Saturday Movie Review: Rififi

Posted by Alistair.
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In a lot of ways Du Rififi chez les Hommes—or Rififi as it is more commonly known—is the perfect movie. It is the product of many good people working at their best to create a whole far greater than the sum of its parts. It is shot with beautiful cinematography that captures the urban sprawl of Parisian streets and the smoky glamour of the criminal underworld in equal measure. It is brilliantly acted. All the movie's characters are given a depth that makes them simultaneously feel as large as the inhabitants of Greek myths and as ordinary as people you see in the street. Jean Servais is particularly amazing as the lead, giving a performance here that proves he was as capable as Bogart as a noir anti-hero. The screenplay is perfectly paced and replete with subtly brilliant lines—like when gangster Jo le Suedois's wife tells him that he is one of millions who suffered an unhappy childhood, and it is the others, and not he, who are truly tough guys. And the movie's plot is strong and full of twists while never becoming too much to handle. But for all of its brilliance in these departments, what really sets this film strongly on this side of the classic film line is its direction.

Blacklisted American director Jules Dassin (who apparently only made the film for the money) creates something so revolutionary with such understatement that it is still difficult to identify what sets it apart from the rest of its breed. It isn't just the movie's brilliant pacing, in which not a second is wasted, and no element is introduced that does not pay off with interest by the film's end. Nor is it Dassin's mastery of all the ingredients I mentioned above—script, location, cinematography, character development, plotting, and acting. It is clear that Dassin is a master working at the peak of his game, but that alone isn't what makes this movie what it is. Perhaps it is Dassin's unique circumstance, his need for a job coupled with his entrance into the culture of a new country. Perhaps this is the place where the American work ethic meets French ennui. Where Bogart meets Camus.

Whatever it is, something in this film makes it undeniably brilliant. It manages to retain a staying power that keeps it as fresh and exciting today as when it was first released. It is without doubt a film that helped spawn both the genres of heist film and the French New Wave. It remains smarter and more human than anything in the former category and cooler, quicker, and more exciting than anything in the latter, while simultaneously giving homage to the Forties' noirs on both sides of the Atlantic that preceded it. It is one of those classic works that immediately becomes the rule by which everything that follows will be measured. And it does it all so smoothly that you hardly notice what has happened until it's all over.

The film's plot follows a thief named Tony le Stephanois who was recently released from prison (Servais). After finding no solace in gambling or confronting his former girlfriend who helped put him away, he reluctantly agrees to rob a jewelry store with his old friend Jo le Suedois (Austrian born Carl Mohner). The two work to assemble a crack team, and to discover the secret of bypassing the latest alarm system with which the jewelry store is equipped.

Although the plot is pretty standard, Dassin works overtime to make it shine. He crafts a careful theme that hinges around a thief's code and his debt to the innocent. And he makes even the seemingly superfluous bits count—like the inclusion of an umbrella in the heist, which is both funny and thrilling. The heist itself is one of cinema's classic scenes and it is to Dassin's utmost credit that he shoots it in almost real time, taking 32 minutes while hardly using a sound, and that each second is utterly captivating.

If the film can be faulted for anything it would have to be for its lack of a vastly important theme. The idea that something can be done perfectly, but fail due to the inhumanity of others (you'll have to see it to find out!), while interesting is hardly as deep or as broad-reaching as any of literature's great works. The film may also suffer from a little too much focus on revenge for being ratted out. (A motif that a bitter Dassin may have included in retaliation for his having been blacklisted.) These minor complaints aside, this is an unbelievable film. It has immediately clawed its way to the top of my favorite movie list. It is a brilliantly formulated noir, exquisitely crafted, with a tough but human core. If you have never seen Rififi I suggest you work to change that.

Israeli Research Project

Israel claims that no invasion is occuring so "research project" will have to serve as a meaningful synonym. Victor David Hanson lays out a decent framework for considering the Israeli efforts in such a light and ends his analysis with an observation with which I agree wholeheartedly:

Instead, a disgusted world secretly wants these terrorists to get what they deserve. And who knows: This time they just might.

