Rififi (1955)

Director: Jules Dassin 
Country: France

Silence generates tension, and tension produces anxiety, that's what a thriller is all about. This Dassin's film is a chef d' oeuvre, not only for its well written dialogue and brilliant direction and adaptation from the novel, but also for its atmosphere and dynamic story and choreographies like the robbery sequence, which is brilliantly performed and certainly influenced later movies of the genre. The cinematography is noir-style, dramatic, and not exactly impressionist like many other noir films, the plot and narrative are bleak and twisted, nothing to do with its counterparts from Hollywood. This is a first class heist-thriller, containing all the crime-noir elements executed in a skillful way, a must-see film in the genre.