Apropos of yesterday’s post about the great non-French non-Greek but somehow French and Greek American director Jules Dassin, I though I’d post the legendary twenty-five (or so) minutes silent sequence of the heist scene in ‘Rififi’. Imagine my surprise when it failed to turn up on YouTube. Instead only tidbits of the scene seem to have found their way onto the platform. Nonetheless I’ve posted a couple, figuring that if you haven’t seen the film they will probably inspire you to do so and if you have seen the film it will probably inspire you to watch it again. The crispness of Dassin’s direction, the precision of his visual execution mirrors the precise nature of the crime being rehearesed and committed, which I think accounts for the fascination the sequence holds for us; you are in the same mood watching it as the the thieves are while planning/executing it. We share the precise, controlled craftsmanship of the thieves because of Dassin’s similarly taut and inventive direction. It’s said that this on-screen heist inspired real-life heists perpetrated in the same manner–a sort of textbook for a robbery. Is this truth or legend? How the hell should I know? I’m still trying to figure out if Dassin was French, Greek or from Middletown, Connecticut…