[Revisit Review]
How funny, then, that perhaps the greatest French crime film ever made was done by an American? Of course, Jules Dassin was in exile when he made Rififi. And the film is most certainly a synthesis of American and French crime genre tropes into something bold and new[ish]. Maybe it wasn't the apotheosis of the "French Cool." That honor would definitely go to Jean-Pierre Melville with his films Bob le Flambeur (1956), Le Doulos (1962), and Le Samouraï (1967). And maybe Jacques Becker had stylistically beaten Dassin to the punch with films like Touchez pas au grisbi (1954). But it hardly seems to matter. There is a purity of theme, character, and narrative in Rififi that almost puts those other classic films to shame.
10/10
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