French director, screenwriter and former Cahiers du cinéma critic; his films include Irma Vep (1996), Summer Hours (2008), Carlos (2010), Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) and Personal Shopper (2016).
loved
Rififi is a strange animal, based on a novel by a typically French crime writer, Auguste Le Breton, and shot in Paris as the first foreign-language film by a great American filmmaker at the height of his powers, whose career had been broken by McCarthyism. Jules Dassin’s previous film, made in London five years earlier, Night and the City, is his masterpiece. This inspired hybrid of French and American noir—which I discovered as a child on French TV—has constantly impressed me with its violence, its despair, its darkness, and its beauty.
Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Olivier Assayas, the entry for Thief.
English-born American editor and author; editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, and author of the family memoir Charmed Lives (1979) and lives of Eisenhower, T. E. Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.
loved
Rififi was a stunner, and an eye-opener, teaching us that French gangsters were a lot more interesting and attractive than our own mobsters, but just as tough, if not tougher.
Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Michael Korda, the entry for Rififi.
American animator, filmmaker and cartoonist; author of the graphic-novel series Soulwind (1997), nominated for Eisner and Ignatz awards, and of Magic Pickle, and worked on Pixar's 2-D short Your Friend the Rat (2007).
loved
One of the greatest heist films I’ve ever seen, Rififi employs character for the sake of plot progression, resulting in a unique economy of filmmaking.
Criterion Collection Top 10 list by Scott Morse, the entry for Rififi.
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