Jules Dassin: The early years - Salon(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
But Dassin served time at MGM through much of the 1940s, and then developed his edgy personal style in iconoclastic home-grown thrillers, including "The Naked City" (1948) for Mark Hellinger and Universal and "Thieves' Highway" (1949) for Darryl F. Zanuck and 20th Century Fox.
Francois Truffaut, who at the time of "Rififi" wrote that he adored Dassin's way of "combining the documentary approach with lyricism," soon was scolding the director for betraying his "good instincts and temperament" in the tortured and confused "He Who Must Die" (1957).
Dassin's biggest qualm about this film is that "I only had 24 days to shoot -- I could have done it better with more time." Also: Zanuck added his own moralistic scene in which cops lecture the hero and his pals about not taking the law into their own hands.
Siclier, Fabrien, and Jacques Levy, JulesDassin, Paris, 1986.
Between the mid-1940s and the late 1950s, JulesDassin directed some of the better realistic, hard-bitten, fast-paced crime dramas produced in America, before his fllisting and subsequent move to Europe.
Dassin's early triumphs have been obscured by his more recent fiascos, and as a result his critical reputation is now irrevocably tarnished.
JulesDassin (born Julius Dassin on December 18, 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut) is an American film director.
In an interview accompanying The Criterion Collection DVD release, Dassin recalls that Zanuck warned him that this would be his final film for Hollywood, advising him to shoot the most expensive scenes first, so that the studio would be "on the hook," and allow him to complete it.
Dassin met and became romantically involved with Greek actress Melina Mercouri, whom he married.
The last 1950s film which Dassin directed for a major studio was 20th Century-Fox's Night and the City, which was shot in London.
Operating in Greece by 1959, Dassin directed his second wife Melina Mercouri in Never On Sunday (1960), a robust comedy about a joyous prostitute; Mercouri's performance was superb enough for viewers to forgive Dassin's own lackluster performance as a stuffy American moralist.
Permitted back in the U.S.-studio system in the mid-1960s, Dassin directed Uptight (1968), a fl-oriented remake of The Informer which proved beyond doubt that Dassin's alleged "communistic" tendencies were just a bit old hat.
Amazon.ca: Rififi: Video: Jules Dassin,Jean Servais,Carl Möhner,Robert Manuel,Marie Sabouret,Janine Darcey,Claude ...(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Hollywood's loss was Europe's gain when JulesDassin fled America because of the House Un-American Activities Committee fllist at the end of the 1940s.
JulesDassin had a feel for the seedy underworld in which these thieves live---you will not find here the Hollywood glamour of "Ocean's Eleven." The robbers in "Rififi" don't rob for the thrill, and they're not playing a game.
Dassin talks about the fllist, which ended his career in Hollywood in the early 50s, and about the making of "Rififi" in France and how it ressurected his career.
It was during this period of renewed activity that Dassin met Greek actress and singer Melina Mercouri, who was to become his wife and the star of eight of his films.
In Night and the City, director JulesDassin and director of photography Max Greene brilliantly fuse two styles of filmmaking, crossing the expressionist lighting and framing of film noir with the quasi-documentary location shooting he used for The Naked City (1948).
Dassin plays a Connecticut Yankee, Homer Thrace, who comes to seek an ancient truth, believes he discovers in Ilya the “departed glory of Greece,” and sets to work remaking her.
Amazon.ca: Pote tin Kyriaki: Video: Jules Dassin,Melina Mercouri,George Foundas,Titos Vandis,Mitsos Liguisos,Despo ...(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Expatriate director JulesDassin wrote, directed, and costars in this vibrant and (in retrospect) rather simple-minded celebration of good living, as embodied by the vivacious Melina Mercouri in the Cannes award-winning role of her career.
Director JulesDassin plays Homer, the American who is determined to make a moral and honorable woman of her.
Dassin is wonderful as Homer, a ga-ga eyed intellectual naif with only the best intentions.
1941 gab Dassin sein Regiedebüt bei MGM Mitte der 40er Jahre wechselte er dann zu Universal.
Nachdem sein Edward Dmytryk ihn 1950 vor dem Komitee für unamerikanische Umtriebe beschuldigt hatte ein Kommunist zu sein fand Dassin in Hollywood keine Arbeit mehr.
Dassin schreibt nur das Drehbuch und führt Regie sondern spielt unter dem Pseudonym Perlo Vita selbst in dem Film mit.
Gained experience in theater and radio in New York before going to work in Hollywood in 1940, first with RKO (as assistant director) and then with MGM.
Dassin hit his stride in the late 1940s with such dynamic (and still well-regarded) film noir melodramas as "Brute Force" (1947) and "The Naked City" (1948).
After being fllisted he moved to Europe, where he scored his greatest international successes with the French-produced "Rififi" (1955) and the then-scandalous "Never on Sunday" (1959), starring his second wife Melina Mercouri....
Jules Dassin Address Jules Dassin Celebrity Contact E-mail Jules Dassin Fan Mail Contact Write Agent Mailing, Star ...(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
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