Film Review | Rififi - out on dual format DVD and Blu-ray

Rififi is one of those French films that not only defined its genre – in this case, film noir with a gangster edge – but also influenced countless films that followed it.
Based on the hard-boiled novel by Andre le Breton – which some critics said was poorly written and slang-heavy – it was transformed by Director Jules Dassin into a classic heist movie with a touch of existentialism thrown in for Gallic good measure.

Dassin, a maverick filmmaker, was no stranger to drama himself. Up to making Rififi in 1955, he had been a cog in the Hollywood machine, making noirs like The Naked City and violent prison drama Brute Force. But having been outed as a card-carrying Communist Party member from the 1930s he fell foul of the McCarthy blacklist and decamped to France to work.

Rififi, meaning “fight” or “scrap”, is a tale of loyalty and revenge and features a sure-fire winner of a theme – the gangster who wants to go straight being lured into one final job out of both desperation and the inevitable pinch of the crime bug.

Jean Servais is Tony, the man battling booze and gambling addiction to pull off a jewellery heist in Rue de Rivoli – this show-stopping scene of almost half an hour is awesome.

As for the finale – spectacular is the only word to describe it. It’s little wonder that Dassin claimed the Best Director prize at Cannes in 1956, or that many critics still hold the film in such high esteem to this day.

One of our favorite scene

Monday, 13th, June by Katharine Barrau