Average customer rating:
- Faithful Thriller and Era
- The Talented Mr Delon
- Essential French cinema: Clément's 'Plein Soleil.'
- The fine art of murder
- Very good choice. Very good buy
|
Purple Noon
Starring:
Alain Delon ,
Maurice Ronet ,
Marie Laforêt ,
Erno Crisa , and
Frank Latimore
Director:
René Clément
Manufacturer: Miramax
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Similar Items:
-
Mr. Klein
-
Un Flic
-
Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
-
Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) - Criterion Collection
-
Ripley's Game
ASIN: B00005JKSO |
Amazon.com essential video
A member of the middle generation of French filmmakers between Renoir and the New Wave, René Clément was a strong visual stylist who tried on different subjects and genres: documentaries, semidocumentaries, wartime dramas, comedies. In Purple Noon he showed a strong facility for feverish film noir, and the results are quite memorable. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, the film stars Alain Delon as the notoriously amoral Ripley (a character also played, albeit quite differently, by Dennis Hopper in Wim Wenders's The American Friend). Envious of a playboy pal (Maurice Ronet) having a luxurious time on the Mediterranean, Ripley decides to murder the man and assume his identity. The subsequent suspense concerns the dirty deed done and the aftermath of complicated cover-ups, and in the best Hitchcockian sense you can never quite tell whose side you're on as Ripley's efforts at survival are followed in meticulous detail. Mesmerizing to watch, saturated in light and color, and topped by Delon at his most icy, Purple Noon is a terrific discovery for enthusiasts of film noir and the French cinema. --Tom Keogh
Description
Filled with suspense, PURPLE NOON is the critically acclaimed thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat! A handsome, wealthy bachelor has a sexy girlfriend and all the finest things money can buy. His envious friend, on the other hand, has nothing but his charm, good looks ... and a wickedly sinister plot to take over the rich man's life! Tensions mount as this deadly game unfolds and the murderer struggles to stay one step ahead of the police -- and the ever-growing suspicions of the dead man's friends! Prepare yourself for PURPLE NOON, a shocking story of betrayal, murder, and stolen identity in a world where nothing is as it seems!
Customer Reviews:
Faithful Thriller and Era.......2007-09-15
Not only faithful to Highsmith's great book, the cast gets the cool objectivity of her writing and is perfectly matched to the characters they are portraying, the movie also captures the bygone era of the South of France in the 1950s, its gentle rhythms a marvelous counterpoint to the tension of the unfolding drama.
The Talented Mr Delon.......2007-09-12
Forget Matt Damon. Ladies, Alain Delon will crawl up your skin and send tingles where you want tingles to be and where you don't want them to be. Hard to explain the appeal of this film from 1960 but it is far more definitive and truer to the novel than johnny-come-lately versions. The Talented Mr Riply delivers a performance that defined his career up to 'Le Samourai' which defined 'cool' to several generations thereafter. Largely unknown in the USA, after some ill fated attempts at Holywood movies in the late sixties, Delon is one of France's biggest stars. He and Jean-Paul Belmondo were the Redford and Newman of their generation. His looks work to his advantage here but his eyes offer a depth of hunger, greed, and avarice that few actors could have pulled off encased in all that male beauty. An excellent movie for contemplating just how far you'd go to have someone else's wealth and life.
Essential French cinema: Clément's 'Plein Soleil.'.......2007-08-05
Alain Delon takes identity theft to the extreme in this stylish French thriller. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, René Clément's (1913-1996) film, Purple Noon (Plein Soleil)(1960) stars Delon in the role of Tom Ripley, a "suave, agreeable and utterly amoral" con artist. Claiming he was sent to Italy to persuade his friend, Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to return to San Francisco and run his father's business, Ripley becomes enamoured with Philippe, his privileged lifestyle, his playboy personality, and his trés sexy girlfriend, Marge (Marie Laforêt). In response, Philippe becomes adversarial toward Ripley. Ripley then decides to kill Philippe and assume his identity, supporting his charade using Philippe's name and money. He then attempts to seduce Marge. Delon's acclaimed performance as the charismatic sociopath Ripley made him a star; Marie Laforêt went on to become a French pop rock sensation. The movie was remade in 1999, starring Matt Damon as Ripley, Jude Law as Greenleaf, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge. However Clément's suspenseful film noir version is the better of the two.
