RESEARCH - Analyse a Thriller film

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

The Thomas Crown affair is a Romantic Thriller based around the events that unfold after a very expensive painting goes missing from a gallery and the female detective on the case falls in love with the main suspect.

What conventions of Thriller films does this film use?

• eye-line match shot of the criminals (makes the viewer wonder who they are, what they are doing etc)
• Cut away from main narrative to an object (the painting) connoting that this will be a main part/cause of the action that is to come.
• Extreme facial close ups of characters during tense points in the film to give an insight in to what they are thinking/feeling and create maximum tension.
• non diagetic sound (music) slowly builds up throughout a scene, reaching the fastest paced and most dramatic sounding at the climax of the events
• Low angle shot from the villain's point of view which creates a sense of fear whilst highlighting the character's status
• Colour is used to add to the atmosphere - in this film a group of men walk past wearing red blazers, this is effective because red connotes danger and action, moreover it is a hint that something is about to happen 
• Two scenes that will eventually meet at the climax of the film are repeatedly cross cut from one to the other, this creates a feeling that they are linked which creates tension for the viewer as they await the upcoming action
• A wide shot of the scene is shown alongside the diagetic sound from the scene, however we can not clearly see what is going on due to the shot type, this creates suspense about what is happening
• Camera tracks a moving object which will be a main source of the later action (the car the main characters are in at the beginning of the film)
• A number of different shot types are quickly edited together during the action 
•  Pathetic fallacy is used - the weather tends to build up, getting worse and is at its peak at the 'moment of realisation' in the film (When they realise that the painting has been there all along)