Rififi
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| Du rififi chez les hommes | |
|---|---|
 Original french poster |
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| Directed by | Jules Dassin |
| Produced by | René Gaston Vuattoux |
| Written by | Auguste Le Breton (novel) Jules Dassin René Wheeler Auguste Le Breton screenplay and dialogue |
| Starring | Jean Servais Carl Möhner Robert Manuel Jules Dassin |
| Music by | Georges Auric |
| Cinematography | Philippe Agostini |
| Release date(s) |  April 13, 1955 June 5, 1956 |
| Running time | 115 minutes |
| Language | French |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Rififi is a 1955 French heist movie. Its original French title is Du rififi chez les hommes ("of brawling among men"), which was shortened for release in the English-speaking world (the word rififi means fighting or brawling).
The film was directed by Jules Dassin, creator of many American film noir classics including The Naked City, Thieves' Highway, Brute Force and Night and the City. The film stars Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel, and Dassin himself as César le Milanais (the womaniser). The film's score was composed by Georges Auric.
The drug Rifampin owes its name to Rififi; the drug is based on a compound first isolated from soil flora on a French island, and investigators watched the film on the island. [1]
Contents |
[edit] Cast
- Jean Servais - Tony le Stéphanois
- Carl Möhner - Jo le Suedois
- Robert Manuel - Mario Ferrati
- Janine Darcey - Louise le Suedois
- Pierre Grasset - Louis Grutter aka Louis le Tatoué
- Robert Hossein - Remi Grutter
- Marcel Lupovici - Pierre Grutter
- Dominique Maurin - Tonio le Suedois
- Magali Noël - Viviane
- Marie Sabouret - Mado les Grands Bras
- Claude Sylvain - Ida Ferrati
- Jules Dassin - Cesar le Milanais (as Perlo Vita)
[edit] Adaptation
Rififi is based on a novel by Auguste le Breton; le Breton assisted in adapting it to film. However, Dassin expanded the safe-cracking job, which is negligible in the book, into a 32-minute sequence that occupies a fourth of the running time and is played entirely without dialogue or music, intensifying the suspense. So meticulous is the construction and so specific the detail of this scene that the Mexican interior ministry banned the movie because there were a series of robberies mimicking it. [2]
[edit] Plot
Tony "le Stéphanois" did 5 years for a jewel heist, and is now out on the street and down on his luck. His friend Jo, grateful that Tony didn't incriminate him, approaches Tony about another jewel heist in which they and Mario would stealthily cut the glass on a Parisian jeweler's front window and grab some gems. Tony opts not to participate.
Having learned that his onetime girlfriend, Mado, is now attached to Pierre Grutter, Tony visits Grutter's nightclub and sees Mado, whom he invites back to his rundown flat. Mado has been well-kept by Grutter, but submits to Tony's rage as he beats her with a belt. Rather than tell Grutter, however, Mado leaves town, which suggests to Tony that her feelings for him may not be entirely dead. He confronts Grutter at Grutter's club, but the encounter results only in hard feelings.
After dismissing Mado, Tony tells Jo and Mario that he'll join their plot, but that they have to hit the jeweler's safe for the big-time take. Mario, an Italian, suggests they employ the services of his compatriot Cesar, a safecracker. Casing the store, they decide to drill through the ceiling from the upstairs flat, which will be vacant on a Sunday night extending into Monday morning before the jeweler opens. The store has a state-of-the-art alarm system, which however they figure out how to evade. They arrange to fence the loot with a London contact.
The suspenseful break-in completed, the four criminals would seem to have triumphed. However, Cesar pockets a diamond ring which he bestows on his mistress, a chanteuse at Grutter's club. (Her performance of the song "Rififi" gives the film its name.) Grutter meanwhile has seen Mado, who breaks off with him, and her injuries; inferring that Tony is at the root of Mado's decision, he gives his heroin-addicted brother drugs and tells him to murder Tony. But when Grutter studies the ring from Cesar, he realizes that Cesar and Tony have robbed the jewelers. (The crime has been reported on all the front pages, and the baffled police have offered a large reward.) Rather than turn in Tony and Cesar, Grutter decides to go after the loot. He captures Cesar and intimidates him into ratting on Mario.
Grutter and his thugs pay a visit to Mario and his mistress Ida. Although the couple is more stalwart than Cesar and don't betray that the jewels are hidden in their apartment, Ida does agree to telephone Tony at the thugs' behest and lure him into a trap. However, Ida changes her mind and warns Tony before the thugs cut off the phone connection and kill her and Mario.
Tony retrieves the jewels and pays for a splendid funeral for Mario. He goes looking for Grutter and doesn't find him, but he does find the captive Cesar who confesses to giving Grutter Mario's name. Regretfully, Tony kills Cesar. Meanwhile, however, Grutter's thugs have grabbed Jo's wife and 5-year-old son (Tony, also the godson of Tony le Stéphanois). They release Jo's wife and tell her that Jo must hand over the loot or else the boy will die.
The London fence arrives with the cash, which now seems pointless to Jo, who along with his wife is tormented with grief. However, Tony warns Jo that Grutter will likely kill little Tony as a potential witness once he gets the money. Tony sets out to work his underworld contacts for Grutter's hideout. This information is provided by Mado, who is revolted by Grutter's holding the little boy hostage. Tony finds the hideout, mortally wounds one of the thugs, and rescues little Tony, taking the opportunity to kill Grutter's junkie brother.
Unfortunately, Grutter meanwhile has telephoned Jo to demand the money, and Jo goes to the hideout to hand it over. Grutter arrives first, learns from the mortally wounded thug that Tony has been there, and finds his brother dead and little Tony gone. Jo then arrives, and Grutter tricks him into coming inside, where Grutter kills him. Tony has by now telephoned Jo's flat and learned that he went to pay the ransom. Entrusting little Tony to the kindly patroness of the restaurant where he'd used the phone, Tony returns to the hideout and is shot by Grutter, whom however Tony manages to kill. Tony finds Jo dead and retrieves the money.
The final action in the film is a suspenseful car ride back to Jo's flat, as the dying Tony barely manages to drive the car while the unsuspecting little Tony enjoys the wild ride. Tony dies outside the flat, and little Tony's mother comes to take him from the car, while a crowd of police and passersby examine the dead Tony and, in the last shot, open the abandoned suitcase full of cash.
[edit] Reception
On its United Kingdom release Rififi was paired with the British film The Quatermass Xperiment as a double bill; this went on to be the most successful double bill release in UK cinemas in all of 1955.[3]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Rififi at Allmovie
- Rififi at the Internet Movie Database
- Rififi at Metacritic
- Rififi at Rotten Tomatoes
- Rififi at the TCM Movie Database
- Criterion Collection essay by Jamie Hook
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