334 - Rififi, France, 1955. Dir. Jules Dassin.

Thursday, November 30, 2017

334 - Rififi, France, 1955.  Dir. Jules Dassin.

Ah, Rififi.

Our American filmmaker with the French name is now filming in France.

In the wet streets of Paris.

And he delivers one of the great heist films of all time.  And one of the first.

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) came out a few years earlier, but Dassin tells us he had not seen it.  Instead, he took a novel, rewrote it in a few days, and made up his own heist.

Rififi is based on the novel by Auguste Le Breton, the same man who wrote the screenplay of the heist film Bob Le Flambeur (1956), a film we saw earlier this year, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville.  Melville, the Frenchman with the American name, had originally been tapped to direct this film but turned it over to Dassin instead.

Tony Le Stephanois is now out of jail.  He took the rap for the last job because his partner, Jo the Swede was just a kid then.  Jo appreciates it and is loyal to him.

Tony was in for five years, and during that time he missed his mistress Mado, Mado the Big Arms.  While he was in she was not loyal to him.  She moved on to rival gangster and nightclub owner Louis Grutter, aka Louis the Tattoo.

We open on Tony playing all-night poker, and he is out of money.  He tries to get the others to stake him, but they refuse.  So he calls Jo to help him out--it is now morning--and Jo, who has been reading the newspaper and playing with his son Tonio, Tony's godson and namesake, comes running.

Jo takes Tony to a restaurant where he and his friend Mario pitch their next job to Tony.

Get out of the pen and get back to work.

They propose a smash-and-grab.  Break the window of Webb's Jewelry Store in broad daylight.  Time the traffic light.  In and out before anyone notices.

Tony turns them down.  He is not so fast anymore.  Five years in the pen does something to you.  It breaks your body.  Ages you.  Slows you down.

He goes on to the club to meet his mistress.  He introduces himself to Grutter.  Grutter offers a proposition.  You leave me alone and I will leave you alone.  Only Mado is with me now.

Mado is surprised to see Tony.  Perhaps she still loves him.  Perhaps she pities him.  Perhaps she fears him.  But regardless, she goes back to his apartment with him and tries to please him.  He responds unforgivingly.  Brutally.  It is not nice.

Tony covets Grutter's life.  He feels as though he cannot live up to the lifestyle Grutter offers Mado.  She wears expensive fur and jewelry.  So he decides to go in with Jo and Mario.  Only forget the smash-and-grab.  He wants the big stuff.

The safe.

They need a safecracker to go in with them.

And they need to set up a fence to sell the jewels.

Then it is all about setting it up.

And pulling it off.

Rififi has several memorable set pieces, the most famous one being the heist itself.  Nearly thirty minutes of physical behavior without dialogue and without a score.  Just the men, under the pressure of the clock, trying to bore a hole in the floor of the apartment above without creating enough vibration to set off the alarm.  They must work slowly and quietly in the details, but quickly in the big picture.

Rififi also contains a song and dance, as just about nearly every movie should, the song of which is sung by Viviane, played by Magali Noel.  Viviane attracts the attention of the safecracker, Cesar the Milanese, played by none other than Jules Dassin himself.  Cesar is dashing and highly cultured.  At first Mario does not believe he could be good with a safe.  He is too upper class.  But he is.

And why does Cesar have to hook up with Viviane anyway?  She might prove to be a downfall for the gang, whether intentionally or not.  Jo offers to go with Tony to the club, l'Age d'Or (The Golden Age), and Tony says No!  They go anyway.  Jo and Mario go anyway.  And Cesar meets them there. Well . . .

But what makes the song and dance memorable is that it is done in silhouette, with a man trained in ballet.  And a woman who joins him.  We never see them.  Only their shadows.  Precisely outlined.  Precisely choreographed.

There is a house in the hills.  And a shootout.

And a drive Tony makes after he picks up a certain person.  And what happens along the way.

Rififi is a film that does not look as though it were made under duress on a tight budget.  Yet it was.  And Dassin brings to bear his experience in America and his recent experience in England to create something special.

Rififi means a tough guy.  And the trouble that goes with him.

Sometimes there is just too much trouble.