Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)
This was a big influence on my previous short film, Pitch Black Heist. Again, it's one of those films I bought at Fopp when I was watching as many noir films as I could. It's stuck with me ever since I first saw it and I've watched it multiple times. It captures the French New Wave but is still an action film. It never slips into pretension even though it has a half hour silence in the middle of it. It's amazing.