Plein Soleil, Purple Noon

Director:

René Clément

Writers:

Patricia Highsmith (novel), René Clément (adaptation) | 1 more credit »

Stars:

Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, Marie Laforêt |

Tom Ripley is sent to Europe by Mr. Greenleaf to fetch his spoiled, playboy son, Philippe, and bring him back home to the States. In return, Tom will receive $5,000. Philippe toys with Tom, pretending he will go back home, but has no intentions of leaving his bride to be, Marge, and honoring his father's wishes. After some time passes, Mr. Greenleaf considers the mission a failure and cuts Tom off. Tom, in desperation, kills Philippe, assumes his identity, and lives the life of a rich playboy. However, he will need all his conman abilities to keep Philippe's friends and the police off the trail.

With no money of his own, Tom Ripley lives comfortably enough off the kindness of his wealthy companions. For a fee of $5,000, he is hired by the father of his childhood friend, Philippe Greenleaf, to retrieve Philippe from Rome and bring him back to San Francisco. Upon Tom's arrival in Rome, Philippe knows Tom's task, and while keeping Tom as a companion, strings him along, as Philippe has no intention of going with Tom back to the US. Philippe treats Tom poorly as he knows Tom will endure the abuse to get the money. But as Tom, Philippe and Philippe's girlfriend Marge Duval sail from Rome to Taormina aboard Philippe's sailboat for a short vacation, Philippe knows that Tom is not all he appears on the surface. Conversely, Tom, using two of his innate skills, has other plans to make money, far more than the $5,000 fee. Beyond the primary act of his plan, Tom is required not only to outwit the authorities, but also to manipulate those that know both Philippe and him, who include Marge, their American acquaintance Freddy Miles, and another acquaintance named O'Brien. - Written by Huggo

Up until he starred in this movie, Alain Delon was considered a light romantic lead--not surprising at all since his breathtaking good looks would naturally lend itself to that sort of matinee idol typecasting. It was only when director Rene Clement tapped into the dangerous undercurrent held in reserve behind the placid, beautiful surface that Delon's wholly unique, dark, sociopathic persona would emerge--the persona which would put him on the map and he would forever be identified with. In "Plein Soleil" AKA "Purple Noon," Delon exudes all the stealth and sleekness of a panther--dark-haired, riveting gaze, smoldering, seductive and sinister. And like a panther, he proves himself to be just as lethal. Delon stars as Tom Ripley, a pretty-but-poor young man who takes off to Rome as an errand boy to fetch the wayward Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), and bring him back home to San Francisco to his impatient, rich father in exchange for $5000. Not surprisingly, the spoiled, unsupervised Philippe doesn't want to return and give up his profligate, libertine lifestyle, and neither does Tom, when he gets a taste of how the other half lives. And he soon determines he doesn't have to, when he concocts to take over Phillippe's money, his beautiful girlfriend Marge Duval (Marie Laforet), his identity. But of course, even in a perfect scheme devised by a cunning mind, one can't plan for everything and things eventually go south for our man Ripley.

I haven't read the Patricia Highsmith book on which this is based, but I've seen the other film version of it, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" so I have only that to compare it with. First the titles: The latter one gets right to the point and is intriguing for that; the original has a certain romantic appeal, but is sinister behind the pretty sound of it--it portends of dark (purple) clouds (of evil) converging upon a bright sunlit horizon. The latter film has outward homoerotic aspects that is very latent in this version (so much so that those expecting it to be overt will probably not notice--but it had to be given the era in which the movie was released), but it's there all right. Tom is ostensibly supposed to covet Marge, but even when she's in a scene with him and Phillippe, the tension and electricity fairly crackles between the two intense young men, but not with her. Another difference, and I understand the latter version to be faithful to the book in this way, is Marge is not affluent, which rather puts her more in Tom's position as she is also at the mercy of Phillippe's money and volatile moods, and that lends another aspect to the film. These differences I found negligible and didn't take away anything for either movie to me.