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Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Mark Kermode reveals the film-making tricks and techniques behind classic movie genres.

Mark Kermode reveals the film-making tricks and techniques behind classic movie genres, from romcoms to horrors.

Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema: The Heist

Mark Kermode

Richard Bright

John Das

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema: Series 1: The Heist

The Heist

Series 1

BBC Four - Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema, Series 1, The Heist

Mark reveals the cinematic tricks and techniques behind classic heist movies.

Mark reveals the cinematic tricks and techniques used to create classic heist movies, from The Asphalt Jungle to Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job to Baby Driver.

Mark Kermode continues his fresh and very personal look at the art of cinema by examining the techniques and conventions behind classic film genres, uncovering the ingredients that keep audiences coming back for more.
Tonight it’s the turn of the Heist movie, with its unique combination of suspense and action. Whether it’s the big bank job or netting a fortune in diamonds, why, asks Mark, do otherwise law-abiding audiences find themselves rooting for robbers and even killers? More than any other genre, the Heist movie plays with our sympathies, encouraging us to identify with characters we’d run a mile from in real life. 

From The Asphalt Jungle to Ocean’s Eleven by way of The Italian Job and even The Wrong Trousers, Mark shows how recurring character types, such as the Mastermind, and sequences like the Planning scene and the Getaway, draw us in to the big score. And he demonstrates how recent hits like Inception, The Wolf of Wall Street and Baby Driver have pushed the conventions of the Heist in thrilling new directions. At the box office, at least, crime really does pay.

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema: Series 1

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The Heist

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