The film begins with two, maybe three minutes of titles and trailers that made me think I accidentally turned on the trailer instead of the film itself, but no, that's just Roberts laying out his method and establishing Tomic as a man of talents. singular. "My nickname is Spider-Man," he says. "I am one of the biggest thieves in Paris." Others call him “elusive” and “a legend” who “had guts.” “The biggest art heist in the history of France,” he reads on the screen. “Told by the real thief… with the real detectives… with a dramatic reconstruction.” Five masterpieces were stolen in what would be, in Tomic's own words, his last work.
Soon enough, the doctor calms down and sets the bait while Tomic sits in the center and talks about how his “receiver” – a person who buys stolen goods from thieves to distribute – gave him a list of paintings to “acquire,” for the ordered price of €50 each. We meet some Parisian police officers and art exhibitors, and take a brief tour of the MoMA in Paris, which, Tomic discovered, had weak window frames and a broken alarm system.
Director: Jamie Roberts
Stars: Maxime Canat, Derek Simon Robin
And now we finally go linear: 1968. Tomic tells his story: He was born in France, to a mother too sick to care for him and an abusive father. He spent part of his childhood with some uncles in Bosnia. He began stealing at age eight, which led to a teenage life defined by serial crime. He entered the army, where he learned to climb and discovered that he was very good at it. He left the service and, motivated by money, began robbing the rich.
He would climb 10 or even 15 floors, break into apartments and sneak out while people were sleeping, stealing their jewelry and cash. We see go-pro helmet camera footage recreating the climbs of him, leaping over railings dozens of feet off the ground, leaping from balconies to rooftop peaks and ledges.
We meet some of the people Tomic victimized, who talk about how home invasions, even if not physically destructive, are psychologically painful violations of their sense of security. Tomic justifies his actions with a general statement about the rich and their lack of appreciation for their abundance: "I know they are devious, depraved and dishonest," he says. But people stopped keeping valuables and cash in their homes, prompting Tomic's growing appreciation for paintings. As a true Frenchman, he was very fond of the Impressionists.
He was once arrested holding up three Renoirs and sent to prison; He would later reveal that he spent 18 years of his life imprisoned, before the MoMA heist. That's why he wanted it to be his last job. He wanted to take the money, buy a boat and sail around the world. So he spent many days inspecting the museum, studying the building's security, acquiring tools, and painstakingly removing screws from a window in the dead of night. And then one night, he forced open the window. He took the glass away. Cut a chain lock. And he walked right in.
After a brief choppy start, Paris Spider-Man is a cleverly crafted thriller in documentary form. Roberts layers Tomic's narration over skillfully directed reenactments that build and heighten tension. The director emphasizes the minute details of the thief's actions and details the suspenseful moments of his escape, the attempts to receive payment for his work (his recipient only gave him 40,000 euros) and the police investigation that ensued. he continued. The detectives started with almost nothing, and it turned out that they were surveilling Tomic not because of MoMA's work, but because he was an unapologetic repeat offender. Investigators followed him at night and tapped his phones while he spent his money and considered, but they never carried out any further robberies.
As we sit enraptured by the drama, Roberts weaves a profile of Tomic, who is revealed to be a loner who, in one of the film's most fascinating passages, reveals that he would take homeless people to fancy dinners because he didn't want to. He had friends or family and he didn't trust anyone. Roberts locates a homeless gentleman named Guillaume who describes Tomic as a loner who pushes people away due to his abrasive mannerisms; Guillaume even claims that Tomic told him about the art theft, because Tomic probably needed to vent and had no one else to talk to.
Although Tomic's narration is the cornerstone of the film, Roberts does not rely entirely on him to develop the story. He thoroughly and diligently interviews key figures and somehow, refreshingly, avoids the journalists and lawyers who populate all the other documentaries.
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