There is always a price to pay for one's own sins:

Grandmaster of caper thrillers

Chamikara Weerasinghe

Director: Jules Dassin

Writer: Jules Dassin, Ren‚ Wheeler, Auguste Le Breton
Stars: Jean Servais, Carl M”hner, Robert Manuel, Jules Dassin, Marie Sabouret, Janine Darcey
Genre: Thriller
Length: 118 minutes
Original: 1955
Screening: 16 August 2002
Country: France

If you like a noir movie that move like a game of chess, slow and witty at the beginning, tensed and exciting at the centre, fast and serious at the end , French Caper classic Rififi is the movie to watch. The film was originally released in 1955 as Du rififi chez les homes.

Often referred to as the grand master of all heist movies, the French caper thriller Rififi has influenced the likes of Mission Impossible, Reservoir Dogs and Ocean's Eleven.

French police banned the movie on account of its central robbery sequence in 1955 stating that it could serve as a primer for would- be jewel thieves to carry out complicated robberies.

The movie was carefully and intelligently crafted by American expert director Jules Dassin. Blacklisted by post-war anti-Communist witch hunt in Hollywood at the time, Dassin fled to Paris to embark on this masterpiece which later became an international hit despite it being shot on a modest budget of US $ 200,000.

Rififi earned him the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955. The movie stands out for its seminal robbery sequence played out in the middle that runs for about 30 minutes without dialogue or sound track. You will only hear the sounds of breathing, tapping, some plaster falling into an umbrella that was set to catch it and the patter of footsteps and random coughing by the men in action.

This was done to perfection by directorial choice to intensify suspense in the movie as Tony and his prot‚g‚, young father Jo the Swede (Carl Moehner) and Cesar (played by Dassin himself as Perlo Vita) break through a concrete ceiling, enter a highly surveiled jewellery store and immobilize the alarm with foam from a fire extinguisher. Although this is the pinnacle of the movie, it takes a new turn with Cesar giving a several millions worth diamond ring to a nightclub chanteuse despite their agreement to lay low for a while.

This sets human element into the movie with a chain of renewed violence. Cesar's stupidity leads to a situation of culprits being found out by the night club boss Pierre (Marcel Lupovici) who sends his men after the jewels. He kidnaps Jo's son and demands that stolen jewellery be handed over to him in return for the boy.

But Tony knows better about the rules of the underworld and the chances of the boy being returned by Pierre. The boy is a witness. The last section of the movie is centred on the kidnapping of Jo's son. How ex-con Jo panics as a father while Tony tries to save the boy from criminals using his talents, unfolds on the screen. Meanwhile, the writing is on the wall for Cesar for betraying the crime. Tony says to Cesar (Dassin) in a scene, "I like you, Macaroni.

But you know the rules." Cesar nods in affirmation. But there is always a price to pay for one's own sins in crime. Rules apply. The plot of the movie revolves around a burglary at a jewellery shop but the director has craftily used his mastery in film making to bring each character into full play rather than killing each character on the basis of their figurative criminal appearance through scenes of die hard killing.

Rififi mirrors what makes a great movie with its cascading twists. Rififi is also noted for its dark humour.

It was nominated by the National Board of Review for Best Foreign Film. It was re-released theatrically in 2000 and is still highly acclaimed by modern film critics as one of the greatest works in French film industry.