Rififi aka Du rififi chez les hommes by Auguste Le Breton was The 1955 Winner of The Best Director Award for Jules Dassin, and The Nominee for The Palme d'Or at that same Cannes Film Festival, it is also one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – you find plenty of notes on films from The NYT 1,000 list on my blog, here is the link https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

Rififi aka Du rififi chez les hommes by Auguste Le Breton was The 1955 Winner of The Best Director Award for Jules Dassin, and The Nominee for The Palme d'Or at that same Cannes Film Festival, it is also one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – you find plenty of notes on films from The NYT 1,000 list on my blog, here is the link https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

8 out of 10

 

There are many motion pictures, books, sometimes the former are inspired by the latter, dealing with crime, robberies, for instance Asphalt Jungle https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-asphalt-jungle-by-wr-burnett-10-out.html and Rififi is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made for good reason

 

Tony le Stéphanois is a criminal, some of his pals suggest an easy shtick at the then famous jewelry Mappin and Webb- Jo le Suedois and Mario Ferrati propose that they take a car, go to the window of the shop, break in and get the expensive items displayed near the street, the lights will change from red to green…

It will be very fast, less than a minute, and so easy – it reminds me of the recent job at the Louvre, no less, where they just took a ladder, walked in, and then departed with millions of euros worth of stolen goods, I think it was on the news that some have been arrested, but I wonder what the end is, did they get things back?

 

Another classic about the world of crime would be The French Connection https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-french-connection-based-on-book-by.html with the immortal Gene Hackman in the leading role, for which he won a deserved Oscar, then he would have another for

 

-          Unforgiven

 

Tony had been in prison, so he refuses the first offer, although he would come up with his own initiative, a plan to take not just the jewels in the window, but the whole shop, what they keep in the safe, and for that we have a larger operation, they have to get an ‘expert’ from Italy – spoiler alert, he would be the weak link

They want to get in through the ceiling, that is making a large hole from the flat above, and then they need to deal with the alarm, which seemed sophisticated for the fifties – one issue with older motion pictures is that the devices look so ancient – and the clever mastermind used a fire extinguisher to muzzle the system

 

Surely you remember The Godfather https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/goodfellas-based-on-book-by-nicholas.html and maybe the scene after one heist, Robert De Niro is one of the meanest fellas, and he had warned the accomplices to avoid any spending, except they would not: flashy Cadillac, furs, etc. – well, not that much opulence is displayed in Rififi, but the same mistake might be enough to make this a credible thriller, that is, not one of those mediocre features, where you see the protagonists taking away millions

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’