1964 ‘Rififí en la ciudad’ Directed by Jesús Franco
In an unnamed Central American state on the eve of a crucial election, a young police informer working for police officer Miguel Mora bent on uncovering the shady works of popular politician Maurice Leprince is killed. However, thugs working for Leprince began to be killed one by one as well.
Fernando Fernán Gómez Jean Servais Laura Granados Agustín González Antonio Prieto Robert Manuel Maria Vincent Dina Loy Manuel Gas Luis Marín Ángel Menéndez Serafín García Vázquez Jacinto San Emeterio Joaquín Pamplona Davidson Hepburn Greta Marcos Antonio Jiménez Escribano Antonio Padilla José Luis Lizalde Pilar Vela Lola del Pino Javier de Rivera
Chasse à la mafia, Vous souvenez vous de Paco, La spia sulla città
Rififi en la ciudad is the second half of Severin Films' double-feature "Franco Noir". Even though they share a disc, the two movies are much different. La muerte silba un blues, which I watched yesterday, is much more fun and dynamic. It follows the characters around, shows different places, and generally feels very alive.
Rififi however takes mostly place indoors and is larger in scale. The story deals with a shady guy who's a candidate for senator. An honest policeman tries to get this powerful man behind bars. And then there is an unknown killer lurking around. It gets a bit confusing.
This time the music wasn't done by Jess but by his friend Daniel J. White. It's pretty good.…
I was really hoping this would be an unheralded masterpiece, it reportedly being the Jess Franco movie Orson Welles saw that led him to hire Franco to direct second unit photography on CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. It's not a masterpiece, but it certainly looks great, especially in what is so clearly Franco's passion, the musical numbers. While the main story is a fairly standard one about a detective willing to risk career and life in order to bring down a crooked politician, a simultaneous plot is about a vengeful lover taking giallo-like black-gloved-switchblade-stabbing revenge on the thugs that killed her boyfriend. Her storyline is marked with the first appearance of dreamy voice over on top of poetic imagery in Franco's body…
“Do you remember Juan Solano?”
Why would you keep cocaine in a chandelier? Somewhere in South America or Mexico, senatorial candidate Maurice Leprince has a young bartender in his employ murdered for snooping into his affairs and sleeping with his favorite nightclub girl.
Feels like the Samba flip side to the jazz stylings of Death Whistles the Blues. They both share a nightclub (The Stardust), secret safes (this one behind a giant Buddha statue), as well as a powerful expatriate gang-lord who reigns over the city with an iron fist. The gorgeous (and catchy) cabaret numbers in this strongly foreshadow the increasingly erotic ones Franco would use throughout his career. It has one of the same issues as Whistles the Blues in that the main antagonist feels a bit toothless. Does feature a sadistic, gay, dancer and hitman that ends up being the most interesting character in both Franco Noir films.
Anyone who questions Jess Franco's gifts as a visual stylist (which is understandable if they came in through beloved junk food like Devil Hunter) will be silenced by the many knockout scenes in this one, including many fantastic nightclub music numbers that feel like a Spanish twist on Busby Berkeley. The plot is fairly standard fare about a powerful, extremely corrupt politician (Jean Servais) and the law-bending efforts to take him down, but it's all about the execution here. If the giddy main titles don't grab you, there's no hope. mondo-digital.com/franconoir.html
Franco, that other major Jesus of note, hadn't quite yet gotten the crime bug out of his system and saw fit to serve up this sweaty, salsa-infused affair about a no-nonsense muckraking flatfoot looking to expose a senatorial candidate who, lo and behold, is a real shit in secret. No doubt a not even remotely veiled fable aimed at whatever trout was vying for office in the day.
This is the film, says Jess, that finally caught Welles' eye and won him the 2nd unit gig on Chimes at Midnight. Regardless, Jess' class ties are well-evidenced here by the many extravagant interiors on display.
Still mid-tier non-signature Uncle at this point, though certainly ticks all the boxes for the neckties, cigarettes and perspiration crowd. There's a terrific scene early on of a silhouetted punch-up in a hallway set to a sizzling rumba, if ya dig.
Jess Franco’s sun-kissed film noir Rififi in the City — in which a mysterious leather-gloved killer menaces people over the phone before stabbing them to death — often hues remarkably close to the giallo, which barely even existed at that time.
Though it runs a tad long, it’s attractively filmed, especially the nightclub musical numbers, and with enough style and energy to impress even Franco haters.
Closed, hermetic post-noir with that Aldrich/Siegel/Fuller vibe (and just a smitch of Bunuel). There's a raffish, first-draft quality to the way Franco handles narrative that doesn't compare with the classical-Hollywood formalism of his models, but early-sixties Euro genre appropriations tend to roll that way, yes?
Check out the opening music, it’s boss. As an Official Title Sequence Judge™️, I give the whole opening credits 9/10.
I don’t know anything about the original Rififi. Maybe I should have watched the Jules Dassin movie first. Oh well.
“There’s cold chicken in the fridge.”
This chilled out crime and revenge story is surprisingly coherent. Actually, what’s more surprising is how much it has in common with giallo, which didn’t even exist yet. Giallo didn’t exist yet, but krimi did. Either Jess took his inspiration from krimi films, or he was secretly inventing giallo. I don’t know, but I can dig it.
“What are you doing, you idiot?”
I like the music and dancing scenes. Especially when they combine with German Expressionist-inspired beatings.
I was actually emotionally invested by the end.
My 113th Jess Franco movie. This one shows that Jess' career could have taken a very different path...I'm glad he chose the one that he did. Not complaining about this movie though. The main characters in this just don't give a shit anymore.
Detective Miguel Mora (Fernando Fernan Gomez) becomes obsessed with trying to get the goods on the crooked politician Maurice Leprince (Jean Servais) and will stop at nothing even if it means crossing the lines.
Director Jess Franco had such a wide career that most people seem to know him for a variety of eras. I mean, he did so many films over so many decades that people really started to know his work from different eras and might not be familiar with some of his earlier stuff. For example, if you're only familiar with his work from the 1980s then you might be shocked to see what RIFIFI IN THE CITY actually is.
What is this film? It's actually a…
The Second of the two movies on Severin Films' Franco Noir blu-ray. I think this one brings a bit more to think about, if not more to see and feel as well. Here we start to see almost entire night club performances, very well incorporated into the movie, with music carrying some of the scenes. Another night club called the Stardust. Also, this is so well made that it seems to pop off the screen in certain scenes; the camera shots and lighting, the acting, the music, etc.. There are powerful moments, even if they seem to be in some kind of code, where it doesn't make sense that those are the moments that are so striking.
The story is…
Rogue cop noir meets A Face in the Crowd noir in this excellent, early formalist effort by Jess Franco.
Fans of late noir cinematography will pause so often that the running time might extend to 4+ hours. At least it did for me.
Oh, Juan, why must you be so delicious???
Severin Blu-ray.
