The Journey to Italy Blogathon–“Purple Noon” (1960)

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Purple Noon (1960), directed by Rene Clement, is a brightly colored, gorgeous, stunning looking film shot on location in various locales around Italy. The film’s saturated color palette is in direct contrast to the dark themes present in Highsmith’s novel. The Talented Mr. Ripley is about an American man, Tom Ripley, who is sent to Italy by his employer to retrieve his son, Dickie Greenleaf. Dickie is content on living a carefree life in Italy and does not wish to be part of his father’s business in San Francisco. Dickie’s father encourages Tom to use any means necessary to coax his son back to the United States.

Tom insinuates himself into Dickie’s life by pretending to be a former acquaintance. He spends much of the summer with Dickie and soon becomes obsessed with him and his carefree lifestyle. He starts learning how to mimic Dickie’s signature and later is caught wearing Dickie’s clothing. Later, Freddie Miles, an actual friend of Dickie’s arrives and Tom becomes jealous. Dickie’s girlfriend Marge is also present and feels left out as Tom and Dickie spend more time together. Sensing her unhappiness, Dickie starts to spend more time with Marge, which fuels Tom’s jealousy. Ultimately, this love triangle ends with Tom deciding to murder Dickie on a boat out in the open sea.

This more or less is the beginning of Purple Noon. In the film, the name “Dickie” is switched to the more French-sounding “Philippe.” Tom (Alain Delon) and Philippe (Maurice Ronet) are seen carousing in Rome. They convince a blind man to sell his cane, which they then use to play tricks on the locals. Later, the two men decide to sail down to Taromina on the island of Sicily to meet Freddy. Philippe has grown tired of Tom’s presence and his constant fawning and is incredibly cruel to him on the boat. At one point, he gets Tom into a dinghy on the side of the boat and leaves him there. Tom’s dinghy breaks loose and he’s abandoned out at sea for hours until Philippe rescues him. Tom ends up sustaining a very serious sunburn which elicits the sympathy of Philippe’s girlfriend, Marge (Marie Laforet). Marge is on the voyage to take notes for a book she’s writing about Italian architecture.

While on the boat, Tom makes a seemingly joking comment about how he is planning to kill Philippe and steal his identity. Amused and intrigued, Philippe asks for details. The two men are playing cards in the blazing hot sun out on the boat’s deck. What Philippe doesn’t know is that Tom has strategically hidden a knife under the cushion on his chair. When the opportunity strikes, Tom strikes. Philippe is killed. Tom wraps his body up in a cloth, and ties it to the ship’s anchor and drops it overboard.

The rest of the film involves Tom carrying out his plan to assume Philippe’s identity and later playing a cat and mouse game with the police. I find the scenes of Tom’s very meticulous crafting and planning to be fascinating. He softens a piece of wax and very adeptly uses it to copy the embossed seal on Philippe’s American passport. He rubs the copy against the corner of his own photo to mimic the look of Philippe’s passport. Tom then carefully removes Philippe’s photo and replaces it with his, with the embossed portion of the photo expertly lined up with the seal on the passport. He also buys a projector and projects Philippe’s very intricate signature up on the wall. Using a tool he built and some paper, Tom practices signing Philippe’s name in a fluid motion.

Tom then goes to work establishing himself as “Philippe Greenleaf.” He rents apartments and hotel rooms and tells people his name. The only person who he maintains his real identity with is Marge, whom he sees when he travels to Mongibello, where Philippe’s apartment is. Tom tells Marge that Philippe is in Rome and encourages her to visit him. She doesn’t have a presence throughout most of Tom’s deception; but does pop up occasionally to inquire about Philippe. At some point, Tom claims to have seen Philippe.

Eventually, as these things tend to go, Tom’s deception starts to fall apart and become more complicated. A ballet instructor who saw the real Philippe and Tom in Rome at the beginning of the film visits the same hotel where Tom is staying and is excited to learn that Philippe is staying there. Tom has to move out and find a new place. However, Philippe’s friend, Freddie, ends up finding that new place and Tom ends up killing him when Freddie starts to ask too many questions. Tom has a very trying time disposing of Freddie’s body.

