Rififi

Rififi (1955)

a film Jules Dassin

Cinema as literature has the power of make a story linger on time and that is the case with Rififi, a regular crime story which Jules Dassin turns in a great heist film. This is one of those movie that are mentioned to be the source of inspiration for many directors from Kubrick to Tarantino, but the great think is that it is not necessary to watch all those films to find the true value of Rififi because this one is a fun and well made movie.

There is rabid and bitter antihero, Tony the Stephanois. There is a great job, a perfect hit. There is a woman. There is a crack team of expert and sympathetic burglars. There is a group of evil bad guys. And there is an interesting story. Voilá. You are in the edge of the seat.

Besides the story Rififi is visually beautiful, the streets of Paris look gorgeous in the black and white on this film and the sequences of the robbery are film with so much care as the burglary that is being performed. I really liked the attention put to all the details, the tools, the ballerina shoes, the schedules and it is the great technique that make those sequence so loved by the directors who found in Rififi a reference point.

The dialogues and the sets in Rififi are excelent and the story is really entertaining but another success is the emotional thread that the burglars manage to create with the audience, they seem so human that even when they are also the bad guys they manage to touch your heart in the middle of a crime story.

I would like to keep many memories of this film but my favorite is the scene were César le milanése is taking to the back of the club were all the stored stage decorations make the scene look like a walk into a cubist painting.