Classic Movie Review: Purple Noon (1960) & The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) & The American Friend (1977) & Ripley's Game (2002)

Purple Noon (1960)
Directed by: René Clément.
Written by: René Clément & Paul Gégauff based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith.
Starring: Alain Delon (Tom Ripley), Marie Laforêt (Marge Duval), Maurice Ronet (Philippe Greenleaf), Erno Crisa (Inspector Ricordi), Frank Latimore (O'Brien), Billy Kearns (Freddy Miles), Ave Ninchi (Signora Gianna), Viviane Chantel (The Belgian lady), Nerio Bernardi (Agency Director), Barbel Fanger (Mr. Greenleaf), Lily Romanelli (Housekeeper), Nicolas Petrov (Boris), Elvire Popesco (Mrs. Popova).
 
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) 
Directed by: Anthony Minghella.
Written by: Anthony Minghella based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith.
Starring: Matt Damon (Tom Ripley), Gwyneth Paltrow (Marge Sherwood), Jude Law (Dickie Greenleaf), Cate Blanchett (Meredith Logue), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Freddie Miles), Jack Davenport (Peter Smith-Kingsley), James Rebhorn (Herbert Greenleaf), Sergio Rubini (Inspector Roverini), Philip Baker Hall (Alvin MacCarron), Celia Weston (Aunt Joan), Fiorello (Fausto), Stefania Rocca (Silvana), Ivano Marescotti (Colonnello Verrecchia), Anna Longhi (Signora Buffi), Alessandro Fabrizi (Sergeant Baggio), Lisa Eichhorn (Emily Greenleaf), Gretchen Egolf (Fran). 
 
The American Friend (1977) 
Directed by: Wim Wenders.
Written by: Wim Wenders based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith.
Starring: Dennis Hopper (Tom Ripley), Bruno Ganz (Jonathan Zimmermann), Lisa Kreuzer (Marianne Zimmermann), Gérard Blain (Raoul Minot), Nicholas Ray ('Derwatt'), Samuel Fuller (Der Amerikaner), Peter Lilienthal (Marcangelo), Daniel Schmid (Igraham), Sandy Whitelaw (Arzt in Paris), Jean Eustache (Freundlicher Mann), Lou Castel (Rodolphe), Andreas Dedecke (Daniel), David Blue (Allan Winter). 
 
Ripley's Game (2002) 
Directed by: Liliana Cavani.
Written by: Charles McKeown and Liliana Cavani based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith.
Starring: John Malkovich (Tom Ripley), Dougray Scott (Jonathan Trevanny), Ray Winstone (Reeves), Lena Headey (Sarah Trevanny), Chiara Caselli (Luisa Harari), Sam Blitz (Matthew Trevanny), Paolo Paoloni (Franco), Evelina Meghnagi (Maria), Lutz Winde (Ernst), Wilfried Zander (Belinsky). 

Tom Ripley is one of literature’s great psychopaths. The creation of Patricia Highsmith, who followed Ripley through five books over nearly 40 years, Ripley was a conman and a serial killer – although not one who took particular pleasure in killing – he didn’t do it out of some deep psychological need, but normally only to protect himself – not self-defense, but self-preservation. Over the years, there have been five movies made out of the Ripley books – oddly though only three of the novel have been filmed, and I cannot find Ripley Under Ground – leaving just the other four. Purple Noon (1960) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) are based on the same novel, and The American Friend (1977) and Ripley’s Game (2002) – the first and third of Highsmith’s novels. They are a study in contrasts, in the approach of the directors to the material, and by the actors who play Ripley. It isn’t many roles that could be played by Alain Delon, Dennis Hopper, Matt Damon and John Malkovich – but here we are.

Rene Clement’s Purple Noon (1960) came first – and deviated from the books in some key ways – starting with the ending, which flies in the face of all the Highsmith novels, but also starting the action with Ripley (Alain Delon) already entrenched with his target, Phillippe (Maurice Ronet) and his girlfriend Marge (Marie Laforet) in Italy. In a way, this serves to make Ripley even more mysterious – as his job remains the same, to convince Phillippe to return to the bosom of his wealthy family, something Phillippe has no intention of doing, and something Ripley doesn’t care to make him do – that would cost him his trip to Italy. The film all but drains Ripley of any sort of backstory at all – making him a beautiful enigma. This is one of the most impossibly beautiful films ever made – with the gorgeous Delon never more attractive, and the sundrenched Italian locations just as beautiful. It also gets Ripley himself mostly right. Ripley is amoral, and doesn’t much like anyone – he is after his own self-interest first. When the time for the murder does come – it is in part revenge on Phillippe, who humiliated Ripley by putting him in a dingy, and leaving him there stranded for hours (an invention of the movie) – but it’s mainly because he knows the gravy train is going to end if he doesn’t kill Phillippe, and then assume his identity. The murder of Phillippe’s brash friend Freddie, is all there to cover up the crime – but once again, he feels no emotion, no pity. He does what he has to do. As played by Delon, this Ripley is a beautiful blank slate – chillingly emotionless, approaching his prey like a shark. The ending of the movie is a copout – perhaps a necessary one given the time, where bad guys were not allowed to do bad things and get away with it in films – but it doesn’t really work either.

