The verdict? Interesting, very interesting. Whilst Minghella's version pretty much recounts the plot of the novel (with a little added gay subtext), Clement takes a rather more circuitous route. Plein Soleil begins somewhere halfway through the novel and never gives you what's happened previously as some sort of backstory. So we don't see Dickie (here renamed Phillipe) Greenleaf's father sending Ripley (played by the almost over-poweringly beautiful Alain Delon) to Europe to find him and we don't see Tom ingratiate himself into Dickie's life. This doesn't harm the film. Perhaps the lack of introspection and the wall placed between Tom and audience does. As someone on the net has noted, Delon's Ripley is far more impulsive than Damon's. There is far less thought, far less planning, far less time alone with Ripley. He remains an enigma. Perhaps that's a good thing, but maybe not.
There is a strange atmosphere to Plein Soleil. Part of it comes from the strange conflagration of Americans and French. Tom Ripley is called Tom Ripley, he talks about "going back to San Francisco" but he is played by a Frenchman speaking French. Dickie Greenleaf is renamed Phillipe Greenleaf and yet his family live in San Francisco. There is no confirmation of their nationality. Meanwhile, Freddy Miles has an American name but speaks French but with an American accent. It is all very confusing.
But there is something to Delon's Ripley that is not present in Damon's: sexuality. Not many people would argue who is the more beautiful of the two men, but Clement adds to Delon's obvious attractiveness by sending his camera fawning over him at every opportunity. Elsewhere on the net I have seen the film described as the (producers) "Hakim Brother's homage to Alain Delon's crotch". That reviewer has a point. There is certain magnetism to Delon that helps drive the Ripley character. What the "French James Dean" lacks is darkness. He smiles too much basically. He doesn't have the darkness in his eyes that Damon's version has. Damon's demonstration of Ripley's talent for mockery in Minghella's film is riveting. It scares us as much as it does Jude Law's Greenleaf. There is no such scene in Plein Soleil. Damon plays Ripley as driven and maniacal. His charm is icy, Delon's is as hot as the sun.
I suppose both films miss out on parts of Ripley. Delon's is more magnetic, more attractive, but Damon's is darker and more pathetic. This is perhaps a testament to Highsmith's creation. It is far too complex to capture in one go.
Watch both the films and read the novel(s). Somewhere in between you may well find the real Ripley. But don't expect too much, Ripley is always just out of reach.
1 comment:
As a teenager i felt that Plein Soleil represented Ripley for me perfectly, but having recently re-watched the DVD, the differences in the plot became bothersome... probably because i needed more reminding of the actual specifics of the story, but partially, i think, because the character of Tom Ripley meant very different things to me at that point in my life.
My favourite cinema Ripley is Dennis Hopper's fully wonky character in Win Wender's excellent interpretation of Ripley's Game, Der Amerikanische Freund.
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