Aside from a bit of Kofi baable that is receiving the attention which it deserves, remarkably little is being said about Israel's actions. There has been some jabber from the usual suspects on the left, but on the whole there has been nothing that could be construed as meaningful opposition to Israel's actions.

As we watch Israel methodically destroy Hizbollah in Lebanon we should give some consideration as to the probable result of the application of the same methods on a wider scale in Ira[n]/q. My apologies for the error.

UPDATE: Just ran accross an article by Michael Ledeen in which he summarizes the opportunity created by the crisis"

Now is the time to tell our soldiers in Iraq that “hot pursuit” is okay, that the terrorist training camps on both sides of Iraq are legitimate targets, to be attacked in self-defense. Now is the time to tell the Iraqi government to come forward with the abundant evidence of Iranian evil-doing, and that we will support a fight against the mullahs’ foot soldiers in Iraq. These actions will signal the next stage of the war against the terror masters, which is the vigorous support of the pro-democracy forces in Syria and Iran.

It is a wondrous window of opportunity. As so often in our history, it was opened by our enemies. Let’s go for it.

Now, please. It may not open again for quite a while.

[h/t]CF

AmbivaBlog: Postscript to the Teen-Rats-on-Pot Story

AmbivaBlog: Postscript to the Teen-Rats-on-Pot Story: "Don't you see the inescapable conclusion here? Pot makes you smarter."

Top-Secret World Loses Blogger

Top-Secret World Loses Blogger: "And it continued, she added, with something like this: 'CC had the sad occasion to read interrogation transcripts in an assignment that should not be made public. And, let's just say, European lives were not saved.' (That was a jab at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to Europe late last year when she defended U.S. policy on secret detentions and interrogations.) A self-described 'opinionated loudmouth with a knack for writing a catchy headline,' Axsmith also wrote how it was important to 'empower grunts and paper pushers' because, she explained in the interview, 'I'm a big believer in educating people at the bottom, and that's how you strengthen an infrastructure.'

In her job as a contractor at the CIA's software-development shop, Axsmith said, she conducted 'performance and stress testing' on computer programs, and that as a computer engineer she had nothing to do with interrogations. She said she did read some interrogation-related reports while performing her job as a trainer in one counterterrorism office."

One word: need-to-know.

A Cautious Approach

John Bolton and Condoleezza Rice are on the same page and the Saudi purchased Arabist's at State are keeping their mouths shut - on orders from Riyadh. The Chief Thief at the UN is babbling but no one pays any attention to his Blue Light Special moral authority any more. The President will meet with Prime Minister Blair next Friday. The evacuation of civilians is proceeding at a brisk clip and Israel has advised civilians living north of the Litani River that remaining where they are could prove hazardous to their health.

And, of course, Hezbollah remains firmly in control of the entire situation with Nasrullah insisting that the Israeli servicemen that he kidnapped will not be returned.

A cautious and methodical approach certainly seems warranted while Nasrullah is still breathing. And until Israel holds enough of Lebanon to provide a decent bargaining chip.

UPDATE: via Power Line

Reporter: The news for the last 48 hours from the Middle East, it is more and more apparent now that many in the Middle East, Lebanese and others, are accusing the U.S. and the Security Council of being the obstacle to a real ceasefire immediately because that’s what they need. Could you explain in a couple words what is really your position about this?

Ambassador Bolton: Well look, I think we could have a cessation of hostilities immediately if Hezbollah would stop terrorizing innocent civilians and give up the kidnapped Israeli soldiers. So that to the extent this crisis continues, the cause is Hezbollah. How you get a ceasefire between one entity, which is a government of a democratically elected state on the one hand, and another entity on the other which is a terrorist gang, no one has yet explained. The government of Israel, everybody says, has the right to exercise the right of self-defense, which even if there are criticisms of Israeli actions by some, they recognize the fundamental right to self-defense. That’s a legitimate right. Are there any activities that Hezbollah engages in, militarily that are legitimate? I don’t think so. All of its activities are terrorist and all of them are illegitimate, so I don’t see the balance or the parallelism between the two sides and therefore I think it’s a very fundamental question: how a terrorist group agrees to a ceasefire. You know in a democratically elected government, the theory is that the people ultimately can hold the government accountable when it does something and doesn’t live up to it. How do you hold a terrorist group accountable? Who runs the terrorist group? Who makes the commitment that a terrorist group will abide by a ceasefire? What does a terrorist group think a ceasefire is? These are - you can use the words “cessation of hostilities” or “truce” or "ceasefire.” Nobody has yet explained how a terrorist group and a democratic state come to a mutual ceasefire.

