REEL LIFE: Rififi a classic crime film

Most scripts and movies are formed in one complete package, focusing on continuity, flow and character development as well as a definite beginning, middle and end.

Yet some films are formed out of something different — a single shot, concept or idea that one then develops a picture around. It does not always work, but when it does, it is cinematic gold.

This is the case for the 1955 French crime caper Rififi (originally titled Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes).

Director and screenplay adapter Jules Dassin (The Naked City), who was down on his luck at the time due to being blacklisted in Hollywood during the McCarthy Communist witch-hunt, left for France and was offered the chance to adapt and film the novel Rififi.

Desperate, he accepted; despite the fact that the book was controversial and not his cup of tea.

So, he latched on to one small scene, a robbery, which becomes the centerpiece of this film (Dassin admitted that the author of the novel, Auguste Le Breton, asked him where his book was within the screenplay — as he pulled out a gun while wearing a fortyesque outfit — the director laughed at the threatening yet caricatured figure and they became good friends).

This heart of the movie, an approximately thirty-minute robbery of a jewelry store, is filmed without an actor saying a word or any music playing. The suspense is palpable, with the viewer silenced much like the professionals performing their intricate duties.

We watch the clock much like they do, wondering if and when something will go wrong, as the hands tick past their allotted extraction time. All we hear are the sounds of the tools, muffled coughs, chipping cement — in its own way, the musical composition of the take.

These scenes are filmed with such precision, it is like watching a complex, yet perfectly performed, ballet (much like the shoes the safecracker is wearing). It is during these key moments that the movie hits its stride.

That is not to say that there is nothing of worth at the beginning of the film. Though slowly paced, we are introduced to our characters: the leader and brains Tony le Stéphanois (Jean Servais), the muscle Jo le Suedois (Carl Möhner), the funny character and man with the original plan Mario Ferrati (Robert Manuel), and director Jules Dassin playing the safecracker César le Milanais.

We also watch as they forge the intricacies of their plan, we learn of their past and of their present situations.

Most significantly, we meet Tony’s former lover, Mado (Marie Sabouret), who, since her beau was sent to jail, is now connected to Pierre Grutter (Marcel Lupovici), the head of the Grutter gang and a night club owner.

The two groups will clash throughout.

I will leave what happens after the robbery in the dark, allowing the viewer the chance to watch the ebbs and flows, twists and turns that occur at the end of the film.

This film is an excellent picture that shows its influence on the modern crime thriller. Much like Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (reviewed last summer), one can see how a motion picture like this has had an impact on almost every robbery flick after; from Reservoir Dogs to Drive.

Though none of the actors are well known, they all offer amazing performances. On top of the main cast, Jo’s young son Tonio (Dominique Maurin) is a hoot — a ball of energy who is fazed by nothing and is a treat to watch.

The locale, Montmartre in Paris, is its own character, adding a realistic, beautiful and sometimes gritty flavour to the film.

Much like another one of my previous reviews, Diabolique, this film once again shows the freedom of sexuality allowed to be shown on screen compared to North American movies of that time. From rough treatment of women to skimpy see-through lingerie, this is something unique that would not be seen in Hollywood movies of this time.

Finally, there is one memorable scene between César and Tony — heartbreaking and real; written by Dassin to symbolize the Hollywood trials that he was named in that helped get him blacklisted; betrayed by his Hollywood compatriots.

Rififi is a superb motion picture that must be considered one of the great crime movies of all-time. Its depiction of the attempted perfect crime is up there with any of the other more well-known films in this genre.

Enjoy this jewel of a movie; it won’t leave you sitting on the fence.

Rififi: 8.2

Part of the Criterion Collection

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Peaches Geldof dies unexpectedly at age 25 – WKBN/WYFX

LONDON (AP) – Model and media personality Peaches Geldof, the second daughter of Irish singer Bob Geldof and member of a talented, troubled family who grew up in the glare of Britain’s tabloid press, was found dead Monday at age 25.

There was no immediate word on the cause of Geldof’s death at her home in Wrotham, Kent, southeast England, but police called it “unexplained and sudden.”

In a family statement, Bob Geldof said: “Peaches has died. We are beyond pain.”

