually,’ he says brightly. If this is not the subtle cat-and-mouse chase exemplified by businessman McQueen and private investigator Faye Dunaway remade for the 21st century, I don’t know what is.
McQueen and Dunaway had so much on-screen chemistry that, as they drove over the sand dunes, they didn’t need a mutual passion for art to emphasise the emotions at stake (the film, unlike the 1999 remake and the upcoming film, is about a bank robbery rather than an art heist, though Rakewell will not reveal what else happens for fear of spoiling anything). Rene Russo’s beauty, command of a sheath dress and Bulgari jewellery as the private investigator in the 1999 version was so impressive that the film didn’t really need anything else, though it also captured one of the great on-screen laughs in a scene in which her romance with Brosnan’s character blossomed. Who can say if the new version will reach similar heights of human drama?
While McQueen robbed a bank, Brosnan stole Monet’s San Giorgio Maggiore, Twilight (1908) from the Met. It’s worth noting that this particular Monet is resident in Cardiff rather than New York, but perhaps that only adds to its charms. Rakewell enjoys the smoke bombs and the chase where many extras are dressed as the figure in Magritte’s The Son of Man (1964, private collection) with a bowler hat, as well as Denis Leary’s shouting. But what sticks with your roving correspondent most is the amazingly disgusting green juice drunk by Russo (offered by a butler on a silver salver) and the effortless cool of Brosnan’s living arrangements, a fact underscored by the frequent use of Nina Simone’s ‘Sinnerman’ on the soundtrack.
Some things to note about the latest version – millionaires go to the gym a great deal more in 2027 than they did in 1999. The Monet is now a Van Gogh. Judging by the trailer, the psychological insights are subtle in a different way: ‘You know, when you first see someone’s art collection it really tells you a story about them,’ says Ms Bennett in a voiceover, as we see a Ferrari with the numberplate ‘CRWN 4’ speeding through the streets. Rakewell couldn’t agree more.
Kenneth Branagh also appears, in all his scene-chewing glory, as an FBI agent who gloomily intones that a thief has stolen five major artworks from all across the globe. This film is not just a psychological thriller but a comment on the inflations of the art market, too. An inflation that we also see in the amount of driving and racing that goes on. McQueen’s cars on the sand dunes look positively quaint compared with Jordan’s Ferrari. Yet this Thomas Crown also makes his own gadgets, one of which he uses to climb the outside of a skyscraper with nothing but a single rope. Thomas Crown has gone from being a businessman to Batman. Or perhaps it’s just that the art world has become so comically inflated that this was the only way Michael B. Jordan could honestly portray it?
