- Actors: Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, Marie Laforêt, Erno Crisa, Frank Latimore
- Directors: René Clément
- Writers: René Clément, Patricia Highsmith, Paul Gégauff
- Producers: Raymond Hakim, Robert Hakim
- Language English, French, Italian
- Classification: PG
- Studio: Spearhead
- VHS Release Date: 1 Nov 1994
- Run Time: 118 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000056Y9R
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 27,516 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This is the original and best version of The talented Mr Ripley.
Alain Delon is far more believable then Matt Damon as the smooth talking, manipulatve, psychopathic killer,who gets a taste of the good life and doesn't want it to end. This film has a differant ending from the original book by patricia highsmith and the 1999 remake and with a running time of 113 minutes there is little room for padding. The cinematography and Italian settings only add to the sence of menace. This is probably one of French Director Rene clements(forbidden games) best films.
Alain Delon is far more believable then Matt Damon as the smooth talking, manipulatve, psychopathic killer,who gets a taste of the good life and doesn't want it to end. This film has a differant ending from the original book by patricia highsmith and the 1999 remake and with a running time of 113 minutes there is little room for padding. The cinematography and Italian settings only add to the sence of menace. This is probably one of French Director Rene clements(forbidden games) best films.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"Purple Noon," ("Plein Soleil") (!960), is a classic of the French cinema, a full-color crime/thriller/drama set on the luscious Italian Riviera. It was adapted and directed by highly- respected French director Rene Clement, (Criterion Coll: Forbidden Games ), from The Talented Mr. Ripley, a thriller by the American author Patricia Highsmith, best-known for Strangers On A Train. PURPLE NOON gives us loads of lush and beautiful scenery, and two of the most beautiful French leading men of the time, Alain Delon (Alain Delon - The Screen Icons Collection [DVD]) and Maurice Ronet (After The Fox [DVD] [1966]). It was the first filmed treatment of this important, insidious novel, which quite likely owes its kernel to Henry James' The Ambassadors. Highsmith's novel, of course, was to be filmed again, more recently in 1999, as The Talented Mr Ripley , in English, by British director Anthony Minghella. That version was to star Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
However, in PURPLE NOON, the cagey Tom Ripley, who is played by Alain Delon, is sent to Europe by a Mr. Greenleaf to fetch back his spoiled, playboy son, Philippe, played by Maurice Ronet (known as Dickie in the novel and the Minghella version, and why did they ever change it here?). Tom is to receive $5,000 for this pleasant chore. Philippe toys with Tom, pretending he will go back; nevertheless, he has no intentions of honoring his father's wishes or of leaving his bride to be, Marge, played by Marie Laforet, a Stockard Channing look-alike. As time passes, Mr. Greenleaf comes to consider the mission a failure and cuts Tom off. Tom then kills Philippe, and co-opts his enviable life. However, Ripley's complicated impersonation begins to entrap him, and suspense builds. He will need all his abilities as a conman to keep Philippe's friends and the police off his much too hot trail.
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY is first in a five-book Ripley series penned by Highsmith, known to its fans as the Ripleyiad. This is a sexy, and gorgeous looking film adaptation, but it veers off in some odd directions, perhaps motivated by the more puritan American market of the time. Oddest, to me, is the omission of the strong homoerotic currents between Ripley and Greenleaf that haunt both the underlying book and the later film. Ripley, instead, is here made much more heterosexual than his creator envisioned him. Other odd plot changes from Highsmith's underlying book would make it much more difficult to film the later books of the Ripleyiad. Nevertheless, the movie is worth a viewing on its own terms: it is tight and suspenseful, set in beautiful Italian scenery, and stars two beautiful men, each of whom we get to see in great eyefuls.
However, in PURPLE NOON, the cagey Tom Ripley, who is played by Alain Delon, is sent to Europe by a Mr. Greenleaf to fetch back his spoiled, playboy son, Philippe, played by Maurice Ronet (known as Dickie in the novel and the Minghella version, and why did they ever change it here?). Tom is to receive $5,000 for this pleasant chore. Philippe toys with Tom, pretending he will go back; nevertheless, he has no intentions of honoring his father's wishes or of leaving his bride to be, Marge, played by Marie Laforet, a Stockard Channing look-alike. As time passes, Mr. Greenleaf comes to consider the mission a failure and cuts Tom off. Tom then kills Philippe, and co-opts his enviable life. However, Ripley's complicated impersonation begins to entrap him, and suspense builds. He will need all his abilities as a conman to keep Philippe's friends and the police off his much too hot trail.
