RETROSPECTIVE: PURPLE NOON (1960)
Edwin Jahiel
PURPLE NOON (1960)
A film review by Edwin Jahiel
Copyright 1996 Edwin Jahiel
PURPLE NOON (PLEIN SOLEIL) (France, 1960) *** Directed by Rene Clement.
Written by Rene Clement and Paul Gegauff from the novel "The Talented Mr.
Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith. Photography, Henri Decae. Art design, Paul
Bertrand. Opening credits, Maurice Binder. Choreography, Jean Guelis.
Music, Nino Rota. Produced by Raymond Hakin and Robert Hakim. Cast: Alain
Delon (Tom Ripley),Maurice Ronet(Philippe Greenleaf),Marie Laforet
(Marge),Elvire Popesco(Mme. Popova), Erno Crisa (Inspector Riccordi), Frank
Latimore(O'Brien), Billy Kearns(Freddy),Ave Ninchi(Signora Gianna),Viviane
Chantel( Belgian woman). In French with subtitles.116 min. PG-13. 25 and
33 yrs old
The French title means Full Sun, which admittedly wouldn't sound too good
in English. But at least "Full" has more implications than "Purple" which
baffles me. The reference is to the strong summer sun of Italy, which at
one point burns badly the back of one of the main characters (he recovers
overnight!) and, in general, like a full moon, makes people do unusual and
extreme things.
Essentially this is a two-and--half characters yarn. The two are Tom Ripley
and Philippe (sic) Greenleaf. The half is Marge, Philippe's girlfriend who
has no real personality -- or a last name, for that matter. The script is
faithfully based on "TheTalented Mr.Ripley," a novel by Patricia Highsmith
whose books were also adapted for Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train"
(1951). Her "Ripley's Game" became the Wim Wenders movie "The American
Friend" (1977) in which Dennis Hopper plays Tom Ripley.(I cannot connect
the two cine-Ripleys with each another).
Tom is played by Alain Delon, then 25 and well on his way to becoming a
heartthrob and a mega-star. That same year(1960), he was Rocco in "Rocco
and His Brothers," and in 1963, he had the second big part in "The
Leopard." Both films are classics by Luchino Visconti.
Philippe is played by Maurice Ronet, then 33. He was another hearthrob
whose career was shorter than Delon's. He made fewer movies and died in
1983.
The copy now playing in the US is a reissue whose colors are good in some
scenes, a bit faded in others. The photography and the compositions are
excellent, thanks to master cinematographer Henri Decae and no doubt
because director Clement had himself worked behind the camera.
Production values are very good. Nino Rota's music is unlike the splendidly
Italian, familiar scores he wrote for Italian movies (including many
Fellinis) and for all the "Godfather" films. It is interestingly "modern"
and jolting, with small incursions into Italianate passages.
We meet Philippe and Tom in a Rome cafe on the chic Via Veneto. They seem
to be best friends, look beautifully sun-tanned and fit (the actors' age
difference is hardly noticeable), yet there's something about their
relationship that is peculiar. Itmakes the viewer uncomfortable, as in the
way Philippe uses Tom as an errand boy, or the cavalier fashion with which
they speak about women or treat them.There is much to mine here for a
feminist analysis.
Philippe wonders what gift he can give Marge. "A book on [painter] Fra
Angelico" says Tom. "But she is writing one." "So, all she's got to do is
to copy" retorts Tom, and he is sent to get the book. Both suggestion and
action are entirely in the spirit of the movie.
(In this sequence, when an acquaintance stops by, his barely
glimpsed,silent companion is,I am sure, the uncredited, Austrian-born movie
actress Romy Schneider. She had already been in many pictures, many of them
German-speaking, but did not become an international star and the darling
of the European public until the early 60s).
The men sound and behave like kinky playboys on the loose within a Dolce
Vita society. Philippe is the rich son of a wealthy American who has
offered penniless Tom $5,000 if he can deliver Philippe back to San
Francisco. The "boys" do much joking about this, followed by callousness
--indeed cruelty--as the men buy a white cane off a blind man, play tricks
on an easy-to-conquer lady, then drop her. Menacing, unhealthy undertones
are ever present.
When we meet Marge we also see the angels in the book on Fra Angelico.
Sharp eyes might notice the hint that the two male "friends" are devils who
play cat-and-mouse games with each other.Tom seems to covet Marge,
Philippe knows it. Entering his own bedroom, and finding Tom trying out his
clothes and imitating his voice, he rebukes him nastily. Tom, on the other
hand, bit by bit lets us understand that he would like to take Philippe's
place, girl, bank account and all--even to impersonate him.
The trio go on a trip on Philippe's sailboat "Marge." There, everyone lies
to everyone else. A current of crypto-homosexual tensions may be sensed.
Philippe first mistreatsTom, then, in one of his moods, he throws Marge's
manuscript in the sea. She leaves the boat. End of Part One.
In Part Two many much happens to keep you in merciless suspense. Violence
escalates along with major complications, unexpected developments,
changes,disguises,role-playing and surprises.
At no time do we feel any sympathy for any of the main characters. But then
morality is not our concern, while the thriller side of the film is, in
beautiful, warm Italy, skillfully treated with clinical coldness.
The thriller is strong and good, in part because of the time devoted to
building up the characters. That they remain ciphers to the end is no
defect.
Where the minuses come in is in the absence of leavening humor. The film
shares this characteristic with many Continental thrillers that have not
learned the advantage of using humor, as Alfred Hitchcock did.
Clement, however, chose, matched and directed his two male protagonists
very well. They both have a pretty-boy physique that only semi-masks their
potential for nastiness. (This is a trait of both Ronet and Delon in
several of their other movies). But for American audiences to accept them
as Americans requires more faith than is possible.
One flaw may affect only those viewers who like matters to be logical. The
plot has several improbabilities a well as much vagueness about time and
space, such as several instant, credibility-taxing changes of abodes.Yet
since the tempo is minutely calculated to keep picking up speed until it
reaches breathlessness, much of the audience is kept too busy to spot the
holes in the story.
Director Rene Clement died in March 1996. His obituary in the New York
Times rightly mentions his Oscar-winning, 1952 "Forbidden Games" as the
film that Clement will be mostly remembered for. It is about a little girl
orphaned when the Germans were invading France in World War II and strafing
fleeing civilians on country roads. The French critics would agree but also
call it a tie with "The Battle of the Rails," which dealt in documentary
fashion with the same war and railway workers sabotaging German trains
during the Occupation. The French would rate "Purple Noon" right after
those two.
Other than the above, among Clement's two dozen movies, few had an
unconditionally positive critical reception."Gervaise," "The Damned," "The
Walls of Malapaga" and " Monsieur Ripois" came closest. He also made the
too ambitious and too loose-jointed "Is Paris Burning?" with a huge number
of international stars.