Meanwhile, the police are closing in and seem to be on Tom’s trail. After Freddie’s death, Tom becomes cocky, remembering that as far as anyone knew, he was still Philippe, so Philippe killed Freddie. The police inspector’s assessment that the fingerprints found in Freddie’s car are the same fingerprints found in Philippe’s apartment, only confirms Tom’s thought process. After this, he tries to unravel his web of lies by reinstating himself as Tom Ripley. He pens a suicide note from Philippe to rid himself of that identity. Now mourning over Freddie and Philippe’s deaths, Marge shows up and Tom uses her grief as the perfect time to make his move. Little does he know, the police still have him in their crosshairs.

This is a fantastic movie. The ending of Purple Noon greatly differs from Highsmith’s novel. At the end of the novel, Tom Ripley gets away with everything. However, in the film, while not seen on screen, it is easy to assume that Tom unwittingly walks into his arrest when the police use Marge’s maid to lure Tom into the home, by stating that he has a phone call. Highsmith wasn’t a fan of the ending; but loved Alain Delon as Tom Ripley. And why wouldn’t she?

Alain Delon is so impossibly hot in this film. He is just as breathtaking as the scenery. He is so hot, that it doesn’t even matter that he’s killed two people. The scene where he walks through town with his blazer thrown casually over his shoulder is so amazing. I could watch it on a loop. It doesn’t even matter that the film is in French and I don’t speak French (though obviously I read the subtitles). I could literally just watch Alain Delon for two hours. It doesn’t even matter what’s going on. I could watch him do something mundane like fold laundry and I would be enthralled.

Putting aside Delon’s looks for a second, as impossible a task at that seems, I wanted to give him credit for his acting and for Rene Clement’s directing. Tom Ripley could have been easily portrayed as a pathetic loser, a sad sack who wants to have everything and do nothing for earn it. At the beginning of the film, he as a little bit of that quality as he’s made out to be a bit of a lost puppy dog, helplessly following Philippe around. However, Delon makes Tom charming, even when he’s mooching off Philippe or emulating his hijinks in Rome. The beginning scene where Tom shows off his skill in forging Philippe’s incredibly intricate signature shows that he’s calculating. It’s played off as just an innocent quirk of Tom’s, but it also serves as foreshadowing. Why is Tom trying to learn how to sign Philippe’s name? However, he has this innocence about him in these early scenes, that it comes off as almost sweet in a sense. Like he admires Philippe and just wants some of that to rub off on him, like his signature.

When Philippe is being so rude and later outright cruel to Tom on the boat, I felt sorry for him. Throughout his entire adventure living under his assumed identity, Tom Ripley remains completely likeable and charming. As the audience, I wasn’t rooting for his capture. I wanted him to get away. I kept talking to him through the screen saying “Move away from Rome, move away from Italy. Go somewhere else and live your best life with Philippe’s money.” I attribute Tom’s continued likeability to Alain Delon’s performance and charm.

I want to talk about the title of the film briefly–Purple Noon. This is the English title, changed from the original French title of Plein Soleil or “full sun.” “Full Sun” makes a lot more sense as a title than the nonsensical “purple noon.” The title was supposedly taken from a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley that juxtaposes the bright sea and sun with the poet’s dark mood. I’m sorry. Who is going to know that? Even a more boring title like “Full Sun” would have made more sense. Personally, I like the French title. Obviously, both the English and French titles are playing with the literal idea of the entire film being presented in the full sun, including Tom’s murder of Philippe. “Full sun” in this case not referring only to the literal bright sun throughout the film; but the bright colors used as well. This colorful backdrop is a stark contrast to the film’s plot involving a man murdering another man and assuming his identity. There are no dark alleys or shadows in this film.

However, I like to think Plein Soleil or “full sun” is also a metaphor for the fact that Tom is so brazenly impersonating Philippe out in public for everyone to see. He’s not hiding behind a typewriter sending out crazy letters or something. He’s living it up, spending Philippe’s money. Just like he planned to do all along. Patricia Highsmith’s novel was also adapted in 1999 using the novel’s original title: The Talented Mr. Ripley. This version reinstated the original names of the novel. Matt Damon stars as the titular Tom Ripley, with Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf and Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge. Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays Freddie.

Abstract

Alain Delon is hot.