The Talented Mr Ripley

[Snarky Oracle!]

I really like this movie, gorgeously directed by Anthony Minghella like a Hitchcock picture. Matt Damon is a sociopath fixated on wealthy Jude Law, with Gwyneth Paltrow as the stalwart girlfriend and Philip Seymour Hoffman who pops up as the pal who sees through Damon's ruse. The 1999 film does as good a job as possible trying to recreate 1950s postwar Europe that you could expect from a project made in the last several decades. It all kind of works for me, and I view it as a bit of an underrated masterpiece.

(I never saw the original with Alain Delon),

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

And I had no idea Minghella was so very cute when he was younger...

 

[Mel O'Drama]

You're quite right, Snarky. It's a beautiful looking film.

Gabriel Yared's score is a favourite of mine and the jazz tracks, too are very evocative. It's some years since I last watched the film, but at least the tracks are still getting frequent plays.

 

[Angela Channing]

I always thought Jude Law would have been better playing the Matt Damon character and vice versa. Still a great film though.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I always thought Jude Law would have been better playing the Matt Damon character and vice versa. Still a great film though.

Well, Jude Law would have seemed a more overtly predatory, reptilian version of Ripley, but also less sympathetic.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Minghella said he'd hired Jude Law because he thought a Brit would have more of a sense-memory of the class system that contemporary American actors would not -- and that that was needed to play a privileged young American in the comparatively class-conscious 1950s.

Which I guess was a polite way of saying that younger generations of American actors have no real sense of bearing, and it's hard to think of many who do.

 

[GillesDenver]

(I never saw the original with Alain Delon),

 

[Richard Channing]

Everything we know about the new Talented Mr Ripley TV series

Andrew Scott, Johnny Flynn and Dakota Fanning will be taking on the leading roles made famous by Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1999 film

www.tatler.com

This versions Dickie Greenleaf:

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Anthony Minghella also said that if this film had been a strictly hetero romance, then people would have asked him, "Where's the sex?" But because it's two men, even the tame flirtation during the bathtub scene seems "to scream from the screen," and makes viewers squirm when nothing is even happening; all it takes is a silent pause and a couple of glances.

That doesn't happen so much with two women. So is that the discomforting erotic shock of two testosterone units (i.e., guys)?

 

[Willie Oleson]

and I view it as a bit of an underrated masterpiece.

Matt Damon plays him very well, but now that I've watched the beautiful Plein Soleil (starring the insultingly beautiful Alain Delon) I think Damon's Ripley comes across as an hysterical, victim-y little bitch.
In the 1960 version it's about a sense of polite dismissal (from the upper class) that's eating away at the Tom Ripley who looks like he should be a winner, a Greenleaf. In a strange way Tom's misplaced entitlement almost makes sense.
To add insult to injury, Tom's fee depends on the whims of this privileged but "inferior" Phillipe (Dickie) Greenleaf.

I find it somewhat similar to the theme of THE SERVANT (1963), starring Dick Bogarde and a giggly Sarah Miles.

James Fox plays the weak, Imperial man-child who's in the middle of some big project in South America (although none of that rings particularly true).
Enter the "superior" man who has to serve him 24/7 (rather than a non-resident cook and cleaning lady, which would have sufficed given it's one-man household) and the whole set up feels already a bit too extravagant.
To me it seems impossible for manservant Barrett to not to be a constant intruder, but the real party pooper - the person who wants to take the story away from us - is Tony's snooty fiancée Susan. She strongly opposes Barrett's presence but not for the right reasons.
Unlike Ripley, Barrett has no illusions about becoming upper class, but he can expose Tony as the inferior one by creating chaos, because in world of chaos Servant is King. Both Tony and Susan are standing by helplessly while Barrett pulls a Charlie St. James. It looks a bit metaphorically trippy and stylistic in some parts.

The reversed domination has more than a whiff of homosexual subtext, and personally I think it serves THE SERVANT better than TOM RIPLEY.


It's amazing that they actually managed to get this on film instead of being blinded and dumbstruck and unable to operate any kind of device. But then again, everything in this film looks gorgeous.

