FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Denver Film Media Contacts:
Marty Schechter: marty@schechterpr.com
Keith Garcia: keith@denverfilm.org
(THICK AS THIEVES assets link, Series TRAILER link)
DENVER – Feb. 17, 2025 – Denver Film today announced the kick off of its latest repertory film series – THICK AS THIEVES – exploring the art of the heist film over the decades. From classic takes like The Pink Panther and Rafifi to modern riffs like Widows and Inception, the series covers a wide range of the best films about teams looking for the loot and getting a lot more than they bargained for. The series kicks off March 1 with two Double Features highlighting all four of the Ocean’s films – Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, and 8 – to get you in the mood for all of the twists and turns to come. The films will screen exclusively at Denver Film’s year-round home the Sie FilmCenter, 2510 E. Colfax, throughout March.
“Hide your valuables but keep your eyes open as we hatch a plan and assemble a crack team of films to show you the art of the heist through seventeen of the genres most valuable gems” said Sie FilmCenter Artistic Director, Keith Garcia. “Audiences have been enticed and thrilled by the heist film for decades but it hasn’t been a cookie-cutter blueprint, and in fact, variety and originality is the key to keeping viewers enchanted by the fantasy of risking it all and – maybe? – getting away with it. Comic capers and dead-serious dramas are the bookends of this selection with delicious differentials throughout.”
The full schedule and tickets are on sale now at denverfilm.org. Ticket prices range from $12 – $15 for General Admission with deeper discounts available to Denver Film Members.
OCEAN’S ELEVEN + OCEAN’S TWELVE Double Feature
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Saturday, March 1, 11:30 a.m.
Kick off a whole month of heist films the right way with two double bills (OCEAN’S THIRTEEN and 8 screening separately) of the star-studded Hollywood escapade that rejuvenated the genre – Steven Soderbergh’s remake of the 1960’s Rat Pack caper OCEAN’S ELEVEN and its delicious sequel OCEAN’S TWELVE. Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and seemingly every star in between, the series went from Vegas to Europe for a ton of fun thievery and made heists as valuable as a stolen diamond and worth twice as much.
OCEAN’S THIRTEEN + OCEAN’S 8 Double Feature
Director: Steven Soderbergh / Gary Ross
Saturday, March 1, 4:30 p.m.
Close out Soderbergh’s OCEAN’S Trilogy with THIRTEEN as that team – Clooney, Damon, Pitt and MORE – come home to Vegas to go out in one final blaze of glory. Then take in the sassy spin-off of OCEAN’S 8, which introduces us to a girl’s club of thieves set on stealing some jewels from the Met Gala. Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Awkwafina, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway round out that sparkling cast.
THE KILLING
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Wednesday, March 5, 7 p.m.
Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) recruits a sharpshooter (Timothy Carey), a crooked police officer (Ted de Corsia), a bartender (Joe Sawyer) and a betting teller named George (Elisha Cook Jr.), among others, for one last job before he goes straight and marries his fiancee, Fay (Coleen Gray). But when George tells his restless wife, Sherry (Marie Windsor), about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.
SET IT OFF
Director: F. Gary Gray
Friday & Saturday, March 7 & 8, 9:30 p.m.
After being fired from her job as a bank teller, Frankie (Vivica A. Fox) begins working at a janitorial service with her friends Tisean (Kimberly Elise), a single mother; Cleo (Queen Latifah), a boisterous lesbian; and Stony (Jada Pinkett), who is dealing with the recent death of her brother. The women are struggling with their finances, so they decide to start robbing banks. At first the group is successful, but they soon attract the attention of an obsessive detective (John C. McGinley).
THE PINK PANTHER
Director: Blake Edwards
Saturday, March 8, 12 p.m.
In this first film of the beloved comic series, dashing European thief Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven) plans to steal a diamond, but he’s not the only one with his eyes on the famous jewel known as the “Pink Panther.” His nephew George (Robert Wagner) also aims to make off with the gem, and to frame Charles for the crime. Blundering French police inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) intercedes, but finds his career — and his freedom — jeopardized.
THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR
Director: Norman Jewison
Sunday, March 9, 12:00 p.m.
Bored millionaire Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) concocts and executes a brilliant scheme to rob a bank without having to do any of the work himself. When Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway), an investigator for the bank’s insurance company, takes an interest in Crown, the two begin a complicated cat-and-mouse game with a romantic undertone. In an attempt to decipher Anderson’s agenda, Crown devises another robbery like his first, wondering if he can get away with the same crime twice.
INCEPTION
Director: Christopher Nolan
Wednesday, March 12, 7 p.m.