Peaches Geldof had acknowledged using drugs in the past but said in a 2009 interview that she had quit.

The news of her death came as a shock to Britain’s entertainment and fashion circles, where Geldof had been active as a model, television presenter and fashion writer. She was a frequent attendee at fashion shows in London and New York, and was photographed just last week at a London show for the Tesco brand FF.

Geldof was only 11 when her mother, television presenter Paula Yates, died of a drug overdose in 2000, and those who knew her said it hit her extremely hard.

Her last message on Twitter came on Sunday, when she posted a photograph of herself as a toddler next to her mother along with the caption: “Me and my mum.”

Her father issued an anguished statement Monday from the family about her death.

“She was the wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us,” he wrote. “Writing ‘was’ destroys me afresh. What a beautiful child. How is this possible that we will not see her again? How is that bearable? We loved her and will cherish her forever.”

The statement was signed by Bob, Jeanne (his partner), Peaches’ sisters Fifi and Pixie and her half-sister Tiger Geldof.

Kent police declined to name Geldof, but when asked about her death they said in a statement that officers were called to a house near Wrotham following a report of concern for a woman’s welfare Monday afternoon. They said the 25-year-old woman was pronounced dead by emergency officers and that the death was being treated as “unexplained and sudden.”

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper in 2009, Geldof acknowledged that she used drugs as a teenager but said she had stopped.

“‘Yeah, I’ve taken drugs. Yes, I have had experiences, and a few of those experiences were unsavory, not ones I want to repeat, but I was growing up. I wanted the experience,” she told the paper.

“I wasn’t hugely into drugs and I’m sober now,” she added. “I’m not Amy Winehouse. I never have been. I wasn’t a crackhead.”

Peaches Geldof was married twice. She leaves behind her second husband, Tom Cohen, lead singer of the defunct London punk band S.C.U.M, and two sons, 23-month-old Astala and 11-month-old Phaedra.

“My beloved wife Peaches was adored by myself and her two sons Astala and Phaedra, and I shall bring them up with their mother in their hearts every day. We shall love her forever,” Cohen said in a statement.

At age 19 she married Max Drummey, a vocalist with U.S. indie rock band Chester French, at a drive-thru chapel in Las Vegas while the two were on holiday. The marriage lasted six months and ended in 2009.

Friends and acquaintances reacted to news of her death with disbelief.

“It’s very, very sad. Peaches has overcome a lot in her childhood, seemed to be getting her life together. You hear something like this and words can fail you. It’s just tragic, terrible news,” Ray Levine, Peaches’ former publicist, told Sky News.

“Having to deal with the death of your mother at such a young age would be difficult for any child, let alone someone in the public spotlight,” he added.

In the public eye since her teenage years, Peaches Geldof struggled with a turbulent social life, highlighted at every turn by a British press eager for celebrity news.

Born on March 13, 1989, she left home at 16 and began writing columns for fashion magazines and newspapers, as well as occasional television presenting and modeling. She was well-known among London’s young and trendy crowd, frequently snapped wearing cutting-edge outfits on catwalk front rows or on red carpets at movie premieres and exclusive club events.

British tabloids and gossip magazines also focused on the more sordid details of her life, including reports that she was caught shoplifting cosmetics and claims that she used heroin.

In 2010 she was dropped from a lingerie modelling contract after photographs showing her topless and allegations that she used drugs surfaced.

Bob Geldof, 62, rose to fame in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the Irish punk band The Boomtown Rats, but became even better known as a social activist, marshaling the power of his fellow music celebrities – most notably as co-organizer of the 1984 Band-Aid movement and the following year’s Live Aid concerts that raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia.

The fundraising song he co-wrote, “Do they Know It’s Christmas?” featuring an ensemble of pop stars remains a radio favorite in Britain and Ireland at Christmastime.

In 2005, he helped organize more celebrity-studded concerts under the banner Live 8 – timed to coincide with a G8 summit taking place in Scotland – that raised funds to fight poverty. For the past decade he has worked alongside fellow Irish rocker Bono at events organized by the U2 singer’s anti-poverty charity One.

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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