Jules Dassin's classic jewel-thief caper of 1955 looks as smart as paint, with its unendurably tense, entirely wordless robbery section.
Rififi (1954)
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Synopsis: A banner film that broke through standards of accepted language, dialogue, gun violence, and crime on screen and stylized the film noir genre, Jules Dassin's 1954 film RIFIFI was an instant success. Based on the novel of the same title, DU RIFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES by Auguste le Breton, the film's... A banner film that broke through standards of accepted language, dialogue, gun violence, and crime on screen and stylized the film noir genre, Jules Dassin's 1954 film RIFIFI was an instant success. Based on the novel of the same title, DU RIFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES by Auguste le Breton, the film's use of hard-boiled slang and the gangster garb of trench coats, top hats, and a cigarette dangling from one corner of the mouth went on to become the emblems of Humphrey Bogart-style noir classics. In RIFIFI, a hardened man, Tony le Stephanois (Jean Servais) is released from prison after five years to find that his woman has shacked up with another gangster, and the life he had planned to return to no longer exists. Down on his luck and without a dime in his pocket, he rounds up his old crime buddies--who drink and smoke all night assembled around the poker table--and agrees to commit one last crime: a jewel heist. For weeks the men plan, studying the alarm system and working out each detail of the break-in. When it actually comes time to perform the robbery, their actions are perfectly choreographed, their methods precise and successful, and they walk away untouched with millions of dollars of jewels. However, there's a hitch, and what was meant to be the perfect crime turns into a nasty gang war resulting in a blood bath on the glorious streets of 1950s Paris. [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Jean Servais, Carl Mohner, Marie Sabouret, Perlo Vita, Magali Noel
Screenwriter: Jules Dassin
Producer: Rene Gaston Vuattoux
Composer: Georges Auric
DVD Info
Release:
Dec 4, 2002
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
- Single Side - Dual Layer
- RSDL
Audio:
- Mono - French
- Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
- Production Interview - 1. Jules Dassin - Director
- Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical
Text/Photo Galleries:
- Production Art
- Producion Stills
Reviews
Actually rather overrated, lacking the tension, profundity, and vivid characterisation of similar films.
It took an experienced US director, Jules Dassin, who has lived in France some years, to give the French gangster pic the proper tension, mounting and treatment. This pic has something intrinsically Gallic without sacrificing the rugged storytelling.
The film turns moralistic and sour in the last half, when the thieves fall out.
Although 007 has been through his share of danger over the years, he doesn't know rififi like Dassin's film noir.
It’s one of the most important movies of the 20th century, and one of the very best.
This is perhaps the keenest crime film that ever came from France, including Pepe le Moko and some of the best of Louis Jouvet and Jean Gabin.
Deserves to rank alongside other seminal entries (The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep) of classic film noir.
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