I love heist movies. Somehow I seem to be drawn to these films again and again. Commonly they tend to revolve around people planning a perfect robbery. Many plots in many films resemble each other in various aspects. So do the protagonists. As such, the point in most heist films is usually about how things are happening, with the details and surprizes, characterizations and variations. The focus with each new adaptation of the familiar basics can also be put on different aspects, be it the preparations for the coup which has yet to take place, the aftermath and its reverberations, or the shady motifs of the different criminal minds who are part of the operation. Deceits, rivalries and double-crossings are genre staples, and fate, luck, chance, accidents and coincidences also abound, sometimes to a point, where the heist itself becomes almost an afterthought to the convoluted proceedings. Thus, as in every genre, the limits get redefined when established conventions are bent or broken, while the tension and suspense are being transfered from the protagonists to the viewer and can make the familiar suddenly appear in a new disguise.

This list contains a few of my favorites. Some are presented as a comedy, some as a character study. They can be essentially a love story. And some are even westerns or biker movies. Be that as it may, if they are stripped-down to the essentials or constructed as reflections on the genre and cinema itself - as stated before, I love them all.

not (yet/anymore) on letterboxd:

Grenzgänger (Ilse Hofmann, 1981, West Germany) ****