The director of films as brilliant and varied as Night and the City, Du rififi chez les hommes and The Naked City was born a hundred years ago today in Middletown, Connecticut. Considering he was blacklisted in 1950 and spent almost the entire rest of his life (he died in 2008 at 96) in Europe, many people wrongly assume that the man who directed the quintessential French heist film must have been French.
My essay looking at Dassin’s cinematic career and the singular way it spanned different countries, languages and genres is available in the recently released issue of Absinthe: New European Writing #16. The issue also includes poetry and prose from Abdelkader Benali, Gastao Cruz, Hans Durrer, Niels Hav, Line-Maria Lang, Katya Metelitsa, Gonca Ozmen, Chris Tysh and Jesper Wung-Sung.
You can order Absinthe #16 here.
Photo – 1) cover art from Absinthe #16 by Pedro Matos, 2) Jules Dassin
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