Let's be realistic: this isn't as good as 'The maltese falcon' or 'Touch of Evil' (the films that meant an opening and an ending to the film noir genre according to critics, even though we all know film noirs started long before that and have never been abandoned). Rififi (slang word for a street fight) deals with a hold-up in the beginning but turns into a revenge story while approaching to its end. The 30 minutes silence sequence in which the robbery takes place is certainly a masterpiece, as a matter of fact I didn't even realise it was so long and not even that it was completely noiseless! (so absorbed was I). But it is the only really worth thing within the movie.
Some of the actors are good, especially Jean Servais (who had become a top star in the 30's but was in his low days at the time Rififi was being made) and the director, Jules Dassin, who plays César, the Italian specialist in safes. This movie tries to poorly imitate her American contemporaries but then again, fails. It is sooo folkloric the club shown in the movie is called L'âge d'or (paying homage to Luis Buñuel), a woman sings a local song which gives the movie its title (this reminds me of Jean Vigo's 'L'atalante' which the producers released under the title 'La chaland qui passe', name of a very popular song at the time). It, to sum up, is plain french fries without the main course.
The film has influenced popular culture so much that a lot of films released in Europe in the following years would be called: Rififi whatever... Even the word riffraff is said to be originated from this term. It was the film that showed that Europe could do good film noirs too, only that I can't agree. Even Truffaut said about it: the best film noir I've ever seen. Well, his words are never to be believed since he is sooo french he preferred the french dubbed version of 'Fahrenheit 451' rather than the original (no comment on that).
The female character was one of the worst I ever saw in film history, being treated like an ornament, but the main problem is the pace, most french films have always been so slow it almost makes someone doze off on the chair; besides, the plot twist (which should be one of the pros and quickly becomes a con) turns the movie into a stupid vengeance thriller in which Servais struggles to change his character into some sort of tough cowboy in lust for revenge. Pathetic. Near the end, we see an abandoned place which reminds very much of the one shown in 'The french connection', only in the latter it wasn't so pathetic. A fight of egos takes place and everyone loses, above all the movie. So don't waste your time on this, if you wanna see a hold-up you should see Kubrick's 'The Killing'. Only if the hold-up scene could be taken away from the movie, it would get a 10 rating, otherwise the entire movie is an entire mess.
Some of the actors are good, especially Jean Servais (who had become a top star in the 30's but was in his low days at the time Rififi was being made) and the director, Jules Dassin, who plays César, the Italian specialist in safes. This movie tries to poorly imitate her American contemporaries but then again, fails. It is sooo folkloric the club shown in the movie is called L'âge d'or (paying homage to Luis Buñuel), a woman sings a local song which gives the movie its title (this reminds me of Jean Vigo's 'L'atalante' which the producers released under the title 'La chaland qui passe', name of a very popular song at the time). It, to sum up, is plain french fries without the main course.
The film has influenced popular culture so much that a lot of films released in Europe in the following years would be called: Rififi whatever... Even the word riffraff is said to be originated from this term. It was the film that showed that Europe could do good film noirs too, only that I can't agree. Even Truffaut said about it: the best film noir I've ever seen. Well, his words are never to be believed since he is sooo french he preferred the french dubbed version of 'Fahrenheit 451' rather than the original (no comment on that).
The female character was one of the worst I ever saw in film history, being treated like an ornament, but the main problem is the pace, most french films have always been so slow it almost makes someone doze off on the chair; besides, the plot twist (which should be one of the pros and quickly becomes a con) turns the movie into a stupid vengeance thriller in which Servais struggles to change his character into some sort of tough cowboy in lust for revenge. Pathetic. Near the end, we see an abandoned place which reminds very much of the one shown in 'The french connection', only in the latter it wasn't so pathetic. A fight of egos takes place and everyone loses, above all the movie. So don't waste your time on this, if you wanna see a hold-up you should see Kubrick's 'The Killing'. Only if the hold-up scene could be taken away from the movie, it would get a 10 rating, otherwise the entire movie is an entire mess.