Re: RARA-AVIS: Croupier

From: Graham Powell ( bleekerbooks@hotmail.com)
Date: 23 Jan 2002


>From: "Carrie Pruett" < pruettc@hotmail.com>
>Incidentally, anyone who thinks they can explain the ending of "Croupier"
>to
>me is welcome to e-mail me. I saw this movie 2 years ago or whenever it
>came out and have yet to encounter anyone who understood it . . .
>
>Carrie

Big spoilers ahead, so anyone who hasn't seen the movie please turn away...

S S S P P P O O O I I I L L L E E E R R R S S S

All of the following is my interpretation, and won't make much sense if you haven't seen the movie.

CROUPIER seems to me to be a character study of Clive Owen's character. Although I've seen it suggested that he's a gambling addict, it seems to me he's addicted to the power and control that comes with being a croupier. He likes controlling the fate of those who sit at his table. He likes being in charge. The only two times in the movie when he loses his cool: 1) When his girlfriend finds the money he's accepted to arrange a diversion for a heist, and 2) when his girlfriend turns up dead. There he can't control things.

He resist being drawn into casino life (drawn in again, apparently) but it's clear that's what he wants to do. His own personality and the character in the book he's writing (also called CROUPIER) begin to merge. To me, the key scene in the film is when he's sitting at his typewriter, dressed in his tuxedo.

At the end, of course, it turns out he's been played all along, but he doesn't care, because he's gotten what he wants.

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Graham
--------- http://www.BleekerBooks.com Hardboiled and Noir

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