Plein soleil (1960, René Clément)
The film opens in Rome with two young handsome men in a cafe and one of them is showing off one of his skills, forging signatures. This skilled young man has been sent from San Francisco to find and persuade the other young man who is a spoiled rich man's son named Philippe to return home. He has little money and not much going for him so the offer of $5,000 to retrieve the rich son in Italy was of course very appealing.
Philippe is living it up on the Italian Coast on his father's allowance, he has a beautiful girlfriend named Marge but still lives the playboy life, has a beautiful yacht, has impeccable taste and wants only the best. When the young man meets Philippe, he absolutely loves the lifestyle (who wouldn't) and all it has brought him, and even becomes fixated with Philippe and Marge or possible in love with them. In fact he'd do just about anything to keep this lifestyle.
Sound familiar? Maybe because the young Talented man is Tom Ripley, played by the marvellous Alan Delon (Rocco and His Brothers, Le Samouraï). Almost 40 years before the 1999 Hollywood remake. This of course is based on the epic psychological thriller novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith from 1955 which is the first of five novels to introduce the character Tom Ripley and collectively they are known as Ripliad. This is also the same writer who gave us Strangers on a Train from 1950 which was of course adapted into one of Hitchcock’s greatest thrillers.
In the remake however, which is a damn good remake by the way and could almost be called an improvement has all the original details of the novel. It also shows a remarkable performance by Jude Law who plays Dickie Greenleaf like a piano.
In this version of The Talented Mr.Ripley, director René Clément has changed quite a few details in the story, most notably the massively different ending but also many things such as the slight alteration in locations, Mongibello is changed to Rome and somewhere in southern Italy. Also the name Philippe which is Dickie in the novel and of course the loss of of the intro where he meets the father of Dickie (or Philippe) and the offer is given to Tom.
Clément shows off his awesome directorial talents with this Hichcock-ish style thriller, it is beautifully set, the action is superb and the tone is pitch perfect. He gives us time to witness Mr Ripley become who he really is and show us how good he really is and how calm he can keep which adds on to the chilling tone of the film. Alan Delon of course does a remarkable job as the being romantic yet heartless killer/charmer, with boyish good looks and innocent young face, who would suspect?
This was first restored in 1996 thanks to the great Martin Scorsese who sponsored the re-release and now that it's had a Criterion Blu-ray release, it's never looked better. If you're a fan of The Talented Mr. Ripley, or if you simply love a good thriller, be sure not to miss this.
Click here for the original trailer or Click here for the trailer in English.
Clément shows off his awesome directorial talents with this Hichcock-ish style thriller, it is beautifully set, the action is superb and the tone is pitch perfect. He gives us time to witness Mr Ripley become who he really is and show us how good he really is and how calm he can keep which adds on to the chilling tone of the film. Alan Delon of course does a remarkable job as the being romantic yet heartless killer/charmer, with boyish good looks and innocent young face, who would suspect?
This was first restored in 1996 thanks to the great Martin Scorsese who sponsored the re-release and now that it's had a Criterion Blu-ray release, it's never looked better. If you're a fan of The Talented Mr. Ripley, or if you simply love a good thriller, be sure not to miss this.Click here for the original trailer or Click here for the trailer in English.
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