Crime fascinates us, because it operates with other parameters and rules compared to our normal boring everyday lives. There are wise talking men and beautiful women, intrigue and danger. Some of the great Hollywood legends, such as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Paul Newman literally made their careers playing these types. The genre is interesting because when you put characters in such settings it allows developing themes about morality and friendship. Some of the best and most successful Hollywood classics were noirs, shot in stark black and white and covered with alcohol and cigarettes. I’ve always associated the noir genre with Hollywood, so it was interesting to take a look at this film, a noir made in France.
Rififi as a heist movie deals with fairly common themes and ideas in the genre, such as how the robbers risk anything for the heist, how their foolishness might lead to their demise. What makes Rififi unique from a lot of other similar films is its marvellous directing and characters. A lot of the narrative is somewhat foreseeable, experienced viewers will know when something important is going to happen or any plot twist. But it doesn’t matter, because Rififi is told in such a compelling manner that all these prejudices are left out. Even though a lot of American noirs were quite dark, this is one of the darkest noirs I’ve seen, dwelling deep into greed and evil in people. This is excellently juxtaposed with the more innocent lives of the main characters, like the young father who lives a perfectly normal life with his wife and child. The atmosphere created by the directing works well towards this goal, filming the characters at home slightly mundane, while using much more interesting and intense techniques in scenes that deal with their criminal lives. The process in which they go through to plan their heist is also very well executed, giving us a close look at them work, but it never gets boring or out of hand. The characters themselves are well built, but the best is probably the main character Tony, played by Jean Servais, is very layered; violent but at the same time gentle to his friends.
The best scene is the one that is most famous, and rightly so. The heist itself, executed over thirty minutes screen time with no dialogue or music, just the background sounds. This together with the excellent camera play creates an unyielding tension and atmosphere, I was quite nervous towards the end of the heist. There is more to the film than just the heist, though, and much of the film works out as a dramatic character play. The ending sequence is also riveting, and manages at the end to both question the audience and make a statement. In many ways the film plays out as any of the big noir films of the Hollywood golden era, but it does differ in several ways. While technically not on-par with some of the best Hollywood films, Rififi manages through its simplicity to achieve some truly poignant shots, such as the ending shot, or some of the shots later in the film. Rififi also plays a bit more with the innocent/dark themes than Hollywood films, who at the time tended to just lean towards the one or the other. And that’s what I think Rififi is so remembered for, not just its excellent directing, but its fearlessness.
I thoroughly enjoyed Rififi, its character plot is interesting and layered, the themes are well established and developed, and the directing is spotless, simple and to the point, but works extremely well. It is quite dark, but it suits the themes and the genre. I do love noirs though, and I will look out for more interesting foreign noirs if there are any worth seeing.
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