rififi
Rififi is French slang for 'trouble', 'brawl' or 'rough-and-tumble'. The word was made popular by the 1955 film 'Rififi', or in full 'Du Rififi chez les Hommes', based on the novel by Auguste Le Breton and directed by Jules Dassin. François Truffaut commented that "out of the worst crime novel I have ever read, Jules Dassin has made the best crime film I have ever seen." Indeed, 'Rififi' is the archetypical heist film, realistic and intelligent, and hugely influential from the French Nouvelle Vague all the way to Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs'.
The film's production history is interesting: American director Dassin had already made a number of noir films in the US when he was forced in exile from Hollywood during the Communist blacklist years. He settled in France, where - still obstructed by Hollywood's long arm - he managed to get 'Rififi' made on a tight budget without any stars. Ironically, the distinctive tough and seedy atmosphere (including a lot of abuse of women and drugs) that makes 'Rififi' still gripping today probably would have been way too controversial for '50s Hollywood.
The story is set in the underworld of Paris, where Tony le Stephanois, just released from prison with a tuberculous cough, is persuaded to do a major jewelry store heist with three colleagues: Jo le Suédois (Joe the Swede), Mario Farrati and César le Milanais (played by Dassin), the suave safecracker who's flown in from Italy for the job. In a classic three act setup, the story follows the extensive preparations for the heist, the successful burglary itself, and the aftermath, when the whole plan goes awry. As befits a film noir, there's no getting away clean - it always ends in blood...
'Rififi' owes much of its fame to the heist scene: a breathtaking half hour long (!) sequence in which the four break into the jewelry store. The whole burglary is executed in utter silence - without any music - and every step of the operation is shown in detail, building up an absolutely nervewrecking suspense. The scene also creates a great respect for the professional skills of these crooks: as one newspaper headline puts it, they pull off the "most daring coup since the Rape of the Sabines!"
However, after the heist the plan starts to unravel. One of them, César, is careless and unwittingly betrays them to a rivalling gang. In the ensuing 'rififi' over the money, one by one they are all killed. (To compare: this would be the point where 'Reservoir Dogs' started, focusing on the same theme of distrust and human weakness.)
The final scene is another piece of great filmmaking. Tony, the last survivor, shot in the gut and dying, is driving his godson and the money back to safety. The scene somehow manages to convey simultaneously the giddy exhilaration of the child riding in an open car through Paris, and the exhausted, almost hallucinatory attempt of Tony to stay on the road. Here Tony's perseverence attains a tragic quality that most later film noirs could only make into pastiches or caricatures.
It looks like a Hollywood remake is on the way. (It would be interesting to know what Dassin, who recently died, would have thought of that.) Be sure to watch the original before it comes out!