Director Jules Dassin’s 1955 film Rififi is, taken as a whole, a pleasingly cynical film noir. With its anti-hero, high body count, casual cruelty and femme fatale (or at least something very close to a femme fatale), it still, 60 years later, feels uniquely gritty as far as these things go.
But there’s no avoiding the film’s centerpiece, because it stands out so vividly. The film that surrounds it has plenty to like, but for a good thirty minutes or so in the middle Rififi focuses exclusively on a jewellery store heist - and it’s remarkable to watch.
Dassin makes the bold move to let this extended setpiece play out without dialogue or music, with everything instead communicated through visuals. Few viewers will be able to resist shuffling ever closer to the edge of their seats as it plays out. Using elaborate machinery and fully aware even a step wrong will spell disaster, the main characters utilise both brute force and a featherlight touch to carry out their task with military precision.
As the minutes pass - and the hours for the characters on screen - the mood grows ever tenser, sweatier and oppressive. It’s fascinating enough watching the process play out on its own terms, but of course the little errors and potential catastrophes make for a seriously intense half hour of viewing. That the tense tone is maintained without a word said makes it even more special - this is cinematic storytelling at its most elegant and economic.
The influence Rififi had on Hollywood filmmakers isn’t hard to spot - Michael Mann in particular was surely influenced by this film when working on Thief and Heat, both featuring their own welcome contributions to the ‘heist film’ genre. Rififi is also an interesting contrast to the likes of the Ocean’s Eleven series. Whereas those films rely on increasingly elaborate sleights of hand and extreme stylisation as the gangs pull of their big jobs (to often entertaining effect, it must be said), Rififi’s heist is grounded, straightforward and yet no less engaging.
As said, the rest of the film is no slouch, and once we’re done with the heist what seemed to have been a perfect plan transpires to be anything but. The third act is bloody and unromantic, even by noir standards. But whatever about the film overall: it’s the heist that has sealed Rififi’s place as a legitimate cinema classic.
Rififi is available to watch on Netflix. It’s also available on DVD, Blu-Ray or from iTunes