That's why caution and thoughtfulness are paramount. Until Nasrullah and a reasonable number (say 60%) are dead and the rest in hiding.

SECOND UPDATE: Condi shows the breadth of the US position in an announcement this afternoon:

Rice said the United States is committed to ending the bloodshed, but not before certain conditions are met. The Bush administration has said that Hezbollah must first turn over the two Israeli soldiers whose capture set off the 10-day-old violence, and stop firing missiles into Israel.

“We do seek an end to the current violence, we seek it urgently. We also seek to address the root causes of that violence,” Rice said. “A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo.”

The statement is amazing in its complexity, nuance and subtlety. We must all hope that Nasrullah is well versed in the art of diplospeak so that the many points that Secretary Rice made don't pass over his head. Alternatively, Israel could easily write the message on the nose of any number of Hellfires and continue to attempt delivery until receipt is acknowledged.

ASIDE: What is the correct term of art to use to describe an invasion that is the antithesis of "lightning like"? Do Israeli mailmen have to show up in every village in southern Lebanon before the press catches on?

And tonight's musical interlude

... while the WSJ worries about the state of science education

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today: "The Times of London reports on the latest weather across the pond:

A heat wave has spread across Europe with near-tropical temperatures so far claiming seven lives as people struggle through their daily lives in temperatures reaching 40 degrees. . . .

In France, it is those in the southeast who are suffering the most, but even temperatures in Paris will soar to 36 degrees by midweek as the heat wave spreads to the north, forecasters said. . . .

An elderly man and woman have already died in the Bordeaux region in the when the heat exacerbated their medical conditions. Temperatures had reached 38 degrees when the 85-year-old man died in hospital, and the woman, 81 at her home.

A 53-year-old labourer in the eastern French town of Macon died overnight of 'malign hyperthermia' after working outside in temperatures of 33 degrees, authorities said.

Wow. When it's 40 degrees or below, we are apt to don a sweater, and we always thought we were pretty insensitive to cold. These Europeans must have a really low tolerance for heat. No wonder they're always worrying about 'global warming.'"

A problem the NY Times feels personally

Public vs. Private Schools - New York Times: "Instead of arguing about the alleged superiority of one category over another, the country should stay focused on the overarching problem: on average, American schoolchildren are performing at mediocre levels in reading, math and science — wherever they attend school."

Melanie Philips - The real problem is America.

I am a great admirer of Melanie Philips and her clearheaded way of telling us what happens in Britain. Today however she unfortunately encapsulates the emotional dilemma of the modern European, even those resolutely on our side.

She begins by demolishing the Guardian cartoon we see in the post below. It appears the newspaper has published an explanation that the Star of David studs on the gloved fist might be misinterpreted as Jewish, instead of Israeli, which was not their intent, no, not at all. As Phillips says:

Ah. So vilifying the Jewish state using Judeophobic imagery is ok, as long as everyone knows it’s Israel that’s being vilified and not Jews, who are of course different.

The source of this venom is not merely the charge that Israel is using ‘disproportionate’ force in Lebanon and Gaza. It is the belief that Israel has no right to use force at all to defend itself, because Israel has no right to exist.

After this, she gives us a little history of antisemitic thought and of its pervasiveness in the European mind and in the Islamic world. She continues,

Even if it were to destroy Hezbollah, however, this is not the head of the snake. That lies in Syria and Iran. Only if those regimes are toppled will the fight-back against evil have any chance of success.

