Vjeran Tomic The Spider-Man of Paris Review: Directed by Jamie Roberts, the documentary (Vjeran Tomic: L’homme-araignée de Paris) premiered on October 20, 2023, on Netflix. The show features Vejeren Tomic, one of the most notorious burglars in the world who was involved in the 2010 robbery of Paris Museum of Modern Art. He takes the audience through the detailed process of how Tomic carried out one of the biggest art heists in the history of France.
With a runtime of 86 minutes approximately, Tomic in his own words describes how he got into the certain lifestyle and what led him to steal as a profession. The docufilm is shot in French and is available in English dub and subtitles.
-Vjeran Tomic The Spider-Man of Paris Review Contains Some Spoilers-
The introduction to Vjeran Tomic is made in a grand way, calling him the Spiderman of Paris. He earned that name by climbing some of the tallest buildings and towers throughout the city, jumping from one end to the other. Tomic explains how his parkouring across the city at night gives him a boost of adrenaline rush that pushed him more to keep going. However, he did not acquire and develop that certain skill for fun or the thrill, he did it to steal from the civilians of the city.
As the show progresses, Tomic starts depicting a life story that is unique in many ways. From a humble lifestyle, he started to commit petty theft and crimes to sustain himself. As time went by he became exceptionally well at his craft and began to commit even bigger crimes. It started with stealing from the rich households of Paris to finally stealing paintings from the museum which are treasured artifacts of France that represents their culture.
The paintings were worth millions of dollars and deemed priceless by the government in essence. However, Tomic did not feel any regret or remorse for stealing items from people for a long time. He had a certain mentality instilled inside his brain that the rich only get richer and him stealing some from them should not cause a problem. Moreover, he believed that he was taking what he deserved and that was not a crime.
Nevertheless, although he had a controversial and reckless past, he was a man with principles. In his entire career, he never hurt a single soul while trying to steal an item. He always went in and out without alerting absolutely anyone, by climbing and jumping off buildings when the city was devoid of light. Which is why, even some of his victims respected him and the police acknowledged his skill. Many call it an art to steal with such precision without leaving behind a single shred of evidence.
However, the audience also receives a detailed report of how the police carried out the search that ultimately led them to Tomic. The story does not just involve a cat-and-mouse chase, but many conspiracies and deeper connections involved with the burglary. But the cops remained persistent in their search for the invaluable paintings and the need to bring justice to the victims. After many days of relentless chasing, they finally caught Tomic but sadly the paintings could not be retrieved. The police and Tomic himself are in hope that the paintings are still out there and that someday they will turn up.
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Vjeran Tomic The Spider-Man of Paris Review: Final Thoughts
The docufilm describes the exciting and thrilling journey of Vjeren Tomic. In detail, it explains how he carries out one of the most talked about robberies which left the world in awe. However, it does not dive deep into the life of Tomic, rather just slightly skims it to provide us with an overall context about where he comes from. It does not talk about the socio-economic issues that led him to choose the path of a thief. Rather it tells us an exhilarating story of a robbery that comes right out of an action movie. Nevertheless, the documentary is a fun watch which makes it even more interesting that it is a true story.
Vjeran Tomic: The Spider-Man of Paris is now streaming on Netflix. Did you watch the show yet? Let us know in the comments below!
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