 

[Richard Channing]

I just watched the first episode of the new 'Ripley' series on Netflix. Pretty underwhelming. I just couldn't warm to Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley so I thought let's see what Dickie and Marge are like, and they too just seemed like bargain basement versions of their movie counterparts. None of the three possessed any charisma or charm. Certainly nothing that could rival Matt, Jude and Gwyneth. Also I hear they have cast Eliot Sumner (the daughter of Sting and Trudy Styler), who now identifies as non-binary, as Freddie, which seems like another strange choice.

Sure, the cinematography was good, but I didn't feel like going the black and white route really added much. I get they are going for a kind of noir feel but most of the time, especially when we get to Italy, I was just kinda wishing we were seeing all these gorgeous landscapes in colour. Not sure I'll bother continuing. It may or may not end up being quite good but the core cast just leaves me cold.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I wonder if the criticism that Minghella received for THE ENGLISH PATIENT being "so boring" a la SEINFELD (even I found the paint-drying pacing to be problematic) resulted in RIPLEY being a better film.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

It boggles my mind that the film is a quarter of a century old now. But the proof landed on my doormat yesterday in the form of the 25th Anniversary Edition soundtrack.

Running at just 25 minutes on the original soundtrack album, Gabriel Yared's music has finally been done justice, clocking in at over 2 hours, which includes the original soundtrack album versions featured on the earlier album, plus the complete film score, alternative takes and demo cues.

Since this concentrates on completing Yared's score, this version loses the jazz tracks, the Guy Barker material and the Vivaldi piece (which means I won't be getting rid of the 1999 CD), but it does include the vocal track Lullaby For Cain performed by Sinéad O'Connor, as well as a vocal opera version and - best of all - an instrumental version.

I've had a listen to a number of the tracks now. This morning I did a bit of a read-along with the liner notes, listening to the tracks as they were mentioned, and it served as a reminder of how strong a score - and a film - this is.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Comparing the two films:

 

[Willie Oleson]

Purely based on its own merits I think RIPLEY '99 is a very entertaining film and also a very good film that shows homosexuality in a way that hasn't been done many times before, if at all.
But from the point of view of the classic Ripley Villain it foreshadows the softening and victimisation of several classic and unapologetic villains as it was going to happen in 21st century cinema, especially from the 2010s onwards. You know, those origin stories that explain that they were bullied into becoming sort of a vigilante villain.
Would it be stretch to say that RIPLEY '99 was the first film that implemented a bit of wokeness?
Of course I don't mean the original meaning of woke, but the one that's used in a negative way.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Purely based on its own merits I think RIPLEY '99 is a very entertaining film and also a very good film that shows homosexuality in a way that hasn't been done many times before, if at all.
But from the point of view of the classic Ripley Villain it foreshadows the softening and victimisation of several classic and unapologetic villains as it was going to happen in 21st century cinema, especially from the 2010s onwards. You know, those origin stories that explain that they were bullied into becoming sort of a vigilante villain.

Interesting point.

Would it be stretch to say that RIPLEY '99 was the first film that implemented a bit of wokeness?
Of course I don't mean the original meaning of woke, but the one that's used in a negative way.

No, I really don't think so.

I realize that you're just trying to bait me, as you've been doing for several days on several threads (as others have noticed). But this one is stealthier and, hence, almost to be admired.

I don't particularly mind being baited, but next time buy me a drink first.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I realize that you're just trying to bait me

All you did was posting that video therefore I wasn't specifically replying to something you said (because you didn't "say" anything).
In other words, the comment was not directed at you.

Furthermore, I didn't state it as a fact, I was merely thinking out loud a hypothesis that may or may not add something to the discussion.
Comments aren't necessarily posted to be agreed with. Feel free to say why the hypothesis doesn't hold water.

All I get from you is "I don't think so" followed by the paranoid and somewhat hysterical accusation that I'm baiting you. And only you, not somebody else who's contributed to this thread.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

All you did was posting that video therefore I wasn't specifically replying to something you said (because you didn't "say" anything).
In other words, the comment was not directed at you.

Furthermore, I didn't state it as a fact, I was merely thinking out loud a hypothesis that may or may not add something to the discussion.
Comments aren't necessarily posted to be agreed with. Feel free to say why the hypothesis doesn't hold water.

All I get from you is "I don't think so" followed by the paranoid and somewhat hysterical accusation that I'm baiting you. And only you, not somebody else who's contributed to this thread.

Oh, I know, I know, I know...