Danger: Diabolik opens with a heist that is actually a decoy
Danger: Diabolik opens with a heist that isn't one. Inspector Ginko (Michel Piccoli) has arranged a spectacular motorcade to transport a large sum of banknotes; the convoy, it turns out, is carrying no banknotes at all. It is a diversion, and it is the inspector's diversion — the film's first elaborate deception is mounted by the side we expect to be straight with us. Senses of Cinema's essay on the film calls the opening an elaborate ploy, a project of misdirection, which is a tidy way to teach an audience to watch the con rather than the loot.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
A decoy opening is ordinary heist grammar: hide the loot in the first act so the reveal has somewhere to land. It doesn't have to mean anything about the film's surfaces.
The interesting part is who runs the trick. The empty convoy is the inspector's scheme rather than the thief's, so the film's first deception comes from the side the audience assumes is honest.