Rififi (1955) - (Movies To See Before You Die - Thriller)

Considered as the “Grand-daddy of all the Heist Thrillers”, RIFIFI is said to be the inspiration behind every famous heist movie made after 1955 for a long time. Reported to have influenced famous works of directors ranging from Stanley Kubrick (The Killing) to Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), the movie is a sheer treat for all the heist movie lovers living in any part of the globe.

Frankly speaking in its initial half an hour, you might not get impressed. But once the actual robbery sequence starts, its detailed execution in the dark drags you in right away and never lets you take your eyes off the screen. Along with its brilliant direction, great performances and an entertaining climax, the film has one such UNIQUE point in its favour which till date has never been repeated by any director in his film on a similar theme.  

The USP is that out of its nearly two hours of duration, RIFIFI has an approximate 30 minutes sequence happening on the screen literally without any dialogue or additionally created background score. This is the actual heist sequence being executed in a Jewellery Shop, where the whole notorious team interacts with each other in the dim light, only through their eyes and body gestures. An undoubtedly daring innovation, successfully incorporated by the director Jules Dassin which is a must see for every lover of cinema irrespective of any language or region. But why this was not repeated by any film maker in the later years?.........That’s because it needs a great amount of confidence and guts to try such a long time on the screen without any dialogue or music. And that makes RIFIFI an important masterpiece in all respects, which is full of text book material on cinema in its totality.  

So if you are a die-hard lover of movies (especially of those made on the theme of big heists), then you have simply got no right to keep on missing RIFIFI. A must watch for every movie freak like an essential course material to be studied on the subject of film-making.  

Directed By Jules Dassin
Starring : Jean Servais, Carl Mohner, Robert Manuel and more.