Purple Noon (1960)
It might be hard to see "Purple Noon" with the eyes of someone in 1960, when it was released, especially if you have seen the other famous movie based on the same book, the 1999 "The Talented Mr. Ripley." But in fact they are rather different films, even though a few scenes are quite similar. The more loosely filmed, less elegant, and rather clumsier "Purple Noon" is admired for exactly those qualities. It is not the 1999 highly (highly!) polished, superbly acted Anthony Minghella movie by any stretch, and yet, in most views, it is the better movie.
But not to me.
It's worth avoiding too much of that "which is better" comparison by remembering that the early film is distinctive as it spends much of its time as a kind of elevated mind game between to very good looking young men. They spar, they taunt, they find a kind of liberty and discovery in the ways they push each other to be something unexpected, even dangerous. This is developed in quick snippets as we go, but you get the sense of it more fully in a couple of longer scenes, and then eventually on the beautiful yacht where the crisis from their derring do comes to a head.
Once Tom Ripley takes full control of his destiny, and Mr. Greenleaf's, we see that he is not, actually, the brilliantly deceptive and disarming Mr. Ripley in Minghella's film. That is, he isn't the "talented" Mr. Ripley at all, but a young man who barely avoids catastrophe time after time in his plot to take over Greenleaf's identity. He does succeed, to a point, but the constant dodges and role playing of Matt Damon's character are less the point here. This is more the picture of someone in slightly over his head.
Alain Delon is certainly a pretty boy actor, a kind of cleaner, and more French, James Dean (who was already 5 years dead by this point). I can see how people prefer his version of Tom Ripley, because it's more likable the way any pretty rebellious and slightly dangerous boy is likable. In a way, I admire Damon simply because he wasn't such a paradigm. His flaws showed. It's Jude Law in the later film who is the pretty boy, playing Mr. Greenleaf, and in the earlier French version we have Maurice Ronet, who at least has the advantage of looking a lot like Delon.
There are some weird flaws in "Purple Noon." One I couldn't accept at all was when Ripley calls Greenleaf's girlfriend, Marge, pretending to be Greenleaf, and Marge can't tell the difference. There are also touches in the later film that add to the complexity of it all--the addition of another woman, the greater presence of Freddy Miles (played in both movies by rather similar men), and the inner struggles of Ripley.
Further, there is an authenticity to the American (later) film for the unavoidable reason that the characters are Americans in Europe, which they are (though Jude Law is British, a small point). In "Purple Noon" the characters are still American, with American names and histories and passports, but of course the look, act, and sound like they are French. Understandable, but odd in some larger view. There is also a wonderful sexual undercurrent in the later film missing in the first--the idea that Ripley is homosexual and doesn't know how to access those feelings, or how to come out to Greenleaf about it.
Both films are beautifully filmed, this one far more simply, lacking the huge resources of Minghella's enterprise. That makes "Purple Noon" more gritty at times, and if it sometimes seems to cut corners (the market scene as the same woman in a blue dress in the background too many times), it is also more direct and less lofty, which is good in its own way. Jazz makes a brief appearance here, but nothing like in Minghella's version, where you might say the music takes over too much at times from the plot. "Purple Noon" does not, except for one short stretch on the yacht, dwell on atmospherics for their own sake.
Rene Clement is certainly a celebrated French director, a generation before their amazing "New Wave" era. This is one of his lesser known features, but it has been getting closer attention in recent years, and you might really enjoy it. If you've seen the Damon/Law version of the two main characters here in action, you should enjoy the contrast of Delon/Ronet in the same roles. Very impressive, and different.
It might be hard to see "Purple Noon" with the eyes of someone in 1960, when it was released, especially if you have seen the other famous movie based on the same book, the 1999 "The Talented Mr. Ripley." But in fact they are rather different films, even though a few scenes are quite similar. The more loosely filmed, less elegant, and rather clumsier "Purple Noon" is admired for exactly those qualities. It is not the 1999 highly (highly!) polished, superbly acted Anthony Minghella movie by any stretch, and yet, in most views, it is the better movie.
But not to me.
It's worth avoiding too much of that "which is better" comparison by remembering that the early film is distinctive as it spends much of its time as a kind of elevated mind game between to very good looking young men. They spar, they taunt, they find a kind of liberty and discovery in the ways they push each other to be something unexpected, even dangerous. This is developed in quick snippets as we go, but you get the sense of it more fully in a couple of longer scenes, and then eventually on the beautiful yacht where the crisis from their derring do comes to a head.
Once Tom Ripley takes full control of his destiny, and Mr. Greenleaf's, we see that he is not, actually, the brilliantly deceptive and disarming Mr. Ripley in Minghella's film. That is, he isn't the "talented" Mr. Ripley at all, but a young man who barely avoids catastrophe time after time in his plot to take over Greenleaf's identity. He does succeed, to a point, but the constant dodges and role playing of Matt Damon's character are less the point here. This is more the picture of someone in slightly over his head.
Alain Delon is certainly a pretty boy actor, a kind of cleaner, and more French, James Dean (who was already 5 years dead by this point). I can see how people prefer his version of Tom Ripley, because it's more likable the way any pretty rebellious and slightly dangerous boy is likable. In a way, I admire Damon simply because he wasn't such a paradigm. His flaws showed. It's Jude Law in the later film who is the pretty boy, playing Mr. Greenleaf, and in the earlier French version we have Maurice Ronet, who at least has the advantage of looking a lot like Delon.
There are some weird flaws in "Purple Noon." One I couldn't accept at all was when Ripley calls Greenleaf's girlfriend, Marge, pretending to be Greenleaf, and Marge can't tell the difference. There are also touches in the later film that add to the complexity of it all--the addition of another woman, the greater presence of Freddy Miles (played in both movies by rather similar men), and the inner struggles of Ripley.
Further, there is an authenticity to the American (later) film for the unavoidable reason that the characters are Americans in Europe, which they are (though Jude Law is British, a small point). In "Purple Noon" the characters are still American, with American names and histories and passports, but of course the look, act, and sound like they are French. Understandable, but odd in some larger view. There is also a wonderful sexual undercurrent in the later film missing in the first--the idea that Ripley is homosexual and doesn't know how to access those feelings, or how to come out to Greenleaf about it.
Both films are beautifully filmed, this one far more simply, lacking the huge resources of Minghella's enterprise. That makes "Purple Noon" more gritty at times, and if it sometimes seems to cut corners (the market scene as the same woman in a blue dress in the background too many times), it is also more direct and less lofty, which is good in its own way. Jazz makes a brief appearance here, but nothing like in Minghella's version, where you might say the music takes over too much at times from the plot. "Purple Noon" does not, except for one short stretch on the yacht, dwell on atmospherics for their own sake.
Rene Clement is certainly a celebrated French director, a generation before their amazing "New Wave" era. This is one of his lesser known features, but it has been getting closer attention in recent years, and you might really enjoy it. If you've seen the Damon/Law version of the two main characters here in action, you should enjoy the contrast of Delon/Ronet in the same roles. Very impressive, and different.