Rififi

1955 Director Jules Dassin

Following his expulsion from America during the years of the Unamerican Activities hearings Dassin directed this landmark film about a jewellery heist and the consequences of unfettered greed.

A quartet of thieves band together to commit a seemingly impossible robbery of an English jewelry shop in the Rue de Rivoli. Dassin takes one of the parts as a safe cracker under the pseudonym of Perlo Vita. The heist is meticulously planned and successfully executed but things start to go wrong when a rival gang wants to take a percentage and kidnap the gang leader's son as leverage.

The set piece of the film is an intricate 28 minute sequence that depicts the robbery in detail all filmed in absolute silence without dialogue or music. The tension that Dassin injects into this sequence is so enthralling that it draws the viewer to the very edge of their seat. Although the misogynistic scenes at the beginning of the film would not be considered "according to Hoyle" in today's times they do not detract from the mastery of this often overlooked gem.