Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 351375" data-attributes="member: 8">Matt Damon plays him very well, but now that I&#039;ve watched the beautiful Plein Soleil (starring the insultingly&nbsp; beautiful Alain Delon) I think Damon&#039;s Ripley comes across as an hysterical, victim-y little bitch.In the 1960 version it&#039;s about a sense of polite dismissal (from the upper class) that&#039;s eating away at the Tom Ripley who looks&nbsp; like he should be a winner, a Greenleaf. In a strange way Tom&#039;s misplaced entitlement almost makes sense.To add insult to injury, Tom&#039;s fee depends on the whims of this privileged but &quot;inferior&quot; Phillipe (Dickie) Greenleaf.I find it somewhat similar to the theme of THE SERVANT (1963), starring Dick Bogarde and a giggly Sarah Miles.[ATTACH=full]43107[/ATTACH]James Fox plays the weak, Imperial man-child who&#039;s in the middle of some big project in South America (although none of that rings particularly true).Enter the &quot;superior&quot; man who has to serve him 24/7 (rather than a non-resident cook and cleaning lady, which would have sufficed given it&#039;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&nbsp; to be a constant intruder, but the real party pooper - the person who wants to take the story away from us - is Tony&#039;s snooty fiancée Susan. She strongly opposes Barrett&#039;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.[ATTACH=full]43108[/ATTACH]It&#039;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.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie Oleson, post: 351375, member: 8"] Matt Damon plays him very well, but now that I've watched the beautiful Plein Soleil (starring the [I]insultingly[/I] 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 [I]looks[/I] 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. [ATTACH type="full" alt="1673955638691.png"]43107[/ATTACH] 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 [I]not[/I] 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. [ATTACH type="full" alt="1673958410240.png"]43108[/ATTACH] 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. [/QUOTE]

Verification

6 + 4 =