The Thomas Crown Affair

Music by Michel Legrand

 

 

 

 

 

 

Famous adventure starring Steve McQueem and Faye Dunaway, The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) was a classic pop movie of the time in which the dubious moral of the heist films were joined to pop narrative.

MichelLegrand got a musical class and sensuality so perfect in this movie that has become common to refer to the soundtrack as his masterpiece. The music has few similar in its capacity to sensorial immersion. Obviously that romantic themes (such as A Man's Castle) are naturally efficient for the involvement of the viewer, but Legrand succeeded a remarkable hypnotic force, even in the vibrant rhythms of Cash and Carry. Equivalent to the romantic cat and mouse game between the protagonists, the music employs contrasting blocks that combine, measured or challenge itself in an ingenious parallel to the script. The theme The Chess Game (the famous sequence of chess game in split screen) is one of the highlights of the soundtrack and the film in his insinuations and sensual atmosphere for the speachless sequence. The chess game sequence was edited after the track has been record to make it synchronize to music. The main theme, Windmills of Your Mind, is simply one of the greatest classics of film music – and the work of Legrand – and His Eyes, Her Eyes (sung by the composer himself) works as a second romantic theme. Considering the historic moment for jazz in film music, The Thomas Crown Affair is an elegant alternative to the intrusive soundtracks worked by Lalo Schifrin and Quincy Jones.