115 Rififi

[Martha]

Rififi



After making such American noir classics as Brute Force and The Naked City, the blacklisted director Jules Dassin went to Paris and embarked on his masterpiece: a twisting, turning tale of four ex-cons who hatch one last glorious robbery in the City of Light. Rififi is the ultimate heist movie, a melange of suspense, brutality, and dark humor that was an international hit, earned Dassin the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and has proven wildly influential on decades of heist thrillers in its wake.

Disc Features

- New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Interview with director Jules Dassin
- Set design drawings by Alexandre Trauner
- Production stills
- Trailer
- Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
- One Blu-ray and one DVD, with all content available in both formats
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic J. Hoberman

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

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[HerrSchreck]

Strange there are no comments for one of the greatest crime dramas ever made!

[marty]

Rififi is already available in Australia as a R4 disc released by Madman. Its ok but I think the Criterion will be the MUST buy.

[HerrSchreck]

Its been out for a few years now, and is a must buy. As I mentioned elsewhere, this films revival run at the Film Forum NYC resulted in the biggest revival run holdover of a film in that cinema's history, as New Yorkers, etc, realized what they'd been missing all this time with the film out of circulation & hard to see on home vid. People came flocking in extra week after extra week.



"Out of the worst crime novel I have ever read, Jules Dassin has made the best crime film I have ever seen." --Francois Truffaut.


FILM FORUM'S
BIGGEST
REVIVAL HIT EVER!
PREVIOUSLY AT FILM FORUM

[Jem]

Pacino & Becker Reunite for Rififi Remake
Source: Variety
August 19, 2005

Stone Village Pictures has acquired remake rights to the 1955 French heist classic Rififi and will make a contemporized version starring Al Pacino and directed by Harold Becker.

The original film was directed by Jules Dassin and revolved around a career thief who, upon leaving prison, discovers his wife has left him. He returns to crime, plotting a daring jewelry store heist.

The film would be the third collaboration between Becker and Pacino, after Sea of Love and City Hall.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news.php?id=10870

I wonder if this means a "Rififi repackaged re-release" by Criterion?

[What A Disgrace]

The amount of ghosting and combing I see in the transfer makes me think I might have a bootleg. Does anyone else notice this, or is it just me? I would put up captures, if my PC's player would let me save them...I have an incredible picture of Tony "Four-Eyes" le Stephanois, descending a staircase at 11:35. But just looking at my disc again to confirm the ghosting reminds me of what a great movie it is.

With that in mind, I would buy a new edition of the film, without question.

[Cinesimilitude]

I have no ghosting on my disc, I'd say its probably your monitor. check the underside of your disc and post the serial numbers, I'll post mine later, when I can get to them.

[What A Disgrace]

I have no ghosting on my disc, I'd say its probably your monitor. check the underside of your disc and post the serial numbers, I'll post mine later, when I can get to them.

Hm. The layers of the disc are: DVDL-034430A1 and DVDL-034430B1

I don't think its my monitor...I get the same results from every player in the house. I'll try to get a capture from my busted (but still somewhat functional) PC and post it.

[Cinesimilitude]

the numbers are identical, and upon closer inspection, I see ghosting too, no combing, but there is definitely a little ghosting. I havent watched this disc for quite some time, so I must have not noticed it initially.

[HerrSchreck]

The amount of ghosting and combing I see in the transfer makes me think I might have a bootleg. Does anyone else notice this, or is it just me? I would put up captures, if my PC's player would let me save them...I have an incredible picture of Tony "Four-Eyes" le Stephanois, descending a staircase at 11:35. But just looking at my disc again to confirm the ghosting reminds me of what a great movie it is.

With that in mind, I would buy a new edition of the film, without question.

I watch on two monitors sensitive to that stuff a hi res crt & sony wega and have never noticed any combing or ghosting. Certainly it's NTSC->NTSC so there wouldn't be any ghosting, and this is certainly not among the very few interlaced transfers from CC (HAXAN being one..) Should be nothing but progressive gorgeousness all the way thru...

[colinr0380]

Rififi is the topic of discussion on this Out of the Past podcast.

[Jem]

Rififi is the topic of discussion on this Out of the Past podcast.

What a brilliant site, thanks!

[psufootball07]

So I finally got around to watching Rififi tonight and having seen Elevator to the Gallows last week, I was wondering if anyone else could confirm or also noticed that in both films, after committing crimes, the characters both seemed to dump their car under the same overpass in a part of Paris. In Rififi it was directly after the heist and in Elevator to the Gallows it was after the young couple murdered the German tourists. Both are some of the best crime films out there, and I particularly liked Rififi more than the other Jules Dassin films released by Criterion, like the Naked City.

Edit:
If I had to rank the noirs Criterion lists, my top 3 in no order would be:
The Third Man
Rififi
Le Samourai

[domino harvey]

It's nowhere near as good as Night and the City, but Truffaut would agree with you. Didn't he call Rififi THE best film noir?

EDIT: I looked up and he sure did

[HerrSchreck]

It's nowhere near as good as Night and the City, but Truffaut would agree with you. Didn't he call Rififi THE best film noir?

EDIT: I looked up and he sure did

Totally disagree. Night in my book is great, but Rififi is absolutely spellbinding.

[Cold Bishop]

I gotta throw my hat in for Night a movie just as worthy of Truffaut's praise for this film.

