“‘To Catch A Thief’,” Rian Johnson told Empire Magazine in the lead-up to the release of his “Star Wars” film, “was a great film to rewatch, for the romantic scale and grandeur.”
Indeed, it’s easy to see the influence on the surface of both movies. With the setting of the French Riviera, there’s an aged history to the history, covered over in the modern sheen of casinos and a glamorous life. The way Grace Kelly and Cary Grant are photographed in these settings, with the sweeping vistas behind them, add an opulence to the film. This was the first film Alfred Hitchcock filmed in VistaVision — Paramount Pictures’ answer to Cinemascope. Johnson brought that same mix of old-world and modern decadence to the streets of Canto Bight in one of the most (purposely?) misunderstood sequences in all of “Star Wars.”
Johnson brings the same elegance and confidence of camera movement that Alfred Hitchcock was able to bring to bear. In fact, Hitchcock was one of the first to utilize helicopters to capture the landscape and chases in “To Catch a Thief” much the same way we see the swooping aerial shots of the Fathier chase. Though many point to the work of Spielberg when looking at Johnson’s chase scene, they almost bear a larger resemblance to Hitchcock’s fine chase construction seen in this film.
The look of the denizens of Canto Bight look to be inspired by “To Catch a Thief” as well. The climax of the film takes place at a fancy costume party with all of the attendees in ridiculous getup hearkening back to the powdered wigs of the old French aristocracy, Johnson and the design team merely put a classy “Star Wars” spin on it.