Rififi Jules Dassin 1955

"Du rififi chez les hommes (1955), directed by the exiled American film director Jules Dassin, recounts the nail-biting tale of a Parisian gangster heist gone wrong. Famed for its extended dialogue-free robbery sequence, it is not only a classic French film noir, but also one of the most influential crime films ever made. In this lively examination of Du rififi chez leshommes, Alastair Phillips traces the transnational history of the film's production and reception by arguing for its specific status as an emigre text. Phillips reveals Dassin's role as a director of socially-conscious Hollywood film noir and argues that his seminal contribution to the regeneration of the thriller in post-war France therefore uniquely complicated relations between American mass culture and French genre cinema." "Phillips' book focuses on Dassin's place with in the tangled history of American and French film noir. It examines how others such as the cinematographer Philippe Agostini and set designer Alexandre Trauner also contributed to the film's representation of key generic spaces, such as the night club and the city. It analyses the film's innovative narrative construction and deployment of sound, performance style and mise-en-scene. By drawing upon important production records and critical writing of the time, it explores broader issues concerning gender, ethics and realism. Finally, this French Film Guide discusses the legacy of Du rififi chez les hommes and shows how, even today, the term 'Rififi' remains a byword for both criminal glamour and the enduring virtues of French popular classical filmmaking."--Jacket.