zeph’s pop culture quiz #50

Who is checking the time on his fob watch?
    Just leave a comment with your educated guess—you can ask for additional hints, too. [Leaving a comment is easy; just click the ‘Leave a comment’ at the end of the post and fill in the form. If it’s the first time you post a comment, it will be held for moderation. But I am constantly checking, and once I’ve approved a comment, your next ones won’t be held, but published immediately by the system.]

UPDATE and solution (21 November 2012):

The day will come when I again will post screencaps of movies like ‘↵The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler,’ ‘↵Vexille,’ or ‘↵Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation‘ and Alexander Rabitsch won’t recognize them right away like he has ↵done again: It indeed is Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown checking the time—Mr. Rabitsch even furnished us with the knowledge that the watch is a Patek Philippe—in ‘↑The Thomas Crown Affair,’ directed by Norman Jewison (1968). To the ↵cyberpunk aficionado Jewison of course is best known for his magnificent ‘↵Rollerball‘ (1975). ‘Thomas Crown’ has nothing to do with cyberpunk whatsoever. It is a heist movie, remarkable for its atmosphere, the chemistry between McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and maybe best remembered for the employed ↑split-screen technique. When, as a youth, I saw ‘Thomas Crown’ for the first time (on television), I found the split-screen scenes to be irritating, unnerving, and in consequence downright boring. Today, since more than a decade well used to sitting in front of multiple screens, I somehow like it. So I was delighted to see the split-screens being used for the elaborate cut-scenes in ‘↑Max Payne 3‘ (Rockstar Vancouver 2012). And I am amused that Microsoft’s advertising machine currently tries to convince us all that tiles are the up-to-date interactive design thing for graphical user interfaces, all the while acting like they’re selling us a ↑Mondrian Composition at a bargain.
    ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ was remade in 1999, starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo, John McTiernan directing—no ↑multi-dynamic image technique here. Three years later McTiernan remade yet another film by Norman Jewison, the already mentioned ‘Rollerball.’ The remake was shredded by the critics and failed at the box office.