“Purple Noon” is a wonderful film from filmmaker Rene Clement and also one of the better films that Alain Delon had starred in. If you are looking for an intelligent and riveting crime film, “Purple Noon – The Criterion Collection #637” is recommended!
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TITLE: Purple Noon
RELEASE OF FILM: 1960
DURATION: 117 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 1:66:1 Aspect Ratio, French Monaural with English Subtitles
COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: December 4, 2012
Directed by Rene Clement
Based on the Novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley/Monsieur Ripley” by Patricia Highsmith
Adaptation and Dialogue by Rene Clement and Paul Gegauff
Produced by Raymond Hakim and Robert Hakim
Music by Nina Rota
Cinematography by Henri Decae
Edited by Francoise Javet
Production Design by Paul Bertrand
Costume Design by Bella Clement
Starring:
Alain Delon as Tom Ripley/Philippe Greenleaf
Maurice Ronet as Philippe Greenleaf
Marie Laforet as Marge Duval
Erno Crisa as Riccordi
Frank Latimore as O’Brien
Billy Kearns as Freddy Miles
Ave Ninchi as Signora Gianna
Alain Delon was at his most impossibly beautiful when Purple Noon was released and made him an instant star. This ripe, colorful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s vicious novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by the versatile ReneÌ CleÌment, stars Delon as Tom Ripley, a duplicitous American charmer in Rome on a mission to bring his privileged, devil-may-care acquaintance Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet) back to the United States. What initially seems a carefree tale of friendship soon morphs into a thrilling saga of seduction, identity theft, and murder. Featuring gorgeous location photography of coastal Italy, Purple Noon is crafted with a light touch that allows it to be at once suspenseful and erotic, and it gave Delon the role of a lifetime.
Author Patricia Highsmith would take the world by storm with her 19555 psychological thriller novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley”. A winner of the “Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere” in 1957 for “Best International Crime Novel”, many may be familiar with the 1995 film adaptation directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Matt Damon and Jude Law.
But before the 1995 film adaptation, there was the 1960 French film directed by Rene Clement (“Forbidden Games”, “Joy House”, “Gervaise”) and an adaptation co-written by Paul Gegauff.
The film would star Alain Delon (“L’eclisse”, “Le Samourai”, “Le cercle rouge”), Maurice Ronet (“Elevator to the Gallows”, “The Fire Within”, “Beau Pere”), Marie Laforet (“Tangos, The Exile of Gardel”, “Joyeuses Paques”, “Blue Panther”) and Frank Latimore (“Patton”, “The Razor’s Edge”, “All the President’s Men”).
Since it’s release in 1960, the film is considered a cult classic and back in 1962, both Rene Clement and Paul Gegauff would win an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for”Best Foreign Film Screenplay”.
While critics have debated on which film was the better adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s popular novel, the classic 1960 film has now been released on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
“Purple Noon” revolves around Tom Ripley (portrayed by Alain Delon) who is sent to Italy in order to persuade his good and also wealthy friend Phillipe Greenleaf (portrayed by Maurice Ronet) to come back to the United States, so he can take over the family business.
Philippe has no intention of going back to the U.S. and for Tom, the opportunity to hang out with his wealthy friend and the luxurious surroundings makes him enjoy it more. Soon, Tom begins to become fixated on Philippe and his girlfriend Marge (portrayed by Marie Laforet), to the point that he wants to have a similar life as Philippe. But being a spoiled, wealthy man that he is, Philippe gets bored of his friend staying with him and exhibits cruel behavior towards Tom. So badly that during a yachting trip, Philippe cruelly leaves Tom lying in the dinghy for hours under the hot sun.
This leads to Tom coming up with a plan to kill Philippe, so he can steal his identity. How far will Tom go in order to take Philippe’s identity and wealth?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Purple Noon†is presented in 1:66:1, color and in French monaural. It’s important to note that if you want the best picture and audio quality for “Purple Noon”, definitely go for the Blu-ray release of “Purple Noon – The Criterion Collection #637”.