Strangely, Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) is at once more loyal to the book, and yet less loyal to Ripley himself. Here, as played by Matt Damon (in his greatest performance), Ripley is more than a little but pathetic – the poor kid trying to hang with the cool kids, but never fitting in. Dickie (Jude Law) is an American playboy, charming and likable, but also cruel and cold – something even his girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) acknowledges. He sees Tom as a plaything, and when he’s bored of him, he’s going to throw him back. This Ripley is the most sympathetic of them all – when he lashes out and kills Dickie, it isn’t the premeditated murder it was in the book or Purple Noon – but an emotional outburst when he realizes Dickie is going to dump him. Freddie (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is more of a character though – somehow deeper by being shallower than he was in Purple Noon, and brilliantly played by Hoffman in what was a star making year for the actor (he also made Magnolia and Flawless that year). The film does invent Meredith (Cate Blanchett) to complicate the narrative and Peter Smith-Kingsley (Jack Davenport) to makes it clear that this Ripley anyway is gay, but oddly even though he kills more people here than before, he remains sympathetic. His is killing here for self-preservation, but he feels horrible about it – he cries as he commits the films final murder.

Both of the films are great – and perhaps it’s sacrilege to say it, but I prefer Minghella’s 1999 version to Clement’s 1960

version, even as it changes Ripley so much he’s barely even Highsmith’s character anymore. For one thing, the supporting cast is amazing – Law is perfect as the casually cruel Dickie, Paltrow wonderful as Marge, whose suspicions mount through, Davenport is a perfect sympathetic victim, and Hoffman simply owns the screen in his few scenes as Freddie – with such casual, unearned bravado. For another, Damon’s Ripley, while not being Highsmith’s, is a complex, fascinating character – a man with the gifts of Highsmith’s creation, but a conscience as well – it doesn’t stop him from killing, but he feels horrible about it. And the film is perhaps equally beautiful to Clement’s – the cast is, of course, beautiful – and so are the locations. Minghella is generally regarded as one of those boring, middlebrow directors, making prestige films of the late 1990s and early 2000s that win Oscars, but are mostly forgotten – a charge certainly earned by The English Patient, and arguably Cold Mountain. But here, he created a masterwork. Yes, Purple Noon is wonderful as well – and Delon is a perfect Ripley – but Minghella’s film has haunted me for 21 years now, and will likely continue to do so.

In 1977, Wim Wenders adapted Ripley’s Game into a German film, The American Friend, and had Dennis Hopper take over the role of Tom Ripley. Yet, Wenders is only partially interested in what Highsmith’s novel is doing, and the character of Ripley – who becomes almost supporting character, as the narrative concentrates on Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz) – the plaything for Ripley in his game, who becomes something more. Older than he was before, Ripley has started selling counterfeit art (the great director Nicholas Ray plays the forger), and meets Zimmerman – a restorer and framer – at an auction, where Zimmerman rudely dismisses him – when introduced to Ripley, Zimmerman says simply “I’ve heard of you” and won’t shake his hand. This is all Ripley needs – when a criminal associate asks Ripley to kill a rival gangster, he refuses, but suggests his friend reach out to Zimmerman instead. Zimmerman has an incurable blood disease – and is in financial trouble. Ripley starts spreading rumors that Zimmerman’s health is worsening – making the German paranoid. Eventually, he will agree to commit the murder – and then things spiral further out of control.

Hopper’s Ripley, like Delon’s, remains an enigma more than anything. We don’t see his private life here – nor really get to know his motives, beyond he was insulted by Zimmerman, so came up with an elaborate attack of revenge. Hopper walks around Berlin often in a cowboy hat – as if Ripley is embracing his role as an ugly American (something Highsmith’s Ripley would never do). But this Ripley, like Highsmith’s, does have a moral code – he corrupts Zimmerman by making him do that first murder, but doesn’t like it when the game gets away from him – and more murders are asked of Zimmerman. This leads to one of the great set pieces of the 1970s – aboard a train where Zimmerman is supposed to murder people – and Ripley helps him out.

But it is Ganz who is really the focal point of the film. His Zimmerman, with his loving wife and child, is a sad, sympathetic character. He is angry at his lot in life, and falls further and further down the rabbit hole. It is one of the great performances of Ganz’s career. The film is clearly meant as an homage to the American film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s – in addition to Nicholas Ray, the great Samuel Fuller also has a small role – and the film is drowning in atmosphere. This is some of the best cinematography of the great Robby Muller’s career, and the film is all dark edges and rooms. The train sequences are among the most suspenseful you will ever see. The ending of the film strikes the perfect, tragic note as well for Zimmerman – and keeps you wondering about Ripley.

2002’s Ripley’s Game, by director Liliana Cavani is more faithful to the novel, and contains a wonderful performance

by John Malkovich as the older, wiser Ripley – but it’s also less satisfying as a whole then any of the other films. Once again, Ripley is insulted a framer with a terminal illness - Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott) – and sets his sets on revenge by getting him to murder someone at arm’s length. This time, the narrative does focus on Ripley – the wealthy American living in England with his wife – it is his redecorating of his home that draws Trevanny’s ire, although he didn’t mean for Ripley to hear what he was saying. Malkovich is, of course, perfectly cast as the amoral Ripley – who nevertheless has a code. His performance is the best thing in the movie. Yet, perhaps it’s because Dougray Scott is so dull as Trevanny, or his wife (Lena Headley) is playing the stereotypical wife trying to get her husband back, that the plot feels like it’s going through the motions more than anything else. I’d seen Ripley’s Game before – probably 10 years ago now – and didn’t much care for it. I liked it more now (perhaps due to lowered expectations) – but aside from Malkovich, there isn’t as much going for it.

I still think the opportunity is there for someone to make a series of all five Ripley novels with the same actor (perhaps the upcoming TV series with Andrew Scott as Ripley will be that). These one-offs are mostly great – and viewed in short succession of each other, rebound and play off each other in fascinating ways. Each has a worthy, but different Ripley. But I’d love to see one actor get the play the whole of Ripley’s career.