Abstract
The first chapter deals with lone operators: Shape Shifters (such as Frank W. Abegnale in Catch Me If You Can), Knaves of Hearts and Nietzschean Self-Inventors (such as Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley). In the case of Alain Resnais’ Stavisky, the narrative is drawn from actual historical events. There is analysis of the psychology and temperament of the con man and discussion of his victims’ predisposition to conning.
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Notes
Thomas Mann, Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man [1954], tr. Denver Lindley (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983).
Patrick Hamilton, Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse (London: Constable, 1953), p. 40. Hamilton refers back to Corse’s exploits with Esther Downes in The West Pier, pp. 40 and 140.
For an appropriate definition of the Kammerspiel, see Lotte H. Eisner, The Haunted Screen, tr. Roger Greaves (London: Thames & Hudson, 1969), p. 177.
See Amy Sargeant, ‘We’re All Doing the Riviera because It’s So Much Nicer in Nice’, in Laraine Porter and Bryony Dixon (eds.), Picture Perfect (Exeter: Exeter Press, 2007).
Patricia Highsmith, Ripley’s Game [1974] (London: Vintage, 1999), p. 89.
James Monaco, Alain Resnais (London: Secker and Warburg, 1978), p. 168.
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© 2016 Amy Sargeant
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Sargeant, A. (2016). Lone Operators. In: Screen Hustles, Grifts and Stings. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137466891_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137466891_2
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