So far, so good. OK then, here it comes:

The real problem is America. Far from being too gung-ho, it has flinched from what needs to be done. Its failure to hold Iran and Syria to account explains in large measure why it is in such a mess in Iraq — precisely where Iran wants it to be. These terrible events now unfolding in the Middle East have been caused by Iran and Syria —but it is America’s lack of steadfastness, courage and strategic vision over many years which have allowed this crisis to unfold.

So America alone, then, as Mark Steyn says? America alone, as a kind of Israel writ large? Alone, against increasing European hostility and weakness and appeasement, against thousands of hostile newspaper editorials and television commentators - alone forever?

Maybe so. Perhaps that is what it will take. An American city nuked and we would be right there. But if America ever truly does feel that way - a feeling sustained through total, implacable Jacksonian war - there probably won’t be much consideration given to the sensibilities of a weak, neutral to hostile Islamified Europe in our solution.

Ahmadinejad's Dream Ally

From ynet:

A German government official said on Thursday that letter written by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to German Chancellor Angela Merkel asks her to help solve the Palestinian problem and deal with Zionism.

“There’s nothing about the nuclear issue (in the letter),” the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the extreme sensitivity of the issue for the German government.

“It’s all related to Germany and how we have to find a solution to the Palestinian problems and Zionism and so on. It’s rather weird,” The official, who has seen the letter, said.
[...]
In May Ahmadinejad wrote US President George W. Bush an 18-page letter discussing religious values, history and international relations.
[...]
But the letter to Merkel was different and was not confrontational in tone, the official said.

“It’s not negative like Ahmadinejad’s letter to Bush. He is not criticizing Germany,” he said. “It’s basically about how we have to work together and solve the problems of the world together.”

In February, Merkel compared Ahmadinejad’s statements and stance to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power when he and his Nazi party began threatening to exterminate European Jewry.

“Remember that in 1933 many people said it was just rhetoric,” Merkel said.

Just how in touch with reality is this guy? Do you have to be a Mahdi man to know?

A Disgusting Cartoon

I hesitated to post this cartoon because I find it profoundly offensive. Nonetheless, it is well to see what passes for enlightened opinion in the pages of the Guardian these days. I always thought Pinch took the Guardian as his lodestar; let us hope the NYTimes never reaches such depths.

h/t Harry's Place.

Arab Majority May Not Stay Forever Silent - July 17, 2006 - The New York Sun

Arab Majority May Not Stay Forever Silent - July 17, 2006 - The New York Sun: "Rarely have I seen such an uprising, indeed an intifada, against those little turbaned, bearded men across the Muslim landscape as the one that took place last week. The leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, received a resounding 'no' to pulling 350 million Arabs into a war with Israel on his clerical coattails."

Family wallops would-be robber, wraps things up for police

Family wallops would-be robber, wraps things up for police: "WEST PALM BEACH — While covering his head amid the barrage of flying fists and feet, his legs bound with a jump-rope by children half his size, a bruised and bloodied Craig Mack had a sudden realization, police say: He'd picked the wrong family to mess with.

Mack arrived at the Perez family home at 611 28th St. Monday night just as an exhausted Mateo Perez was getting home from a 12-hour day of landscaping and cleaning buildings. Mack probably figured he could swipe Perez's wallet and get away without much of a fight, police said."

If they're not citizens yet, I vote we award them citizenship immediately.

Don't blame Bush for the war in Lebanon. By Jacob Weisberg

Don't blame Bush for the war in Lebanon. By Jacob Weisberg: "We don't really know why Hezbollah chose the moment it did to end this fragile truce by launching a raid that killed three Israeli soldiers and resulted in the kidnapping of two others. Was it acting out of rivalry or solidarity with Hamas' preceding attack from Gaza? Did Iran, which is Hezbollah's chief sponsor, order the attack or merely enable and encourage it? We don't know whether Syria, which is the chief backer of Hamas, was a planner or merely a conduit for Hezbollah's Iranian weapons. Nor can we say with much assurance whether the Lebanese government, which includes significant Hezbollah representation, allowed terrorists to rule the south because of weakness or sympathy.

We do know enough, however, to divide responsibility for the current war among these players: Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. This has not stopped many analysts in Europe and the United States from laying blame for the violence squarely at a less obvious doorstep—that of the Bush administration. "

It's so confusing when Slate makes sense.

