Thief

SERIES
The Caan Film Festival

May 19–June 4, 2017
For two glittering weekends at the end of May, the world turns its attention to the movie event of the year: The Caan Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image. In celebration of the Bronx-born, Sunnyside-raised, and Meisner-instructed actor, the survey revisits twelve of James Caan’s greatest performances. For over half a century, Caan has lent his incomparable magnetism to a wide spectrum of films, playing both tough guys and punching bags, talkers and mumblers, charmers and monsters. With his broad-shouldered athleticism and a granite-cut jaw, Caan brings a frank physicality to the screen, making even mild-mannered performances seem subtly threatening. Yet he also freights a deep reserve of emotion, exemplifying a post-war American masculinity that is reinventing itself one mission, one conflict, one heartbreak at a time.