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Rififi
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now is a great time for film restoration. With DVD being such a
huge success, studios are finally realizing that their back catalogs
could be a goldmine if marketed and restored properly. There have
been big budget restorations of films like Vertigo, Spartacus, Star
Wars, etc. in the past decade, but what is great to see is that
smaller films like Rififi are also getting cleaned up and re-released.
Rififi is a 1955 French film directed by Jules Dassin (Night and
the City - one of the great film noirs). Dassin was one of the blacklisted
American directors, who was living in Paris at the time. The "heist"
movie in itself has almost become a sub genre and Rififi uses all
of the "genre's" conventions to create a film of near
perfection. Much of this film has been copied since 1955, but it
is always great to go back and see the freshness of an original.
The set up of the film is a simple three acts. In act one we meet our characters and the problems in their lives, in act two we see the perfect heist and act three the aftermath. It is this simplicity, along with the characters and the details of the heist that set it apart from so many other films. The performance by Jean Servais as Tony le Stephanois is one of the highlights. I can't say that I have seen him anything else, but the sadness contained in his eyes and every understated movement he makes, leaves the viewer no doubt that this character has been beaten down by life and feels that this robbery may be his last shot at everything he has hoped for in his life. The sequence that this film is most heralded for is the 33 minute robbery. It is daringly played without dialogue or music and has an intensity level that has rarely been matched by other films. Similar to many Howard Hawks films, what we really see is how talented these guys actually are when the go to work in their selected profession. It isn't the best profession to be working in, but the viewer can appreciate the details and professionalism none the less. The transfer on this DVD is gorgeous. All of cinematographer, Philippe Agostini's deep blacks and stark contrasts are reproduced flawlessly. On the DVD insert it say that 23,235 instances of dirt, scratches and debris were removed using digital restoration and you can tell. Rarely does a film from 1955 look this good. Sound quality is about what you would expect from a mono source. Extras on this DVD include a lengthy interview with Jules Dassin. In this extremely interesting interview he talks about everything from the baseball and the blacklist to some of the details behind the scenes of Rififi. |
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