For the most part, the film looks very good and it looks that the Criterion Collection was able to remove any dirt, white specks or any scratches from the film. The film seems to retain its warm colors and over 50-years since the film’s release, there is no major sign of aging or blurriness. The DVD looks very good and I’m sure the Blu-ray release would look even better!
The cinematography courtesy of Henri Decae (“The 400 Blows”, “Elevator to teh Gallows”, “Le Samourai”) is wonderful!
According to the Criterion Collection, this new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original camera negative; two original 35 mm prints and an LTC, Paris, were used for color reference. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image Systems’ Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain and noise reduction.
As for the audio,the monaural soundtrack is good. No signs of pops or clicks or even hiss for this 50-year-old film. Dialogue is clear as with the music by Nina Rota!
According to the Criterion Collection, the original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35 mm optical soundtrack print. Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Purple Noon” comes with the following special features:
- Denitza Bantcheva on Rene Clement – (26:43) Interview with film historian and author Denitza Bantcheva conducted at the Chez Justine Cafe in Paris in August 2012.
- Alain Delon – (9:22) A November 24, 1962 interview with Alain Delon from the French TV program “Cinepanorama”. Delon talks about working with filmmaker Rene Clement and his film career.
- Patricia Highsmith – (19:00) An August 3, 1971 interview with writer Patricia Highsmith conducted by Agnes Thierre and Pierre Lambert for the French TV program “Variances”.
- Trailer – (3:55) The original theatrical trailer for “Purple Noon”.
EXTRAS:
“Purple Noon” comes with a 38-page booklet featuring the essays “In Broad Sunlight” by Geoffrey O’Brien, “The Kind of Film You Make Passionately – Rene Clement on Purple Noon”
“Purple Noon” was a film that took people by surprise when it was released in theaters back in 1960. A murder/suspense film that had a feel of horror as one watched another man kill a person for his identity and slowly tried to assume his lifestyle. And it was a film that showed a criminal that was not from some seedy underground, nor was he a criminal that committed a crime for drugs, nor was he a man that looked liked a terrible criminal.
Tom Ripley was a man that was intelligent just not wealthy like his friend Philippe, nor did he have the girlfriend like Marge. He was suave, calculating and underneath the charisma, was diabolical killer.
And for this killer, we see how he would do anything to try to accumulate his friends wealth and will do all he can to take it. Surprisingly, there was some who sympathized with Tom Ripley, may not agree with him becoming a killer but it’s because his wealthy friend Philippe was not exactly a nice guy either. Spoiled rich man who got everything he wanted and thinks he can treat anyone, anyway he wanted to. And for the spoiled individual, that means even torturing his friend Tom.
While many of us find films such as the “Sherlock Holmes” films fascinating when we find out how a murder or crime was committed and how Holmes was able to figure the mystery out, “Purple Noon” is a film that shows us how clever and intelligent Tom Ripley is in achieving the near-perfect crime.
While I’m not going to debate of which film is better…”Purple Noon” or “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, personally I feel the two are different films. Both are based on Patricia Highsmith’s popular novel but the 1999 film changes things a bit and makes Ripley much more cunning than the version seen in “Purple Noon”. Also, while “Purple Noon” featured a man who was obsessed with his friend’s luxurious life, “The Talented Mr. Ripley” suggests homosexual feelings by Ripley that adds to the obsession towards the man. But both are well-done crime thrillers, just different in execution and is subjective to the viewer.
As for the DVD, while the picture quality is good (thanks to the wonderful cinematography by Henri Decae) and dialogue is clean, those who are quite picky with picture and audio quality will no doubt want to go for the Blu-ray release of “Purple Noon”. Otherwise, “Purple Noon” is still a better looking DVD than the older DVD release of the film as The Criterion Collection really cleaned this film up. It really does look great for a film that is over 50-years old!
Overall, “Purple Noon” is a wonderful film from filmmaker Rene Clement and also one of the better films that Alain Delon has starred in. If you are looking for an intelligent and riveting crime film, “Purple Noon – The Criterion Collection #637” is recommended!