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY is first in a five-book Ripley series penned by Highsmith, known to its fans as the Ripleyiad. This is a sexy, and gorgeous looking film adaptation, but it veers off in some odd directions, perhaps motivated by the more puritan American market of the time. Oddest, to me, is the omission of the strong homoerotic currents between Ripley and Greenleaf that haunt both the underlying book and the later film. Ripley, instead, is here made much more heterosexual than his creator envisioned him. Other odd plot changes from Highsmith's underlying book would make it much more difficult to film the later books of the Ripleyiad. Nevertheless, the movie is worth a viewing on its own terms: it is tight and suspenseful, set in beautiful Italian scenery, and stars two beautiful men, each of whom we get to see in great eyefuls.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
52 reviews
36 of 39 people found the following review helpful
The Talented Mr. Ripley with a French accent
14 Nov 2001
I saw this before I read the Patricia Highsmith mystery novel from which it was adapted, and before seeing the recent and excellent The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. Here the accomplished French director René Clément has Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet and Marie Laforêt as his stars in this very fine interpretation. Seeing it again only confirms my high opinion.
The fact that "Purple Noon" plays well after forty years is a testament to Clément's clean, objective direction and his faithful adherence to the Hitchcock formula. Pretty poor boy goes after everything pretty rich boy has, including his yacht and his girl friend in this tightly focused thriller. We see once again--cf., Polanski's Knife in the Water (1962) and the early Nicole Kidman vehicle Dead Calm (1989)--that some very bad things can happen when you get two men and one woman on a yacht in the middle of a whole lot of water. Note too the Mediterranean rock island atmosphere reminiscent of Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960). It will probably get me into trouble with Italian film aficionados to add that it's a little surprising that both films are from the same year, inasmuch as Plein Soleil is still a treat to watch, while L'Avventura seems terribly dated. Perhaps the beautiful use of color and the charming locales and interiors so well done by Clément make the difference.
Delon is a particularly "pretty" and uncomplicated Tom Ripley, while Ronet is a somewhat nasty and macho Philippe ("Dickie" in the novel) Greenleaf, and Laforêt is a very sensual and sexy Marge. All do a good job and are well directed by Clément whose attention to detail in all aspects of the production is admirable. The fish market scene and the scene where Ripley projects Philippe's signature on the wall in order to practice it, and especially the cold, windy feel of being aboard the yacht work very well and keep us engaged.
Comparing the Minghella film, I would say it owes something to Plein Soleil (e.g., the jazz motif, the real love between Marge and Philippe) but is essentially a different spin. Perhaps the most important difference is that there is no sexual ambiguity to Ripley's character in this film as there was in both the novel and Minghella's production. Clément plays it straight throughout also eschewing any sort of psychological study of Ripley's murderous nature. He even deviates from Highsmith's daring (at the time) resolution for something more traditional. Nonetheless the very clever ending is beautifully ironic and will give you a surprising jolt.
69 of 80 people found the following review helpful
Lousy DVD from Disney
31 Jan 2002
Format:DVD
No problems with the film itself, I saw the theatrical release several years ago, and loved it. I refuse to buy the lame excuse for a DVD that Buena Vista has offered. When will the message get through? Serious films need the serious treatment on disc, especially if we are going to be gouged with Disney prices. The absence of anamorphic enhancement on this film is close to criminal in my eyes, and the rest of the shoddy package, right down to the boilerplate on the case, is an insult. Criterion did a Laser Disc of this film, and this DVD needs the Criterion treatment. Tell me I'm having a bad dream!!
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Ripley Done Right
17 Sep 2003
Format:DVD
I discovered Plein Soleil in France while living in Paris and since it had a four star rating (out of four) in the TV review, I decided to tape it, and have not regretted it since. I have seen the film four times and simply never get tired of it.
My friends and family were disappointed in the American Ripley film version and I really wanted them to see this, the original film. However, I was not willing to translate every single line from French into English (irritating for all involved... defeats the purpose...) and I could not find a copy of the movie with subtitles.
Then I found that Plein Soleil existed under the title "Purple Noon" in English and was overjoyed. As the other reviewers have already noted, the cinematography is superb, and, Alain Delon, pretty boy or not, is sublime. (And I was not a fan of his- quite the contrary- before seeing this film). The twist and sense of poetic justice at the end was far more gratifying than the Talented Mr. Ripley.
To me this is a PERFECT MOVIE. Just to give you a sense of my taste, other "perfect films" in my book are "Cyrano de Bergerac" (version with Gerard Depardieu), "Goodfellas", and "Rocco et I suoi fratelli" (Viscomti- an Italian drama also starring a young Alain Delon).
Call it Plein Soleil or Purple Noon- what you get is style, suspense, finesse, and French class.
An American formerly in Paris
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