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Blacklisted Filmmaker Jules Dassin Dies
1-Apr-2008
Written by: Frida Hognabba
Award-winning director Jules Dassin passed away at 96.
According to the Herald Tribune, Jules Dassin, the American award-winning director, screenwriter and actor, died on Monday in Athens, where he had lived since the 1970s. He was 96.
After he was blacklisted in the United States because of his earlier ties to the Communist Party, Dassin’s luck turned as he hit upon great success in making movies in Europe.
The Associated Press claims that Hygeia Hospital is yet to confirm the cause of death.
The New York Times reports that Mr. Dassin is known for his films after he fled Hollywood in the 1950s, such as Never on Sunday, Topkapi and Rififi. Before his blacklisting, his Hollywood successes include noir movies like Brute Force, The Naked City and Thieves’ Highway. Dassin’s last key effort before his deportation was Night and the City, rendered Dassin’s masterpiece by some acclaimed critics.
Revealed by Dassin in an interview with The Guardian, he joined the Communist Party in the 1930s; “You grow up in Harlem where there’s trouble getting fed and keeping families warm, and live very close to Fifth Avenue, which is elegant. . . . You fret, you get ideas, seeing a lot of poverty around you, and it’s a very natural process.” He continues explaining that he left the party in 1939 after the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler.
Dassin has always been critical of his own work. In 1962, Dassin told Cue Magazine: “Of my own films, there’s only one I’ve really liked — He Who Must Die. That is, I like what it had to say. But that doesn’t mean I’m completely satisfied with it. I’d do it all over again, if I could.”
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