But god if this movie isn't great. The sort of lean, muscular, and completely uncompromising film Dassin was capable of if he didn't have Breen breathing down his neck (I still think its a damn shame that the original ending to Thieves' Highway doesn't seem to exist, and who knows whats missing from Brute Force). The robbery and its subsequent falling apart are all inevitable and obvious from the get-go, allowing the Dassin to revel in how the story is told, as opposed to what is told (culminating in the silent robbery), but its after Cesar le Milanais and his flaw for women makes things fall apart, as we have known would happen all along, that the film explodes in to completely suprising sucker-punch of violence and revenge the likes never seen in the American Noirs (hints of it in films such as Gun Crazy, White Heat, and of course Dassin's earlier work, but never like this). Even in this age of ultra-violence, and borderline-fascist vigilantism in film, the complete white-hot bare-knuckle energy, emotion, fatalism, and tragedy in the film's last act is practically unmatched to this day.

Night and the City follows a similar trajectory; you know Widmark's scheme is gonna blow up in his face, but when it happens, the complete descent of the London Underworld into a nightmarish and hellish wasteland of survival and paranoia is so unexpected, shocking, and completely unlike any other similar noirs, that you don't know what hit you. I guess ultimately it's one's preference and identification with the tragedy of Widmark's loser over Servais' lone wolf, with Night's less predictable and unfamiliar Pro-Wrestling scheme, than with Rififi's heist film - which is mastefully done, but you know what's coming (all though that is one of the very reasons it is so well done) - and with an apocalyptic and grotesque London that approaches the realm of the unreal, over a more recognizable and traditional - but perfected- hard-boiled world of Paris.

And who knew Dassin was such a great actor. The scene with Servais and him is about as moving and powerful a scene of betrayal as Brando and Steigers in On the Waterfront, without all those words and the swelling music.

And has Le Breton's novel ever been translated into English. Since it's obvious, that like Night (a fantastic noir novel that I completely recommend), Dassin had no choice but to play loose and easy with the adaptation, so I'm curious as to see what the novel is like.

[HerrSchreck]

The source novel is written in a streetish almost jive talk-- or slang if you will-- rendering any translation virtually worthless. Not to mention if I remember correct there were some pretty ugly racial aspects of the novel which is another reason that Das-- after havng the novel read for him-- built a film around a setpiece.

Another rarely known Dassin-film-compromised-of-footage story concerns Naked City. The cut of the film that came out bore very little resemblance of the feel of the film Das made, which focused MUCH more around street life, gritty characters, and the gloomy poetry of then-NYC's back alleys & tenements etc. treated in a smypathetic manner of course with Das' complete love for the underdog and empathy for a certain kind of criminal. Rendering it an impossible release in these HUAC-haunted days of course... thus it's sheepshearing in the editing room.

I still think Night & The City is very good, but it's imho as a total product the weakest of the noir cycle 1947-55. Richard Widmark, the supporting cast, and the photography help along a flawed script (or a film not edited to snuff), not to mention the klunky and entirely unbelieveable Gene Tierney aspect of the plot (written in late in the game to assist a hurting Tierney), and the strangeness of the next door neighbor. Jules' other films just don't have these glaring flimsy zones requiring forgiveness.

[Cold Bishop]

Well, I'm not expecting a faithful translation, but hell, there's much be a way to do it. It'll probably be a shadow of the original, but I see no reason it couldn't be done. As for ugly racial aspects... these things happen. I'd be still interested in reading it.

I still think Night & The City is very good, but it's imho as a total product the weakest of the noir cycle 1947-55. Richard Widmark, the supporting cast, and the photography help along a flawed script (or a film not edited to snuff), not to mention the klunky and entirely unbelieveable Gene Tierney aspect of the plot (written in late in the game to assist a hurting Tierney), and the strangeness of the next door neighbor. Jules' other films just don't have these glaring flimsy zones requiring forgiveness.

I disagree, and I have to say it's probably my favorite film noir. Period. I purposefully don't see the bad editing, or flawed writing that you see. As for Tierney, yeah I can see that, but I don't find her all that unbelievable. How a nice girl like her would end up in a place like that is a little unbelievable, but a nice girl like her falling for a complete loser like Widmark... I've seen worse pairings in real life. She isn't exactly Valentina Cortese, but I don't feel she's the "this movie needs some romance and a love interest" akwardly sticking out like a sore thumb the way the flashbacks in Brute Force are. While she may be a little too pure and innocent for realism's sake, I think the use of her as a possible, but missed chance of redemption for Fabian works.

The neighbor had no reason being there, agreed, but it's such a minor flaw, and in a cycle of films full of flaws, usually imposed by censorship (and I'm assuming he's in their for a moral reason), I can ignore it. Once Gregorious dies, and Fabian is left running scared through London, I could care less about a one-dimensional minor throwaway character. And the ending is still one of the more haunting and fatalistic of all of film noirs, one I still find suprisingly, and refreshingly, bleak for a 1950 film.

[domino harvey]

I'm with you Cold Bishop, the things Shreck identifies as flaws I find to be the wonderful eccentric tendencies. Night and the City is a film alive with the possibilities of the movies-- it's messy, it's classy, and the screen practically pulsates. It's everything great about film noir, and cinema itself.

[HerrSchreck]

Just a clarification-- I think N&TC is the weakest of Dassin's noir cycle, not of the whole noir period 1947-55 itself. And again, I love the film. But its got some heavy comp with Thieves Highway, Brute Force and Rififi.

When they're this good, it's pretty much down to taste. Nothing to molt over.

[Minkin]

To resurrect a 5 year old thread, here's The Criterion Contraption.

[Moe Dickstein]

Glad to know he's still writing!

[swo17]

Dual format upgrade Jan 14

[FrauBlucher]

Hhhhmmm, how will this compare to the Arrow release, PQ wise.? I own the Arrow release which is solid, do I double dip?

[jindianajonz]

I'm kind of surprised that there are no new features for this, especially since they decided to give it a new cover. Hopefully more will be added later.