Rififi
Screening: Saturday 19 December 2009
To be introduced by Harry Patterson
Director: Jules Dassin.
Starring: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel.
Subtitles.
Certificate: 12A. 118 minutes.
Synopsis
This French film is a 1955 adaptation of a novel by Auguste Le Breton. Directed by Jules Dassin, it was well received worldwide, both critically and at the box office. François Truffaut commented that “One of the worst crime novels I have ever read, Jules Dassin has made into the best crime film I have ever seen.”The plot revolves around a burglary at a jewellery shop in the Rue Rivoli, Paris. Tony Le Stéphanois (Jean Servais) is released from prison. Together with some old gangster friends, including Jo (Carl Möhner), he forms a plan to raid the safe in the prestigious Mappin & Webb jewellery store. The climax of the film is an intricate and almost unbearably tense 30-minute scene depicting the crime in detail, without dialogue or music.
As is the often the way, once the robbery is over things do not go smoothly.
Notes
Initially, the film was due to be directed by Jean-Pierre Melville but when he pulled out Dassin took over. He had a very low budget, no star names and production staff earning low wages. To cut costs, he even gave himself a small part, using the stage name Perlo Vita. Despite this project’s unpromising start, the semi-documentary realism of this movie and the justifiably acclaimed heist scene have influenced many subsequent films, including Reservoir Dogs, Ocean’s Eleven and Mission: Impossible 2.Rififi has not dated; it is of its time, but is timeless.
Dassin was born Julius Samuel Dassin on 18 December 1911 in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He went to Hollywood in 1940 but was blacklisted during the 1950s anti-Communist witch-hunt and fled to Europe, where he eventually settled. After several difficult years in Paris, Rififi brought him the coveted Best Director award at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. This gave his career a new lease of life and ensured him a place in cinema history.
The Belgian actor Jean Servais is perfect as the embittered and physically ailing Tony, clinging to his criminal code as he and his gang are hunted down. — Tom Dawson on the BBC website
Still ranks as one of the greatest heist films ever made. — Evening Standard
Contains a 30 minute sequence of wordless moviemaking that is one of the most engrossing sequences since the invention of motion pictures! — Time Magazine
...the milieu and the people are familiar enough, iconic almost. But, with his eye for the expressive detail, Dassin makes us see it all for the first time. — Philip French, The Observer
