Many people assume since Jules Dassin made many a great French-made noir film (“Rififi,” “La Legge”), that the filmmaker was, Joooles Dasseeen, a French filmmaker. He wasn’t. Dassin was an American filmmaker who fled Hollywood in the 1950s in an attempt to resuscitate his career after he was blacklisted because of his earlier ties to the Communist Party during the McCarthy propaganda era.
The great Dassin died Monday in Athens, where he had lived since the 1970s, at the age of 96. A cause of death was not given.
The Criterion collection has done a great job of feting Dassin’s pre-blacklist work in the last few years releasing, “Thieves’ Highway” (1949), “Night In the City” (1950), “Naked City” (1948), and “Brutal Force” (1947), all in within the last 24 months or so (they released “Rififi” in their early days).
Coincidentally enough, the New York Times just published a feature on Richard Widmark, the morally ambiguous star of “Night In the City” two days ago (the last major film Dassin made before he fled for France).
Unable to speak the language, Dassin toiled for five years in unemployment until he was finely offered the chance to direct, “Rififi,” long-regarded as heist classic (memorably, the robbery itself lasts about half-hour and was filmed without music or dialogue). Dassin won a best-director award for the film at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival.
By 1960, the communist witch-hunt was over and his comedy, “Never on Sunday,” was nominated for best directing and screenwriting Academy Awards.
Another one of Dassin’s gifts to the world aside from his fine noir cinema was his songwriting son, Joe Dassin, who was recently featured in Wes Anderson’s “The Darjeeling Limited” (the song, “Les Champs-Élysées”).
Trailer: “Rififi”
“Rififi” titular song sequence
“Naked City” opening
Scene: “A Night In The City”
