Enter to win Oscilloscope Laboratories' two-disc release of Jules Dassin's THE LAW. Never before released on DVD in America, THE LAW hits stands September 24th!
Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories:
Excluding THE LAW, which Jules Dassin film is your favorite and why? Our favorite answer will receive a copy of Oscilloscope's two-disc release of THE LAW, which Harvard Film Archive director Haden Guest calls "a totally underrated and underappreciated gem." Please limit responses to three sentences max, and please, only one response per user. A winner will be announced via this thread Friday, October 1st, so check back!
Please post your response in this thread. Thread will be open until 9 p.m. (PST) September 20th.
It has to be the film that to me purely embodies the ethos of film noir, so much so that its title seems to be the simplest definition you can give. Not Gun and a Girl, but Night and the City, and Dassin's genius captures the full range of experience between these two monolithic elements: love and hate, ecstasy and agony, triumph and humiliation, courage and fear, kindness and cruelty... in short, life, death and everything in between.
I prefer The naked city because its gorgeous cinematography, the way the film shares anecdotes, the portrait (I'm afraid it's lost) of New York City, and the Italian neorealism touch that make this Dassin's work the most European film noir.
Naked City: Because it gave birth to Law and Order and brought film back to NYC and out into the streets after it went to Hollywood and receded into basements and sets.
For me, it would have to be Never on Sunday...I remember watching when I was around 11 or so, and couldn't help but be enamored by Melina Mercouri...and the chemistry between her and Dassin was just great!
Night and the City - A film that not only typifies the individual against society with Widmark's frantic fleeing as the entirety of the criminal underworld seems to pursue him, but also demonstrates a genuine complexity in the human relationships it shows - the old world/new world politics of Gregorius and son, the masochistic love between Philip and Helen. And the scene with Widmark tapping on the drums, thinking he's on top of the world, is just a pleasure to watch. It was my first Dassin and it grabbed me tight and wouldn't let go, a brilliant example of noir that exhibits such a multitude of mood and emotion that it rewards multiple viewings, I watched it twice in a row my first time because of how gob-smacked I was by the lot of it.
The very enjoyable The Naked City is my favorite, with the caveat that I've only ever seen two Dassin films. The other was Brute Force, which I did not like at all, leading to a schoolyard whuppin' administered by Herr Schreck. I feel like I may be missing the boat on Dassin, and a nice new copy of The Law might go a long way towards getting me into a stateroom.
Rififi was actually my introduction to Criterion, and to World Cinema as a whole, really. I was on summer break from college and was working at a hip used bookstore in Atlanta. People were constantly bringing in used books, CDs, and DVDs...I'd have the pick of the litter before putting items on the floor.
One rainy day an old man came in with a stack of around 20 DVDs. Rififi was one of them (L'Avventura was another...in retrospect, I'm sure that stack was loaded with gems...). I took both home, and was absolutely floored by Rififi. The plot was so tight and tense and cool, the cinematography so crisp - for an ignorant kid it was pretty incredible. I watched it again later that night, followed by L'Avventura, and my Criterion/film addiction was underway...
I love all the Dassin's - Topkapi's a great little neglected film for anyone who's yet to check it out. But I cite Rififi as being the springboard for my love of cinema and literally opening up a new world for me.
Oh, has to be Naked City.
My Dad was born in and grew up in New York and the real life locales of the neighborhoods make me think of my Dad growing up in the neighborhoods in Manhattan and it makes the viewing experience all the more real.
When I watch Naked City I watch for the buildings and streets so I can ask my Pops where those places are located and it becomes tangible.
Night and the City, in which Gene Tierney and Richard Widmark, two of Fox's greatest contract stars, run around a hellish mishmash of noir tropes within in a narrative framework that seethes exhaustion and despair.
Though I'd seen two of his films previously, the instant Night and the City hit the screen of the Brattle Theatre, Jules Dassin instantly became one of my new favorite directors. He directed the great Richard Widmark to his finest performance, and captured a view of the London underground that is so ceaselessly delightful that they come to redefine the "colorful cast of characters" concept. The last act of this is one of the finest ever, as that sinking feeling sets in that, for all of his best laid plans, none of this is going to turn out well for Harry.
From what I've seen I love Dassin; the twenty minutes of silence in Riffi is, well incredible (dare I say more intense then any 20 min stretch of any Hitchcock movie?!) That said, my favorite Dassin remains Thieves' Highway -- it blows me away every time I see it. Everyone I know raves about Wages of Fear, but I'll take the brilliant dissection of American values in Thieves' Highway over Wages any day of the week.
My favorite movie of hers has to be The Law, better known to our Mexican friends as La Loi. And my favorite sequence has to be when alluring leading lady Marcella Mastroianni, in that infamous oh-so-low-cut body-caressing dress, brushes her teeth with a knife. Cutting edge, if you know what I mean!
geoffcowgill wrote:And my favorite sequence has to be when alluring leading lady Marcella Mastroianni, in that infamous oh-so-low-cut body-caressing dress, brushes her teeth with a knife. Cutting edge, if you know what I mean!
Seriously? And the leading man was Gino Lollobrigida, right?!
Rififi, the only movie that can make me hold my breath for 28 minutes every time I see it. Dassin's direction of the entire film, and the heist sequence in particular, is nothing short of astounding pure filmmaking. It is, quite simply and with all due respect to Messrs. Huston, Melville, and others, the greatest heist movie ever made.
Topkapi, not only because it's the first Dassin movie i ever saw on Greek national TV, but also it has the great Peter Ustinov and is a great vehicle for his wife, Melina Merkouri!
Thieves' Highway, if only for that final bar scene. I found it alarming to see the brutish actor Lee J. Cobb (in what felt like a rehearsal for Johnny Friendly) reduced to a sniveling coward, trying to buy his way out of his misdeeds. Conte rattled as he attacked Cobb shouting "What about my pop?"
Night and the City. The on-location photography in London makes this noir feel so authentic, as does the strangely exciting wrestling matches featuring Stanislaus Zbyszko. What's more, it's the perfect example of how Widmark could portray such a slimy weasel and yet still hold the audience's sympathy.
geoffcowgill wrote:And my favorite sequence has to be when alluring leading lady Marcella Mastroianni, in that infamous oh-so-low-cut body-caressing dress, brushes her teeth with a knife. Cutting edge, if you know what I mean!
Seriously? And the leading man was Gino Lollobrigida, right?!
I can't remember the name of the film, but it has that scene where Udo Kier and John Cassavetes are dressed like girls and chasing Charlie Chaplin across that footbridge, that's my favorite. Good flick, but my dad hates it.
