News

Lovers of hot-blooded French noir will love this 1958 B&W drama, which swaps violence for a dangerous sexual relationship between a cop and drug addict suspected of a murder. If this is a ‘lazy’ star vehicle for French superstar Jean Gabin, please bring us more — in his paunchy ‘fifties Monsieur Gabin takes on a beauty half his age, and convinces us that he can keep her.

Le désordre et la nuit

All-Region Blu-ray

Pathé (Fr)

1958 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date April 1 2017, 2017 /

available through Amazon.fr / Eur 14,99

Starring: Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux, Nadja Tiller, Paul Frankeur,

Hazel Scott, Robert Berri, François Chaumette, Louis Ducreux, Jacky Bamboo and his combo,

Harald Wolff, Roger Hanin.

Cinematography: Louis Page

Film Editor: Jacqueline Sadoul

Original Music: Jean Yatove

Written by Michel Audiard, Gilles Grangier, Jacques Robert from his novel

Produced by Lucien Viard

Directed by Gilles Grangier

Sometime in the 1990s Sherman Torgan...

Rialto Pictures will beloved French heist film Rififi by director Jules Dassin, for the first time on Dcp, at Los Angeles' Laemmle Royal, for one week beginning Friday, September 4.

Jules Dassin (1911 - 2008) began his filmmaking career in the early 1940s and is known for his hits Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), and Thieves' Highway (1949). His career later took a hit when he was blacklisted for Communist activities during the McCarthy Era. Dassin's move to France helped revive his career and was the setting for the hit film Rififi that set his career in motion once again. After the film's successful French release, Dassin was awarded the directing prize at Cannes which allowed Rififi to be released in the U.S. where it enjoyed a successful art house run. Rififi is renowned for being one of the early 'heist' films and served as an inspiration for later films in the genre.

With the releases of Thief and Rififi, The Criterion Collection has released two classics of the crime/film noir genre. Where Jules Dassin’s Rififi represents a perfect distillation of the classic noir model, Michael Mann’s Thief takes those tropes into the modern era. My review of the Blu-rays of Rififi and Thief follows after the jump. In Rififi, the film starts as Tony le Stéphanois (Jean Servais) gets out of prison and is immediately invited by his old friend Jo le Suedois (Carl Möhner) to go on another heist. He declines as he thinks the score is too small, and then goes to check on his former girlfriend, who’s become a kept woman. She’s working for Pierre Grutter (Marcel Lupovici), who takes an immediate dislike to Tony. But his encounter with his former flame is enough for Tony to reconsider the heist, but he wants a bigger score,...

A lot of what I have to say about Rififi would probably read as hyperbole as it stands as not only an important film given its director's political status, but the way in which it can double as not only an art film, but also a striking piece of cinema that can be enjoyed by any measure of movie lover. It's a film noir captured in shadows and silence as a jewel heist takes place over the course of more than 30 dialogue-free minutes after we've watched four men meticulously plan every detail. The tension mounts with every pound of the hammer, screech of the hand-powered crank cutting into the safe and the crumble of asphalt, gently landing in an open umbrella with nary a sound. Is there more that needs be saidc Criterion's new Blu-ray transfer adds much more detail to every inky black scene, elevating the overall effect of...

Rififi

Written by Auguste le Breton, Jules Dassin and René Weeler

Directed by Jules Dassin

France, 1955

Having recently concluded a prison sentence, Tony ‘le Stéphanois’ (Jean Servais), former thief, is now a poor man, reduced to late night gambling to earn paltry pocket change. His two closest friends and former colleagues, Jo ‘le Suédois’ (Carl Mohner) and Mario Ferrati (Robert Manuel) have something else in mind when they present him the idea of stealing jewels from a high society jeweler shop in downtown Paris. Tony is reluctant at first, having lived enough failures as a crook and desiring to reunite with his former flame Mado (Marie Sabouret). Upon learning however that Pierre Grutter (Marcel Lupovic), eternal rival and nightclub owner, has claimed Mado as his main squeeze, Tony finally gives in to temptation and joins the newly formed quartet of criminal minds, the late addition being safe cracker César, played...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 14, 2014

Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95

Studio: Criterion

The heist is on in the great 1955 French crime drama Rififi.

The great 1955 French crime drama Rififi is a twisting, turning tale of four ex-cons who hatch one last glorious robbery in Paris.

After making such American noir classics as Brute Force and The Naked City, the blacklisted director Jules Dassin went to the City of Light and embarked on the Rififi, the film noir that many consider his masterpiece.

Starring Jean Servais, Carl Mohner, Robert Manuel and Dassin himself, the film’s suspense, brutality, and dark humor made it an international hit, earning Dassin the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It has since proved to be wildly influential on decades of heist thrillers in its wake.

Presented in French with English subtitles, the Criterion Blu-ray/DVD Combo edition of the classic movie includes the following features:

• New 2K digital restoration,...

Only a few days after he’s been released from prison, Tony Le Stephanois (Jean Servais) is reunited with his former partners in crime Jo (Carl Möhner) and Mario (Robert Manuel). They want him to do one more job at a Parisian jeweler’s shop, which if successful means they can retire. Tony declines to get involved again in the business. Tony meets up with his old girlfriend Mado (Marie Sabouret) who has been seeing a gangster named Pierre Grutter (Marcel Lupovici). Enraged by this relationship, Tony savagely beats Mado for being involved with Grutter.

Tony then agrees to do the job, but not because he wants the money. He wants to hit he jeweler’s safe instead, not the outside window. We are then introduced to Cesar (Perlo Vita, better known as the director Jules Dassin), a master safe cracker from Milan and a colleague of Mario’s. They then plan the heist meticulously,...