[u]JACK[/u] [u]FAVELL[/u] wrote:There were things in that movie that really make you wonder about Rene Clement, or perhaps it was the writer who came up with those little touches on forgery and such. And the locations really put it over the top for me, that was as big a draw as Alain Delon's face. Everything was so perfect, so richly detailed, and expensive looking. Even the guy's typewriter looked expensive!
You’re so right. In all you say here. I am ready to move to the Italian Riviera right now if our gov’t. keeps going the way it is. I won’t have nearly the money Tom Ripley has, but maybe I can work in a pharmacy or at a hotel desk or something. The location was almost as gorgeous as Delon. Watching the bonus features with the DVD, it seems that Delon getting hit in the head by one of the sails was
not in the script, and Clément left it in. I think though, that he had to get those extra shots of Delon trying to swim back onto the boat. Again it reminded me of Norman Bates when he tries to sink the car in the swamp...and the car doesn’t go down. Delon has to try and turn that boat around before the other boat sees Greenleaf’s body.
You could have ended it, Player-style, with him getting away with it just as easily, and left those disturbing thoughts in the viewer's head.
You know, I don’t think I would have minded seeing him get away with it; knowing that this unsuspecting cancer was out there. But the ending it
did have was well-played.
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[u]KING[/u] [u]RAT[/u] - 5/13 wrote:I liked PURPLE NOON even better when I watched it after reading your enthusiastic review. I'd seen it a few years ago after THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY came out. This time, it stood on its own as a superb film. Alain Delon is equally good as an actor, a movie star, and a shirtless hunk, which is pretty amazing.
Alain Delon did a good job in this film. But we’re kind of acting like we’re so surprised he can walk, chew gum and be so damned good looking. Funny. I agree with you Brother Rat, that the movie stands on its own very well.
I couldn't agree more with your praise of Rene Clement's direction. To mention only one scene, when Tom tries on Philippe's clothes and looks at himself in the mirror, pretending to be Philippe. The pacing throughout the film is great, with tension and narrative clarity. The cinematographer is the great Henri Decae, best known for his work with New Wave directors.
Vive Le Henri. He made the entire movie look like a picture postcard. Beautiful.
Did it seem to you that Clement was incorporating some New Wave techniques without slavishly imitating them or abandoning his more classical approach? I'm not sure I could quote particular sequences, but he did seem to having the best of both worlds.
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[u]JACK[/u] [u]FAVELL[/u] - 5/14 wrote:Yes, I got a definite new wave feel from Purple Noon. I think that's what made it so fascinating... it seemed to happen in real time, and the edits SEEMED just a bit ...arbitrary, in that sort of New Wave way, though I'm sure each one was carefully crafted.
I wish I could say I noticed what he was doing. But I have to say I didn’t notice what Clément was doing. It all seemed to flow seamlessly; no Nouvelle Vague tricks. I’ve seen my share of French New Wave films ( “400 Blows” “Jules & Jim” “Contempt” “My Night at Maud’s” “Les Biches” etc. ) seeing some of the films at the 68th Street Playhouse near Hunter College. But I like his train of thought and cohesive storytelling. ( Shame on you Truffaut!! )
it was all done to create an impression of .... laissez faire, I think, combined with a very ambivalent, unsettled feeling. Especially the scenes on the boat struck me as disjointed and off kilter, slow, moody and stark, but a different stark, more of a sunlit aloneness. One really feels time passing in this movie.
“Sunlit aloneness.” I like that. I, too, felt like the movie was taking me on a journey, which I’m likening to your saying
'time passes' in this film.
The battle between Greenleaf and Ripley lent itself to the kind of methodical, Peter Brook, Lord of the Flies power game style of film-making, but it felt instead loose and easy, primitive, instinctual, sun-washed and lazy. It's a great combination, lazy and deadly. I can't tell you how much I hated Greenleaf. That's the set-up. Clement took care to create an entire mindset for us, very subjective, letting us in on Ripley's feelings (which at first were quite high minded, LOVE, after all was his motivation) while keeping us gawping at his beauty which matched the setting perfectly. You could really see how he would feel entitled to that luxury! I felt he deserved it after all his hard work and of course his beauty didn't hurt. He looked like he belonged. You can't help admiring him.
I felt the battle of Tom and Philippe started when Philippe kind of figured out that something was up with Tom. Before it felt like Greenleaf had the upper hand in their relationship. That uneven
“I’m-rich- and-you’re-poor-but-I’m-going-to-let-you hang-out-with-me; you know-to-entertain- me” kind of thing. I’ll have to check out the movie again. Don’t remember seeing Tom being high-minded. In fact, I was wondering what he was doing there, catching all the abuse. ( Though I might take some **** for the chance to go on a yacht! )
I think this is what's great about the movie - you have these battling ambivalent or even not so ambivalent feelings. Of course he couldn't get away with it forever, but I loved that he came that close to closing it, only to have an entirely fateful accident stop him...
Tom sits in that lounge chair, stretched out with his hands behind his head, a self-satisfied smile is a killer. He sat there with a self-satisified cat with canary feathers in his mouth, look. Success within his grasp.
...And it makes you realize all the more how phoney he is, that you yourself have been played and that's what makes him so successful. The rug is pulled out, the scales fall from your eyes in one swoop. All the movies I've seen lately kind of point the way toward this kind of movie making... The Killing is maybe the beginning of those 'rooting for the bad guy' films where you are so on their side that it's kind of disturbing. I admit, I love that kind of subjective film making.
This is why I love movies. Where does the director choose to put the camera. Whose story are we looking at. The director can influence who we identify with. We can identify with Bambi or we can ( in a way ) identify with Hitler or with Rocky or with Norman Bates at a certain point. I loved the precision of the planning in “The Killing” and the precision of Tom Ripley and circumstances.