Du rififi chez les hommes

'Rififi' is so damn good it takes your breath away! Director Jules Dassin, blacklisted from Hollywood, was living almost hand to mouth in Europe and taking any job he could get, when he made this movie, a project he was initially not at all excited by. Happily he turned around an awful situation and ended up making a classic thriller which is still one of the greatest crime movies ever made. One of the most influential too, having an impact on movies like 'The Killing', 'The Anderson Tapes', 'Thief', 'Reservoir Dogs', 'The Score' and many, many others. 'Rififi' is a classic heist movie but it is much more than that, it is a superbly written and acted character study. The robbery sequence itself is regarded as one of the most impressive in film history, but it is by no means the only thing worth watching this movie for. In fact I'd go so far as to call it perfect. Every time you watch it you discover something more of interest. Jean Servais, who later appeared in the entertaining horror sexploitation movie 'The Devil's Nightmare', is absolutely wonderful as Tony, a veteran criminal talked into joining his young friend Jo (Carl Mohner) in a daring robbery. His performance is first rate, but Mohner and the rest of the cast are equally good, including Drassin himself as Cesar, an Italian safe-cracker who inadvertently causes the gangs ultimate downfall. There's a brilliant scene between Servais and Drassin towards the end of the movie which is short but unforgettable. Look out for it. Truffaut raved about this movie calling it the best Noir he'd ever seen. I don't think he was exaggerating, it really IS that good, and personally I think it's a much better movie than Truffaut's more celebrated 'Breathless'. If you enjoy crime thrillers it doesn't get much better than this! Highly recommended!

RIFIFI

This was a fantastic film by Jules Dassin. Great characters, heist, villains and photography. This was the complete opposite of Kubrick's The Killing. With very little expository dialogue in the script, so much of the movie was told through actions and glances and was left up to the viewer to decipher, whereas The Killing had a narrator helping the audience feel stupid. What I really liked was the main character---he was such a bad-ass that he had a `The' before his name...Le Stephanois.

The passage of time has been very good to Rififi and I think today's audiences will be surprised at how many of today's directors have borrowed form Rififi. Paul Thomas Anderson's HARD EIGHT comes to mind, as the character Sydney is very similar to Le Stephanois. Also recently, Steven Soderbergh's THE LIMEY comes to mind as being influenced by the characters in Dassin's masterpiece. The story is classic film noir: Bad guys pull off heist, get duped at the end. I think today's audiences will like the story. The only thing that doesn't quite hold up is the scene with the woman singing Rififi in the nightclub. It's quaint to watch, but there aren't many(if any) clubs left like this today. Other than that, it holds up excellently.

It was easy to root for Le Stephanois because he was such a decisive man of action. He knew what to do, how to do it, and you know he would get it done. The villain was cast perfectly. He and his junkie brother were wholly contemptible and you REALLY didn't want him to get the money from such an exhilarating heist.

The scene in the film with Le Stephanois trying desperately to make it to Joe's home is brilliantly juxtapaosed with the boy gleefully riding in the covertible as if it was a carnival ride. It was truly a creepy film moment and one of the only times where there was no sound effects and just soundtrack music playing.

Wow, this is the coolest film noir ever. The infamous hush-hush(20 min.) heist scene, and the fact that a blacklisted American makes the ULTIMATE film noir while in Paris, FRANCE...if you haven't seen it...what the HECK are you waitin' for!?!?!? HURRY!!! HIGHEST RECOMMENDATIONS!

Tony le Stéphanois gets out early after 5 years in prison. He has a plan to rob the jewelry store Mappin & Webb with his friends Jo and the Italian Mario Ferrati. He finds his old girlfriend Mado who abandoned him for the gangster Louis Grutter. He viciously beats her. For the job, he wants to hit the safe and gets Cesar the Milanese. The heist goes off perfectly but that's not the end of it.

It's a French heist film with more realism. It is well done with good intense acting. The most interesting thing is how modern the movie is. The formula is well set now, but it was probably more groundbreaking back then. These are the modern anti-hero protagonists.

This film is a work of pure class from start to finish, for a moment forget the famous 28 minute no dialog heist, forget that it's set in Paris and forget it's Noir. The film itself, the premise and the execution make this a pure gold experience.. it's sharp intelligent and thought through in great detail, just like the heist itself. It portrays real characters that are not only believable but whom you empathize with. It's a film that doesn't glamorize the notion of a robbery but shows it for what it is.. theft. It shows that a heist is hard work and ultimately not worth doing. Now all things considered put on top of that a daring 28 minute sequence with not a word spoken and set in gorgeous Paris with truly great attention to detail and fantastic cinematography and that last scene ...when you look up and see those trees... wonderful use of raw and basic filming techniques... it is a master piece in my view and I'm glad to have seen it.

Directed by an black-listed American, served as an inspiration to movies like The Killing, Reservoir dogs, Score etc. The characterization was dealt perfectly for this Noir movie with splendid photography too. Many violent scenes are executed with no/minimum gore. Over 50 years since its release and IMO one of the best heist movies. A small issue could be the predictability in the story as many of the later movies had stolen this idea . Favorite scenes in the movie includes 1) the silent robbery scene that happens in the middle of the film which is a nail-bitter. 2) The climax scene. The bottom line is that the movie team had no trouble with script, screenplay or direction and watching this was such a treat.