Du rififi chez les hommes

Jules Dassin, France, 1955o

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Jewel thief Tony gets out of prison after five years and turns down a quick job. When he learns that his lover has defected to a local gangster while he was away, he returns to his old trade and robs a Paris jewellery shop with his well-rehearsed team of seasoned professionals. The coup is meticulously planned and masterfully executed. But there is one thing Tony has not considered.

The American Jules Dassin (1911-2008) became one of the most sought-after new Hollywood directors in the second half of the 1940s with realistic crime films like The Naked City and Brute Force, but as an avowed leftist he was blacklisted in 1948 and emigrated to France. There he made this mother of all "heist movies" in 1954. "Rififi" means "trouble" and tells the story of four international specialists who meticulously plan and masterfully execute the burglary of a Paris jewellery shop only to get caught by a rival gang. The film became a legend primarily because of the 26-minute wordless and musicless burglary scene in which the master thieves act with the individual precision and well-rehearsed perfection of a ballet troupe. But that's not all: in the dramatic second half, Rififi escalates into a Parisian panopticon of the 1950s in almost 20 original locations. Finally, the closing sequence, in which the gang's vengeful head drags itself through the asphalt jungle one last time, is magnificently staged and mounted. Pre-protected coolness and secret sentimentality in the face of the inevitability of ruin: that's how it must be in this form of existentialism that has become film, which was debated and lived at the same time in cafés and jazz cellars on the Rive Gauche, so that not only heads smoked. Great class.

Andreas Furler

Galleryo

The New York Times, 6/5/1956
All rights reserved The New York Times. Provided by The New York Times Archiv
rogerebert.com, 8/31/2002
All rights reserved rogerebert.com. Provided by rogerebert.com Archiv
2/4/2008
All rights reserved critic.de. Provided by critic.de Archiv
Spiegel Online, 3/30/2008
All rights reserved Spiegel Online. Provided by Spiegel Online Archiv
Ecran Large, 3/30/2006
All rights reserved Ecran Large. Provided by Ecran Large Archiv
Jules Dassin on Rififi's Quiet Thrills
/ The Criterion Collection
en / 1/20/2014 / 02‘15‘‘

Movie Datao

Other titles
Rififi DE
Rififi EN
Genre
Crime/Thriller
Running time
113 Min.
Original languages
French, English, Italian
Ratings
cccccccccc
ØYour rating8.2/10
IMDB user:
8.1 (37306)
cinefile-user:
< 10 votes
Critics:
8.3 (3) q

Cast & Crewo

Jean ServaisTony le Stéphanois
Carl MöhnerJo le Suedois
Robert ManuelMario Ferrati
MORE>

Bonuso

iVideo
Jules Dassin on Rififi's Quiet Thrills
The Criterion Collection, en , 02‘15‘‘
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gText
Review The New York Times
Bosley Crowther
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Review rogerebert.com
Roger Ebert
s
Review critic.de
Welf Lindner
s
Nachruf auf Regisseur Jules Dassin
Spiegel Online / nn
s
Review Ecran Large
Sandy Gillet
s
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