Just read on Hollywood Elsewhere that Jules Dassin, the director of the incomparable Rififi has passed away today at the age of 96. This clearly isn’t a tragedy. Dassin lived many years and managed during some of those years to make films that many will always cherish. You should see them if you haven’t (and I’ve missed a number of them) but be sure to start with Rififi, which is every bit as good as you’ve heard. Many call it the best heist movie ever made, but that’s being too specific, it’s one of the best movies, period. Also be sure to check his Brute Force and Night and the City, starring the also recently deceased Richard Widmark.
4 Responses to “Jules Dassin passes.”
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March 31st, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I always feel kind of shameful when a filmmaker dies and I haven’t seen any of their movies. As is the case with Dassin. I’ve always meant to see Rififi but it just hasn’t happened yet. Same thing with Bergman. I saw Wild Strawberries in high school, but when he died, I felt like I missed out on a lot of stuff. I immediately picked up The Seventh Seal and was sad for what I missed.
If the person dies while in my lifetime and I haven’t seen their work, it makes me feel insincere when I go out the get a movie of theirs right after they died. It’s like their death motivates me to do something I was too lazy to do before. Namely, see a good movie. I guess it’s time I move Rififi to the top of my Netflix queue.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:56 am
Well said Justin, though I think we all have those movies that we haven’t gotten to for one reason or another, and, specifically, I too went through a Bergman thing when he died, checking out some pictures, such as Winter Light and Smiles of a Summer Night, that I had always meant to check. And I still haven’t gone through everything. Lately, I’ve been trying to get a firmer handle on Godard and Bunuel (I really love Bunuel) as my film lover self-improvement projects of the moment. We all have something to see or, most likely, many things to see.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:41 am
Rififi is such a gem. This, like Widmark’s death, is one of those where you’re actually surprised to know that they were still with us. You cannot complain too strenuously about 96 years on the earth. He was a very talented filmmaker, and it’s a shame he isn’t more widely known in his native country.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Well, you can ask my local video store rental outlet–I was on a Bergman rampage, desperately trying to see every last film of his just a few weeks before he died. It’s like I knew it was coming.
Had no idea Antonioni would go the next day, of course.
Dassin has at least a pair of masterworks in Night and the City and Rififi. They’re both supreme examples of how to create tension, suspense, drama, memorable characters and razor sharp poignancy–with almost devastatingly overpowering endings.