G. Merritt
The fine art of murder.......2006-07-30
Patricia Highsmith's THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY might be the finest American suspense thriller ever written. A clever young man from a disadvantaged background is sent abroad by an industrialist to bring home the latter's spoiled and vicious son; befriending the young rotter in Italy, the antihero becomes enamored of his decadent lifestyle and kills him so he can assume his identity. The novel is not only suspenseful but it forms a brilliant disquisition on the nature of identity at mid-century, and its relationship to texts, reputation, and capital. Two very intelligent films have been made from it that capture different parts of it successfully: the latest is Anthony Minghella's 1999 big-budget Hollywood thriller starring Matt Damon, but the first was this beautifully photographed French version directed by Rene Clement starring Alain Delon as Ripley.
Clement's version succeeds best in its evocation of the lovely rarefied atmosphere of the tourist Italy of the American jetset: the cinematography has a crystalline postcard beauty that makes Rome and the Italian coast seem supernatually beautiful. It also has a much better Ripley in Delon than Minghella had in Damon: Delon is much less hesitant and much more desperate and amoral, and he also has the requisite handsomeness (and facial resemblance to the rich wastrel he murders and replaces) that Damon lacks. As the gorgeous, cruel Dickie Greenleaf (here called Phillipe), Maurice Ronet is absolutely first-rate, toying with Ripley in the mistaken belief that he holds all the cards in their friendship. Less successful as Phillipe's emotionally abused girlfriend Marge is Marie Leforet, who doesn't seem to react to Phillipe at all as an American girl would ever conceiveably do. The film is great at conveying an aura of homoerotic decadence, but it loses quite a bit by beginning the story in medias res: by not showing us the circumstances from which Ripley came, we have little sense at what is at stake in his masquerade. But this is this fine adaptation's only major shortcoming.
Very good choice. Very good buy.......2006-06-30
I am pleased with this movie. I got it at the right time the seller told me. Good price too.
Average customer rating:
- Faithful Thriller and Era
- The Talented Mr Delon
- Essential French cinema: Clément's 'Plein Soleil.'
- The fine art of murder
- Very good choice. Very good buy
|
Purple Noon
Starring:
Alain Delon ,
Maurice Ronet ,
Marie Laforêt ,
Erno Crisa , and
Frank Latimore
Director:
René Clément
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
Thrillers
| Mystery & Suspense
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Crisa, Erno
| ( C )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Delon, Alain
| ( D )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Latimore, Frank
| ( L )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Muller, Paul
| ( M )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Ninchi, Ave
| ( N )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Ronet, Maurice
| ( R )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Schneider, Romy
| ( S )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
( P )
| Titles
| Features
| DVD
| Video
Similar Items:
-
Mr. Klein
-
Un Flic
-
Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
-
Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) - Criterion Collection
-
Ripley's Game
ASIN: B000065KMS |
Amazon.com essential video
A member of the middle generation of French filmmakers between Renoir and the New Wave, René Clément was a strong visual stylist who tried on different subjects and genres: documentaries, semidocumentaries, wartime dramas, comedies. In Purple Noon he showed a strong facility for feverish film noir, and the results are quite memorable. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, the film stars Alain Delon as the notoriously amoral Ripley (a character also played, albeit quite differently, by Dennis Hopper in Wim Wenders's The American Friend). Envious of a playboy pal (Maurice Ronet) having a luxurious time on the Mediterranean, Ripley decides to murder the man and assume his identity. The subsequent suspense concerns the dirty deed done and the aftermath of complicated cover-ups, and in the best Hitchcockian sense you can never quite tell whose side you're on as Ripley's efforts at survival are followed in meticulous detail. Mesmerizing to watch, saturated in light and color, and topped by Delon at his most icy, Purple Noon is a terrific discovery for enthusiasts of film noir and the French cinema. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Faithful Thriller and Era.......2007-09-15
Not only faithful to Highsmith's great book, the cast gets the cool objectivity of her writing and is perfectly matched to the characters they are portraying, the movie also captures the bygone era of the South of France in the 1950s, its gentle rhythms a marvelous counterpoint to the tension of the unfolding drama.
