Tuesday Minute
No. 123 | June 22, 2010

The Art of the Heist

Our theme this week
Heist films

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   The Thomas Crown Affair (1968, 1999)

Rififi (1955)

Rififi is a French movie made by American-born director Jules Dassin, in his return to filmmaking after being blacklisted by Hollywood.  Rififi isn’t the earliest heist film, but it’s a classic of the genre and it ranks among the most influential, along with (to cite just a couple of examples from French cinema) Jacques Becker’s Grisbi (1954), starring Jean Gabin, and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le Flambeur (1956), perhaps the best of the lot.

The Rififi plot follows four gangsters as they plan and execute a robbery at a Paris jeweler’s.  Tony (Jean Servais) is just out of prison, persuaded to join Jo (Carl Möhner) and Mario (Robert Manuel), a Swede and Italian, for one last job.  Jules Dassin (credited under a pseudonym) plays César, the expert safe cracker whose mistress is a nightclub chanteuse.

Rififi is notable for its suspense and its sympathetic portrayal of gangsters.  Its most famous sequence is the heist, a nearly silent set piece lasting about a half-hour, as the thieves break into and rob the jewelry shop.  The filmmaking is as expertly done as the theft, each moment planned in precise detail and pulled off to perfection.

The final third of the film follows the consequences of the crime on the men involved.  César betrays the others, and he and Tony have a final confrontation.  Jo’s son is kidnapped, leading to a desperate search for the boy.  Tony finally tracks him down at the country estate of Grutter, the owner of the nightclub.  Bleeding profusely, Tony escapes, taking a wild ride back to Paris in a memorable final scene.

Jules Dassin continued making films, mostly in Europe, until 1980.  In 1964 he returned to the heist genre with Topkapi, set in Istanbul and starring his wife-to-be Melina Mercouri.

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Rififi (1955)
Jules Dassin, director
Trailer

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Rififi (1955)
Magali Noël
“Rififi” (Jacques Larue, lyrics, M. Philippe-Gérard, music)

 

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Quote of Note
“There’s not a safe that can resist César and not a woman that César can resist.”
—Mario Ferrati (Robert Manuel), Rififi (1955)

…58…59…60.