The Principle of Proportionality

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the toll of casualties and damage ``raise serious questions regarding the respect of the principle of proportionality in the conduct of hostilities,'' according to a statement yesterday in Geneva by the group's operations chief, Pierre Krahenbuhl.

From a Bloomberg Article

Increasingly I've been seeing talk of, as if it is some hoary old remnent from the Age of Chivalry, proportionality in warfare. I fully expect it to soon acquire capitalization, so that it becomes the much more official looking Principle of Proportionality.

What exactly is this deeply revered Principle? Where was it at Dresden or Hiroshima? For that matter, closer to today, where was it in the first Gulf War or in Chechnya when Grozny was reduced to rubble?

One of the most successful techniques our enemies are employing in this war is the continual invention of ever more bizzare and arbitrary "Rules of War"

A border raid esculated into a full blown war between Israel and Hisb'Allah (the Party of God). Over the course of this war Hizb'Allah has fired hundreds of rockets, which are area weapons, into Israeli cities. Many of these rockets have warheads surrounded by a sleave of ball bearings. These are anti-personel weapons pure and simple, being fired blindly into civilian areas to maim or kill. There is virtually no outcry against this tactic.

Yet, Israel was accused of crimes against humanity for bombing bridges and power stations at the onset of the war. When did attacking bridges and power stations become something airforces didn't do during times of war? And now this sacred Principal of Proportionality. When was it negotiated that the weak could use ball bearings while the strong could only load their guns with rubber bullets?

Lincoln, frustrated by Fredricksburg, looked for a General who understood the arithmetic of blood. Today, the West needs to relearn that arithmetic, or far more of us -- and them -- than need to will drown in blood as the lesson is applied.

The Principle of Proportionality ... bah-humbug.

Volokh Conspiracy

For anyone who is a Volokh addict (as I am), the Volokh Conspiracy is down due to a "technical glitch". Eugene writes that it may be as late as Friday before they're up.

Dots

Most of the time there really aren't any lines that go between them. Sometimes I really don't like the lines that could be drawn between them.

Omar at Iraq the Model has a worrisome post up that indicates a call to action by Iran to its Shia allies in Iraq.

An Israeli using the name 'Woland' has a curious piece concerning a game show on Hezbollah's Al Manar channel.

Typical Arab bluff or has the maddest of the mullah's gone round the bend?

Indian censorship alert

All those interested in freedom of speech issues will want to check out this developing story that I picked up at Gates of Vienna. It appears the Indian government is trying to block access to blogger.com and other blogging sites in an attempt to restrict the communications of terrorists. It's not clear if they are completely naive about the many alternative internet tools that terrorists could use, or what; but it's a sign of what can happen when the state starts to lose control of the monopoly of violence and to lose faith in its own basis for rule: the governing wisdom and self-representations of its own people. This is something we all need to worry about.

More from Charles at No Dhimmitude: it appears the Indians fear conservative blogs telling too much truth.

Chicago Boyz

Chicago Boyz: "Clearly, as a person's views move leftward from the center the contempt for liberal democracy grows. Leftists pay lip service to it but when push comes to shove they come down on the anti-democratic side virtually every time. Most of the evils of the world during the last 60 years arose and persisted as a result of the Left's eagerness to turn its back on democracy. I think that those who generally support democracy should challenge leftists to explain themselves every time they choose autocracy.

"

FOXNews.com - The Great Blogosphere Brawl - Blog | Blogs | Popular Blogs | Video Blogs

FOXNews.com - The Great Blogosphere Brawl - Blog | Blogs | Popular Blogs | Video Blogs: "I return to the opening sentence of this column, '[B]logs reveal the emotions churning beneath the surface of hard news.' It is not possible to understand the headlines without appreciating what drives this issue into prominence and that attitude into disrepect. The motor is often a raw unrepentant rage that takes no ideological prisoners on either side of the left-right divide.

The rabid them-or-us attitude must not be allowed to guide mainstream advocacy. It should be exposed for what it is: ugly and destructive to everyone."