The Talented Mr Delon.......2007-09-12
Forget Matt Damon. Ladies, Alain Delon will crawl up your skin and send tingles where you want tingles to be and where you don't want them to be. Hard to explain the appeal of this film from 1960 but it is far more definitive and truer to the novel than johnny-come-lately versions. The Talented Mr Riply delivers a performance that defined his career up to 'Le Samourai' which defined 'cool' to several generations thereafter. Largely unknown in the USA, after some ill fated attempts at Holywood movies in the late sixties, Delon is one of France's biggest stars. He and Jean-Paul Belmondo were the Redford and Newman of their generation. His looks work to his advantage here but his eyes offer a depth of hunger, greed, and avarice that few actors could have pulled off encased in all that male beauty. An excellent movie for contemplating just how far you'd go to have someone else's wealth and life.
Essential French cinema: Clément's 'Plein Soleil.'.......2007-08-05
Alain Delon takes identity theft to the extreme in this stylish French thriller. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, René Clément's (1913-1996) film, Purple Noon (Plein Soleil)(1960) stars Delon in the role of Tom Ripley, a "suave, agreeable and utterly amoral" con artist. Claiming he was sent to Italy to persuade his friend, Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to return to San Francisco and run his father's business, Ripley becomes enamoured with Philippe, his privileged lifestyle, his playboy personality, and his trés sexy girlfriend, Marge (Marie Laforêt). In response, Philippe becomes adversarial toward Ripley. Ripley then decides to kill Philippe and assume his identity, supporting his charade using Philippe's name and money. He then attempts to seduce Marge. Delon's acclaimed performance as the charismatic sociopath Ripley made him a star; Marie Laforêt went on to become a French pop rock sensation. The movie was remade in 1999, starring Matt Damon as Ripley, Jude Law as Greenleaf, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge. However Clément's suspenseful film noir version is the better of the two.
G. Merritt
The fine art of murder.......2006-07-30
Patricia Highsmith's THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY might be the finest American suspense thriller ever written. A clever young man from a disadvantaged background is sent abroad by an industrialist to bring home the latter's spoiled and vicious son; befriending the young rotter in Italy, the antihero becomes enamored of his decadent lifestyle and kills him so he can assume his identity. The novel is not only suspenseful but it forms a brilliant disquisition on the nature of identity at mid-century, and its relationship to texts, reputation, and capital. Two very intelligent films have been made from it that capture different parts of it successfully: the latest is Anthony Minghella's 1999 big-budget Hollywood thriller starring Matt Damon, but the first was this beautifully photographed French version directed by Rene Clement starring Alain Delon as Ripley.
Clement's version succeeds best in its evocation of the lovely rarefied atmosphere of the tourist Italy of the American jetset: the cinematography has a crystalline postcard beauty that makes Rome and the Italian coast seem supernatually beautiful. It also has a much better Ripley in Delon than Minghella had in Damon: Delon is much less hesitant and much more desperate and amoral, and he also has the requisite handsomeness (and facial resemblance to the rich wastrel he murders and replaces) that Damon lacks. As the gorgeous, cruel Dickie Greenleaf (here called Phillipe), Maurice Ronet is absolutely first-rate, toying with Ripley in the mistaken belief that he holds all the cards in their friendship. Less successful as Phillipe's emotionally abused girlfriend Marge is Marie Leforet, who doesn't seem to react to Phillipe at all as an American girl would ever conceiveably do. The film is great at conveying an aura of homoerotic decadence, but it loses quite a bit by beginning the story in medias res: by not showing us the circumstances from which Ripley came, we have little sense at what is at stake in his masquerade. But this is this fine adaptation's only major shortcoming.
Very good choice. Very good buy.......2006-06-30
I am pleased with this movie. I got it at the right time the seller told me. Good price too.
