Rififi (1955)

Mario Ferrati: [to Tony about Cesar] For a job with you he'll come. Cesar! There's not a safe that can resist Cesar and not a woman that Cesar can resist.

If you combine a near impossible theft that is well planned and executed, superbly shot in a dim grey Paris ( with rain and the reflections that go with it), a good dose of suspense along with that classic crime drama that is wonderfully acted, you would come up with darn good movie.  And this is what you get with Jules Dassin’s Rififi.

When WW2 finished a new fear arose among many nations, communism and fascism.  This fear also infiltrated the movie industry which forced people to rat out on others for various reasons including having current or previous involvement with communist parties or being communist sympathisers (as Russia became an ally in WW2 this encouraged many to have some kind of involvement, be that in participation or way of thought).  You can read about this elsewhere but in very short basic terms, if you didn’t co-operate and dob in names, you got blacklisted, so the from the late 40’s to the late 50’s there were Screenwriters, Producers, Directors, Actors and Actresses etc suddenly put out of work because of the fear that communist thoughts or ides might penetrate into movies and therefore into the public thinking (for a basic background movie to this you can watch Trumbo which is about Dalton Trumbo, one of the original Hollywood 10 who got blacklisted - check my review here).

 

This is where Jules Dassin, the Director of this wonderful film, steps in.  He got blacklisted and was therefore refused work in Hollywood which is also about the time where he shot the very well regarded film noir City and the Night with American actors in London (yes film noir in London!).  Hollywood also flexed their muscle in Italy they too refused Dassin work, so he fled to Paris because he had no intention of ratting out on friends etc.  After some years in Paris he was offered the job to direct a French film.  

Now on to the movie and what a wonderful film it is!  Basically the film is about an ex-con and a few other crooks who get together to steal some jewellery from a famous store.  From the moment the movie started it had me in, not because of some big action scene but simply from the very authentic acting, especially from Jean Servais who comes across as a cold ex-con who joins up with a few others to conduct the heist.  As for realism, the place where they discuss the heist is across the road from the store they intend to rob.  The store they rob is a real store whom the owners have permission to use their real name and store front and the jewels they show in the film are real jewels provided by the store for the film.  The theft sequence lasts about 30 min at which time it is conducted like a real theft with no music score, no dialogue and very little sound.  Its little facts like this that add to the film’s realism and brilliance. So realistic was its approach that it got pulled out of cinemas in Mexico after the robbery was copied in real life by some thugs.  

This is a heist movie that is intelligent, engaging and believable and it was all done, apparently, on a very small budget which is probably unheard of these days.

The Bluray reviewed here is the Region A Criterion edition which cannot be viewed in Australia unless you had a region A or region free Bluray player, however it’s also available in the UK as an equally great Bluray only or Dual Format Bluray/DVD which both contain similar features to the American Criterion edition, though the UK Arrow Academy edition has a more comprehensive booklet and is also considerably cheaper from places like www.zavii.com.   The image quality is brilliant with great greyscale grading and a consistent, sharp image in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Both the UK and USA edition contain the film with the original uncompressed (for the Bluray) mono French soundtrack which sounds great. There are also the following extras:

• Interview with Jules Dassin from 2000
• Set design drawings by art director Alexandre Trauner
• Production Stills
• Trailer
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic J. Hoberman

There is also an English dubbed soundtrack should you not want to read subtitles (no doubt you lose the feel and emotion of the actors).

Overall Rififi is an outstanding movie that comes with full ferrets and therefore very highly recommended.

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