Du rififi chez les hommes 1955

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: One of the great crime thrillers, the benchmark all succeeding heist films have been measured against, it's no musty museum piece but a driving, compelling piece of work, redolent of the air of human frailty and fatalistic doom. Read more

Bosley Crowther, New York Times: This is perhaps the keenest crime film that ever came from France, including Pepe le Moko and some of the best of Louis Jouvet and Jean Gabin. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: A familiar but effective parable of honor among thieves. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: The film turns moralistic and sour in the last half, when the thieves fall out. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: I won't bore you by rhapsodizing over the moody poetic night world artistry of Rififi. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There is something else unique about the heist scene: It is the centerpiece of the film, not the climax. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Actually rather overrated, lacking the tension, profundity, and vivid characterisation of similar films. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: It took an experienced US director, Jules Dassin, who has lived in France some years, to give the French gangster pic the proper tension, mounting and treatment. This pic has something intrinsically Gallic without sacrificing the rugged storytelling. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: Viewers become something like collaborators, invested in working out what, say, that umbrella is going to be used for - and then pleased to discover whether we've gotten it right or not. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Features posturing aplenty -- particularly if you include the climactic gunfire arabesques. No one, however, has nearly the doomed glamour of the tight-lipped, gimlet-eyed, consumptive Tony Le Stephanois. Read more