![Purple Noon [Region 2]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21MJGWA0HYL.jpg)
Average customer rating:
- Faithful Thriller and Era
- The Talented Mr Delon
- Essential French cinema: Clément's 'Plein Soleil.'
- The fine art of murder
- Very good choice. Very good buy
|
Purple Noon [Region 2]
Starring:
Alain Delon ,
Maurice Ronet ,
Marie Laforêt ,
Erno Crisa , and
Frank Latimore
Director:
René Clément
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
Thrillers
| Mystery & Suspense
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Crisa, Erno
| ( C )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Delon, Alain
| ( D )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Latimore, Frank
| ( L )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Muller, Paul
| ( M )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Ninchi, Ave
| ( N )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Ronet, Maurice
| ( R )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Schneider, Romy
| ( S )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
( P )
| Titles
| Features
| DVD
| Video
Similar Items:
-
Mr. Klein
-
Un Flic
-
Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
-
Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) - Criterion Collection
-
Ripley's Game
ASIN: B00004XOBW |
Amazon.com essential video
A member of the middle generation of French filmmakers between Renoir and the New Wave, René Clément was a strong visual stylist who tried on different subjects and genres: documentaries, semidocumentaries, wartime dramas, comedies. In Purple Noon he showed a strong facility for feverish film noir, and the results are quite memorable. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, the film stars Alain Delon as the notoriously amoral Ripley (a character also played, albeit quite differently, by Dennis Hopper in Wim Wenders's The American Friend). Envious of a playboy pal (Maurice Ronet) having a luxurious time on the Mediterranean, Ripley decides to murder the man and assume his identity. The subsequent suspense concerns the dirty deed done and the aftermath of complicated cover-ups, and in the best Hitchcockian sense you can never quite tell whose side you're on as Ripley's efforts at survival are followed in meticulous detail. Mesmerizing to watch, saturated in light and color, and topped by Delon at his most icy, Purple Noon is a terrific discovery for enthusiasts of film noir and the French cinema. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Faithful Thriller and Era.......2007-09-15
Not only faithful to Highsmith's great book, the cast gets the cool objectivity of her writing and is perfectly matched to the characters they are portraying, the movie also captures the bygone era of the South of France in the 1950s, its gentle rhythms a marvelous counterpoint to the tension of the unfolding drama.
The Talented Mr Delon.......2007-09-12
Forget Matt Damon. Ladies, Alain Delon will crawl up your skin and send tingles where you want tingles to be and where you don't want them to be. Hard to explain the appeal of this film from 1960 but it is far more definitive and truer to the novel than johnny-come-lately versions. The Talented Mr Riply delivers a performance that defined his career up to 'Le Samourai' which defined 'cool' to several generations thereafter. Largely unknown in the USA, after some ill fated attempts at Holywood movies in the late sixties, Delon is one of France's biggest stars. He and Jean-Paul Belmondo were the Redford and Newman of their generation. His looks work to his advantage here but his eyes offer a depth of hunger, greed, and avarice that few actors could have pulled off encased in all that male beauty. An excellent movie for contemplating just how far you'd go to have someone else's wealth and life.
Essential French cinema: Clément's 'Plein Soleil.'.......2007-08-05
Alain Delon takes identity theft to the extreme in this stylish French thriller. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, René Clément's (1913-1996) film, Purple Noon (Plein Soleil)(1960) stars Delon in the role of Tom Ripley, a "suave, agreeable and utterly amoral" con artist. Claiming he was sent to Italy to persuade his friend, Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to return to San Francisco and run his father's business, Ripley becomes enamoured with Philippe, his privileged lifestyle, his playboy personality, and his trés sexy girlfriend, Marge (Marie Laforêt). In response, Philippe becomes adversarial toward Ripley. Ripley then decides to kill Philippe and assume his identity, supporting his charade using Philippe's name and money. He then attempts to seduce Marge. Delon's acclaimed performance as the charismatic sociopath Ripley made him a star; Marie Laforêt went on to become a French pop rock sensation. The movie was remade in 1999, starring Matt Damon as Ripley, Jude Law as Greenleaf, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge. However Clément's suspenseful film noir version is the better of the two.
