Rififi in London (and some other places)
Jules Dassin's 1955 Paris-made film Du rififi chez les hommes has a brief shot of an office in London, overlooking Piccadilly Circus:
This post is not about this shot, but rather about one of the numerous crime films that have traded on the name of Dassin's film - see e.g. Du rififi chez les femmes (1959), Rififi in Amsterdam (1962), Rififi à Tokyo (1963), Rififi en la cuidad (1963), Rififi ad Amsterdam (1966).
Denys de la Patellière's Du Rififi à Paname (1966) is mostly set in Paris but briefly visits Tokyo, Munich and London. (It doesn't go to Panama - 'Paname' is a slang term for Paris.) The sequence in London (watch it here) is brief but in its five exterior shots covers a great deal of territory, all of it familiar. The first shot serves to establish that we have moved from Paris - specifically the motorway leading from the airport at Orly - to London:
Denys de la Patellière's Du Rififi à Paname (1966) is mostly set in Paris but briefly visits Tokyo, Munich and London. (It doesn't go to Panama - 'Paname' is a slang term for Paris.) The sequence in London (watch it here) is brief but in its five exterior shots covers a great deal of territory, all of it familiar. The first shot serves to establish that we have moved from Paris - specifically the motorway leading from the airport at Orly - to London:
The second shot does the same establishing work, as does the third:
Whereas the first two shots were static, the third pans across Trafalgar Square, from Admiralty Arch to the National Gallery, a movement eastward that leads to the location of the fourth shot, a northward view up Moorgate:
This fourth shot pans up towards the top of an office building, indicating the location of an interior where will begin the action of this London sequence. The man in the office has a conversation with someone in Paris about events in Tokyo, then leaves his office and is shot on stepping into a lift. The assassin is shown disposing of the gun via a curious lift for small objects and walking away down a corridor:
My interest in the London sequence is chiefly the building in which this murder is supposed to have been committed. The building, revealed progressively as the shot pans upward, is one of the six that lined London Wall, three each side. They appeared frequently in London films c.66, for example in Blowup (1966): |
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in The Sandwich Man (1966):
or in The Italian Job (1969):
These two shots are looking eastward along London Wall, by far the more common viewpoint of these buildings in films and photographs. The view in Du rififi à Paname is unusual in looking west, showing the first of the buildings on the north side, Moor House (Lewis Solomon & Kaye, 1961):
Under construction behind it is Britannic House (F. Milton Cashmore & H.N.W. Grosvenor, 1962-67):
The completed Britannic House can be seen in Smashing Time (1967):
Striking changes are evident when comparing the Rififi-shot and the London Wall-Moorgate junction now. The Globe pub has acquired a more 'authentically' Victorian frontage:
T. Fox and Co.'s frontage hasn't changed, though it is now a wine bar, rather than a manufacturer of umbrellas. |
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The most dramatic change is the replacement in 2004 of the 1961 Moor House with a building by Norman Foster:
After the murder in Moor House, the London sequence of Du rififi à Paname closes with a panning shot of a street almost three miles away:
This is Victoria Street. A reverse view can be seen in Blowup:
Whereas Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square are obvious, travelogue-type landmarks used simply to establish place, the last two exterior views in the Rififi London sequence foreground contemporary architecture of a type far less common in Paris at the time, accentuating the visual contrast between the two cities. There is certainly no modern architecture in the Paris scenes of Du rififi à Paname:
The only architectural modernity evident in 'Paname' is at Orly airport:
Before visiting London the film was in Tokyo, where again was apparent a contrast with un-modern Paris:
On the other hand, the Munich sequence shows a city even more clearly defined by its old-world, monumental architecture than Paris:
Maps of France, the United States and the world, as well as one of a place I cannot identify, provide background décor:
The only map that anyone looks at is a plan of the hotel that the police are preparing to raid:
The hotel is the Trianon Palace in Versailles:
This hotel has been a film location since at least 1913:
One last point of interest in Du rififi à Paname is the opening credit sequence, created by the greatest of French title designers, Jean Fouchet:
Click below to watch the credit sequence:
For more French films in London see here.