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the rare ability to enter people’s dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of corporate espionage but has also cost him everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: Plant an idea in someone’s mind. If he succeeds, it will be the perfect crime, but a dangerous enemy anticipates Cobb’s every move.
A FISH CALLED WANDA
Director: John Cleese, Charles Critchton
Friday & Saturday, March 14 & 15, 9:30 p.m.
British gangster George Thomason (Tom Georgeson) and his hapless aide, Ken Pile (Michael Palin), draft a pair of arrogant Americans, grifter Wanda Gerschwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis) and weapons expert Otto West (Kevin Kline), for a massive diamond heist. When the job goes badly, Wanda attempts to seduce George’s stuffy lawyer, Archie Leach (John Cleese), to find out where George hid the diamonds. Meanwhile, Ken repeatedly attempts to kill an elderly woman (Patricia Hayes) who witnessed the robbery.
LE CERCLE ROUGE
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Wednesday, March 19, 7 p.m.
When French criminal Corey (Alain Delon) gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte). Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen (Yves Montand), they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei (Bourvil), who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.
THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE
Director: Joseph Sargent
Friday & Saturday, March 21 & 22, 9:30 p.m.
In New York City, a criminal gang led by the ruthless Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw) hijacks a subway car and threatens to start shooting one passenger per minute unless they receive a million dollars in cash from the city within an hour. On the other end of the line, crusty veteran transit policeman Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau) has his hands full dealing with the mayor’s office and his hotheaded fellow cops, while also trying to deliver the ransom before the deadline expires.
WIDOWS
Director: Steve McQueen
Saturday, March 22, 12 p.m.
A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows — Veronica, Linda, Alice and Belle — have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses’ criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, Veronica joins forces with the other three women to pull off a heist that her husband was planning.
THIEF
Director: Michael Mann
Sunday, March 23, 12 p.m.
The contemporary American auteur Michael Mann’s bold artistic sensibility was already fully formed when he burst out of the gate with THIEF, his debut feature. James Caan stars, in one of his most riveting performances, as a no-nonsense ex-con professional thief planning to leave the criminal world behind after one last score—but he discovers that escape is not as simple as he’d hoped. Finding hypnotic beauty in neon and rain-slick streets, sparks and steel, THIEF effortlessly established the moody stylishness, tactile approach, and drama that would also define such later iconic Mann films as HEAT, THE INSIDER, ALI, and THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS.
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
Director: John Huston
Wednesday, March 26, 7 p.m.
Recently released from prison, Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) concocts a plan to steal $1 million in jewels. Dix gathers a team of small-time crooks, including a safecracker (Anthony Caruso) and a lawyer (Louis Calhern), and the heist is a success until a stray bullet kills one of the men. As they scramble to pick up the pieces after the theft, the men let their greed get the best of them while entangling themselves in webs of deceit, treachery and murder.
DOG DAY AFTERNOON
Director: Sidney Lumet
Saturday, March 29, 12 p.m.
When inexperienced criminal Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino) leads a bank robbery in Brooklyn, things quickly go wrong, and a hostage situation develops. As Sonny and his accomplice, Sal Naturile (John Cazale), try desperately to remain in control, a media circus develops and the FBI arrives, creating even more tension. Gradually, Sonny’s surprising motivations behind the robbery are revealed, and his standoff with law enforcement moves toward its inevitable end.
RIFIFI
Director: Jules Dassin
Sunday, March 30, 12:30 p.m.
Tony Le Stéphanois (Jean Servais), back from prison after taking a rap for Jo le Suédois (Carl Möhner), is ready to settle a few scores and mastermind a brilliant jewel heist. A worldwide smash hit, Rififi earned director Jules Dassin the Best Director prize at Cannes and set the standard for screen robberies for decades to come.
About Denver Film
Denver Film has been transforming and entertaining the Colorado community through the power of diverse voices in film since 1978. Operating as the region’s only membership-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit film institution, Denver Film has grown into a signature cultural organization in the West, screening international and independent movies found nowhere else in the region.
Serving more than 100,000 patrons annually through 600-plus screenings that include year-round programming at Denver Film’s flagship home the Sie (pronounced SEE) FilmCenter, the annual Denver Film Festival celebration, the iconic Film on the Rocks program at Red Rocks Amphitheater, and Spotlight Festivals including CinemaQ, Women+Film, and the Colorado Dragon Boat Film Festival. Spotlights highlight underrepresented communities and foster inclusivity. Denver Film works to build resilience across all of its programming and events by amplifying diverse voices, promoting equity, and fostering community connections.
For more information or to explore the full suite of Denver Film programming, events, and ticketing visit: denverfilm.org.