G. Merritt
The fine art of murder.......2006-07-30
Patricia Highsmith's THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY might be the finest American suspense thriller ever written. A clever young man from a disadvantaged background is sent abroad by an industrialist to bring home the latter's spoiled and vicious son; befriending the young rotter in Italy, the antihero becomes enamored of his decadent lifestyle and kills him so he can assume his identity. The novel is not only suspenseful but it forms a brilliant disquisition on the nature of identity at mid-century, and its relationship to texts, reputation, and capital. Two very intelligent films have been made from it that capture different parts of it successfully: the latest is Anthony Minghella's 1999 big-budget Hollywood thriller starring Matt Damon, but the first was this beautifully photographed French version directed by Rene Clement starring Alain Delon as Ripley.
Clement's version succeeds best in its evocation of the lovely rarefied atmosphere of the tourist Italy of the American jetset: the cinematography has a crystalline postcard beauty that makes Rome and the Italian coast seem supernatually beautiful. It also has a much better Ripley in Delon than Minghella had in Damon: Delon is much less hesitant and much more desperate and amoral, and he also has the requisite handsomeness (and facial resemblance to the rich wastrel he murders and replaces) that Damon lacks. As the gorgeous, cruel Dickie Greenleaf (here called Phillipe), Maurice Ronet is absolutely first-rate, toying with Ripley in the mistaken belief that he holds all the cards in their friendship. Less successful as Phillipe's emotionally abused girlfriend Marge is Marie Leforet, who doesn't seem to react to Phillipe at all as an American girl would ever conceiveably do. The film is great at conveying an aura of homoerotic decadence, but it loses quite a bit by beginning the story in medias res: by not showing us the circumstances from which Ripley came, we have little sense at what is at stake in his masquerade. But this is this fine adaptation's only major shortcoming.
Very good choice. Very good buy.......2006-06-30
I am pleased with this movie. I got it at the right time the seller told me. Good price too.
![Purple Noon [Region 2]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21QNZV3TMDL.jpg)
Average customer rating:
- Faithful Thriller and Era
- The Talented Mr Delon
- Essential French cinema: Clément's 'Plein Soleil.'
- The fine art of murder
- Very good choice. Very good buy
|
Purple Noon [Region 2]
Starring:
Alain Delon ,
Maurice Ronet ,
Marie Laforêt ,
Erno Crisa , and
Frank Latimore
Director:
René Clément
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
French
| By Original Language
| Art House & International
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
German
| By Original Language
| Art House & International
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Thrillers
| Mystery & Suspense
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Crisa, Erno
| ( C )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Delon, Alain
| ( D )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Latimore, Frank
| ( L )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Muller, Paul
| ( M )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Ninchi, Ave
| ( N )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Ronet, Maurice
| ( R )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Schneider, Romy
| ( S )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
French
| By Original Language
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| Stores
| DVD
| Video
German
| By Original Language
| Foreign & International
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
( P )
| Titles
| Features
| DVD
| Video
Similar Items:
-
Mr. Klein
-
Un Flic
-
Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
-
Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) - Criterion Collection
-
Ripley's Game
ASIN: B000050X8Q |
Amazon.com essential video
A member of the middle generation of French filmmakers between Renoir and the New Wave, René Clément was a strong visual stylist who tried on different subjects and genres: documentaries, semidocumentaries, wartime dramas, comedies. In Purple Noon he showed a strong facility for feverish film noir, and the results are quite memorable. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, the film stars Alain Delon as the notoriously amoral Ripley (a character also played, albeit quite differently, by Dennis Hopper in Wim Wenders's The American Friend). Envious of a playboy pal (Maurice Ronet) having a luxurious time on the Mediterranean, Ripley decides to murder the man and assume his identity. The subsequent suspense concerns the dirty deed done and the aftermath of complicated cover-ups, and in the best Hitchcockian sense you can never quite tell whose side you're on as Ripley's efforts at survival are followed in meticulous detail. Mesmerizing to watch, saturated in light and color, and topped by Delon at his most icy, Purple Noon is a terrific discovery for enthusiasts of film noir and the French cinema. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Faithful Thriller and Era.......2007-09-15
Not only faithful to Highsmith's great book, the cast gets the cool objectivity of her writing and is perfectly matched to the characters they are portraying, the movie also captures the bygone era of the South of France in the 1950s, its gentle rhythms a marvelous counterpoint to the tension of the unfolding drama.
