| Purple Noon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | René Clément |
| Produced by | Raymond Hakim Robert Hakim |
| Written by | Patricia Highsmith René Clément Paul Gégauff |
| Starring | Alain Delon Maurice Ronet Marie Laforêt Romy Schneider (uncredited) |
| Music by | Nino Rota |
| Cinematography | Henri Decaë |
| Distributed by | Titanus Miramax re-released in USA |
| Release date(s) | March 10, 1960 (French) August 31, 1961 (US) |
| Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Purple Noon (French: Plein Soleil, aka Full Sun or Blazing Sun) is a 1960 film directed by René Clément, based on The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, and starring Alain Delon in his first major movie. The film, principally in French, contains brief sequences in Italian.
The film's source novel was adapted again in 1999, under the original title, directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Matt Damon and Jude Law.
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Tom Ripley (Delon) has been sent to Italy to persuade his wealthy friend, Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to return to the United States and take over his father's business. Philippe intends to do no such thing, however, and the impoverished Tom enjoys living a life of luxury, so the two men essentially spend money all day and carouse all night. Tom is fixated on Philippe and his girlfriend Marge (Marie Laforêt), and covets the other man's life. The spoiled, arrogant Philippe eventually grows bored with his friend's fawning and becomes cruel and abusive to him. The final straw is when, during a yachting trip, Philippe strands Tom in the dinghy and leaves him to lie in the sun for hours.
Back on board, Tom hatches a plan to kill Philippe and steal his identity. First, he leaves evidence of Philippe's philandering for an outraged Marge to find. After Marge goes ashore, Philippe confronts Tom, who admits his plan quite casually. Philippe, believing it to be a joke, plays along and asks Tom for the plan's details. Suddenly frightened, Philippe offers Tom a substantial sum to leave him and Marge alone, but Tom states that he can obtain this sum anyway, and far more. At last pretending to accept his offer, Tom stabs Philippe to death as the latter screams Marge's name. He casts the body overboard and returns to port.
Upon returning, Tom informs Marge that Philippe has decided to stay behind. He then goes traveling around the country using Philippe's name and bank account, even flawlessly mimicking his voice and mannerisms; in effect, Tom has become Philippe.
When Philippe's suspicious friend, Freddie Miles, begins to suspect the truth, Tom murders him as well. Freddie's body is soon found and the Italian police inevitably get involved. However, Tom continues playing his charade, switching between his own identity and Philippe's, depending on what the situation demands. After carrying out an elaborate scheme to implicate Philippe in Freddie's murder, Tom forges a suicide note and a will, leaving the Greenleaf fortune to Marge.
In the aftermath, Tom has survived a long string of close shaves, thrown the Italian police off his trail, and seems to have outwitted everybody. He even succeeds in seducing Marge, with whom he begins openly cohabiting. However, when Philippe's yacht is being moved into dry dock, his decomposed body is found still attached to the boat because the anchor cable used to sink his corpse had become tangled around the propeller. Tom is unknowingly called toward the police shortly thereafter; it is implied that he will be arrested.
Purple Noon was lauded by critics and made Delon a star. In 1962, Clément and Paul Gégauff won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Foreign Film Screenplay. It enjoys a loyal cult following even today, with fans including film director Martin Scorsese.
Roger Ebert gave Purple Noon three stars (compared to the four-star review he gave to the 1999 version of The Talented Mr. Ripley[1]), writing that "the best thing about the film is the way the plot devises a way for Ripley to create a perfect cover-up," but criticized the "less than satisfactory ending," feeling that "Purple Noon ends as it does only because Clement doesn't have Highsmith's iron nerve."[2]
James Berardinelli, however, rated Purple Noon higher than The Talented Mr. Ripley, giving it a four-star review (compared to two and a half stars for The Talented Mr. Ripley[3]). Berardinelli praised Delon's acting, saying that "Tom is fascinating because Delon makes him so," and also complimented the film for "expert camerawork and crisp direction."[4] Berardinelli placed Purple Noon on his All-Time 100 list, and compared it to the 1999 film: "The remake went back to the source material, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. The result, while arguably truer to the events of Highsmith's book, is vastly inferior. To say it suffers by comparison to Purple Noon is an understatement. Almost every aspect of Rene Clement's 1960 motion picture is superior to that of Minghella's 1999 version, from the cinematography to the acting to the screenplay. Matt Damon might make a credible Tom Ripley, but only for those who never experienced Alain Delon's portrayal."[5]
Highsmith's opinion of the film was mixed: she approved of Delon as Ripley, describing him as "very beautiful to the eye and interesting for the intellect", but criticized the ending in which Ripley is implied to be caught by the police, remarking: "it was a terrible concession to so-called public morality that the criminal had to be caught."[6]
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