Tomorrow's screening, former film

Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)

Heist films are now a staple and the formula for them is widely known. But 50 years ago there really was only one truly great such film, The Asphalt Jungle by John Huston which certainly has the hallmarks of the genre. But Jules Dassin laid down the foundations for what have since been the commandments of the heist film.

The story's a familiar one, but the film has little use for complex plot or characterizations. This is a stylistic and technical masterpiece. It handles the story of a group of professional thieves, each with a speciality. Naturally there are twists and turns when rival gangsters and molls enter the fray.

Rififi is particularly famous for the heist sequence itself, which takes a quarter of the running time and is so realistic that one can't help suppose that actual thieves were technical advisors. Dassin had ambitions for making the scene as edge-of-the-seat exciting as possible. Later on he returned to the heist in Topkapi where the robbery was far more high-tech and also stolen wholesale for the first Mission: Impossible.

The film is being remade with Al Pacino in the leading role.