The Talented Mr Delon.......2007-09-12
Forget Matt Damon. Ladies, Alain Delon will crawl up your skin and send tingles where you want tingles to be and where you don't want them to be. Hard to explain the appeal of this film from 1960 but it is far more definitive and truer to the novel than johnny-come-lately versions. The Talented Mr Riply delivers a performance that defined his career up to 'Le Samourai' which defined 'cool' to several generations thereafter. Largely unknown in the USA, after some ill fated attempts at Holywood movies in the late sixties, Delon is one of France's biggest stars. He and Jean-Paul Belmondo were the Redford and Newman of their generation. His looks work to his advantage here but his eyes offer a depth of hunger, greed, and avarice that few actors could have pulled off encased in all that male beauty. An excellent movie for contemplating just how far you'd go to have someone else's wealth and life.
Essential French cinema: Clément's 'Plein Soleil.'.......2007-08-05
Alain Delon takes identity theft to the extreme in this stylish French thriller. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, René Clément's (1913-1996) film, Purple Noon (Plein Soleil)(1960) stars Delon in the role of Tom Ripley, a "suave, agreeable and utterly amoral" con artist. Claiming he was sent to Italy to persuade his friend, Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to return to San Francisco and run his father's business, Ripley becomes enamoured with Philippe, his privileged lifestyle, his playboy personality, and his trés sexy girlfriend, Marge (Marie Laforêt). In response, Philippe becomes adversarial toward Ripley. Ripley then decides to kill Philippe and assume his identity, supporting his charade using Philippe's name and money. He then attempts to seduce Marge. Delon's acclaimed performance as the charismatic sociopath Ripley made him a star; Marie Laforêt went on to become a French pop rock sensation. The movie was remade in 1999, starring Matt Damon as Ripley, Jude Law as Greenleaf, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge. However Clément's suspenseful film noir version is the better of the two.
G. Merritt
The fine art of murder.......2006-07-30
Patricia Highsmith's THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY might be the finest American suspense thriller ever written. A clever young man from a disadvantaged background is sent abroad by an industrialist to bring home the latter's spoiled and vicious son; befriending the young rotter in Italy, the antihero becomes enamored of his decadent lifestyle and kills him so he can assume his identity. The novel is not only suspenseful but it forms a brilliant disquisition on the nature of identity at mid-century, and its relationship to texts, reputation, and capital. Two very intelligent films have been made from it that capture different parts of it successfully: the latest is Anthony Minghella's 1999 big-budget Hollywood thriller starring Matt Damon, but the first was this beautifully photographed French version directed by Rene Clement starring Alain Delon as Ripley.
Clement's version succeeds best in its evocation of the lovely rarefied atmosphere of the tourist Italy of the American jetset: the cinematography has a crystalline postcard beauty that makes Rome and the Italian coast seem supernatually beautiful. It also has a much better Ripley in Delon than Minghella had in Damon: Delon is much less hesitant and much more desperate and amoral, and he also has the requisite handsomeness (and facial resemblance to the rich wastrel he murders and replaces) that Damon lacks. As the gorgeous, cruel Dickie Greenleaf (here called Phillipe), Maurice Ronet is absolutely first-rate, toying with Ripley in the mistaken belief that he holds all the cards in their friendship. Less successful as Phillipe's emotionally abused girlfriend Marge is Marie Leforet, who doesn't seem to react to Phillipe at all as an American girl would ever conceiveably do. The film is great at conveying an aura of homoerotic decadence, but it loses quite a bit by beginning the story in medias res: by not showing us the circumstances from which Ripley came, we have little sense at what is at stake in his masquerade. But this is this fine adaptation's only major shortcoming.
Very good choice. Very good buy.......2006-06-30
I am pleased with this movie. I got it at the right time the seller told me. Good price too.
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