What filmmaking techniques does Catch Me If You Can use?

CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Catch Me If You Can (2002): Picaresque Structure, Era-Coded Visual Grammar, Retrospective Voiceover and Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy.

Who directed Catch Me If You Can?

Steven Spielberg directed Catch Me If You Can, released in 2002. CineCode also covers Duel (1971), Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), 1941 (1979), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

What films are similar to Catch Me If You Can?

Films that share techniques with Catch Me If You Can include Radio Days (1987), La Dolce Vita (1960), The Big Lebowski (1998), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

Drama · Crime · Biography

Catch Me If You Can

Steven Spielberg, 2002

Frank Abagnale Jr. successfully poses as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, and he cashes millions in forged checks. He does all of it while still in his teens, dodging FBI agent Carl Hanratty across multiple continents. Steven Spielberg's film sees the con man as a lost boy playing the part of the father he doesn't have.

3 Narrative 1 Cinematography

At a glance

Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 drama, crime and biography film directed by Steven Spielberg. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (3 narrative and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Radio Days uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Picaresque Structure

Telling the story as a loose string of separate adventures, often following a low-status hero through different levels of society. With no single plot, the episodes add up to a portrait of a world.

How this film uses it

Frank's cons play out as a series of set pieces in different cities and industries (the airline, the hospital, the law firm, the bank). Each episode stands alone and each new identity is a new chapter. This episodic shape, known as picaresque, reflects how Frank can't stay anywhere long enough to be caught or known.

Where to see it

The montage of Frank's various identities: pilot, doctor, lawyer. Each one has its own costume and setting. The episodes mirror how Frank sees himself, which is as a series of performances with no steady self underneath.

Cinematography

Era-Coded Visual Grammar

Changing the color, film texture and camera style for each time period, and using the fashion and architecture of the day. Every era gets its own distinct feel.

How this film uses it

Janusz Kamiński shoots in the warm, rich colors of 1960s American cinema, with the Pan Am blues, the hospital whites and the FBI office greys. Each location gets the color that fits the myth of its period. The look carries the optimism of the era, which Frank is exploiting and living out at the same time.

Where to see it

The Pan Am sequences. You get the blue uniforms, the clean lines of the airport and the 'Sixties' look of flying as glamour. The myth of the era is photographed with the love of someone who knows it was already half fiction.

Narrative

Retrospective Voiceover

Having a narrator tell the story from some point after it happened. The events feel like memory, and you sense early on that something will be lost.

How this film uses it

The film frames Frank's story as a look back. It starts with Hanratty arriving in France to collect Frank from prison, then jumps back to the teenager who ran. There is no narrator, and the framing does the job a voiceover would. That distance makes the cons feel wistful and keeps the film from condemning them. Telling it in hindsight lets you enjoy the adventure before you see the cost.

Where to see it

The jump from the French prison back to Frank's teenage years. The film watches the boy discover the con for the first time. The hindsight is tender and there is no judgment in it.

Narrative

Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy

Dropping a character into a world whose social rules they don't understand. The comedy, and some insight too, comes from the constant mismatch between them and everyone around them.

How this film uses it

Frank's cons only work because he really is out of place: a teenager in a pilot's uniform, a boy passing as a doctor. There is a gap between his actual age and the authority he pretends to have. Watching him find clever ways across that gap is the main source of the film's comedy and drama.

Where to see it

Frank posing as Dr. Frank Conners. He doesn't actually know anything, and he gets by on authority and confidence. He also relies on how willing institutions are to believe what a person's costume tells them.

Questions

Catch Me If You Can: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Catch Me If You Can use?: CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Catch Me If You Can (2002): Picaresque Structure, Era-Coded Visual Grammar, Retrospective Voiceover and Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy.
Who directed Catch Me If You Can?: Steven Spielberg directed Catch Me If You Can, released in 2002. CineCode also covers Duel (1971), Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), 1941 (1979), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).
What films are similar to Catch Me If You Can?: Films that share techniques with Catch Me If You Can include Radio Days (1987), La Dolce Vita (1960), The Big Lebowski (1998), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

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