The Talented Mr. Ripley (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Talented Mr. Ripley | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
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| Directed by | Anthony Minghella |
| Produced by | William Horberg Tom Sternberg |
| Written by | Patricia Highsmith (novel) Anthony Minghella (screenplay) |
| Starring | Matt Damon Jude Law Gwyneth Paltrow Cate Blanchett Philip Seymour Hoffman Jack Davenport |
| Music by | Gabriel Yared |
| Cinematography | John Seale |
| Editing by | Walter Murch |
| Distributed by | - USA - Paramount Pictures - non-USA - Miramax Films |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1999 |
| Running time | 139 min. |
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40,000,000 |
| Preceded by | The English Patient (1996) |
| Followed by | Cold Mountain (2003) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1999 feature film directed by Anthony Minghella. It is an adaptation of the 1955 novel by Patricia Highsmith, which was also filmed in 1960 as Plein Soleil.
The Talented Mr. Ripley starred Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge Sherwood, Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf, Cate Blanchett as Meredith Logue (a character created for the film), Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddie Miles, Jack Davenport as Peter Smith-Kingsley (a character expanded for the film) and James Rebhorn as Herbert Greenleaf.
It was filmed mainly in Italy with famous landmarks in the cities of Rome and Venice being used as a backdrop for the narrative. An opera scene features the duel between Lensky and Onegin from Eugene Onegin.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Tom Ripley is a young man struggling to make a living in New York City, with no prospects but with a talent to survive by doing whatever is required. When approached by the wealthy Herbert Greenleaf to travel to Italy to persuade Greenleaf's errant son, Dickie, to return to the United States and assume his responsibilities, Ripley sees this as an opportunity. Shortly after his arrival in Italy, he meets the younger Greenleaf and his girlfriend, Marge Sherwood, and quickly insinuates himself into their lives. Over time Marge becomes suspicious of him and Dickie begins to tire of his new friend, who views him as an almost-lover, resenting Ripley's constant presence and growing dependence. Ripley's own feelings are complicated by his desire to maintain the wealthy lifestyle Greenleaf has afforded him and by his growing obsession with his new friend.
As a gesture to Ripley, Greenleaf agrees to travel with him on a short holiday to Sanremo, Italy. The two hire a small boat and, after a minor confrontation, Ripley murders Dickie and sinks the boat containing the body.
Ripley assumes Greenleaf's identity, carefully providing communications to Marge to assure her that Dickie has merely deserted her, while living off Greenleaf's allowance. Greenleaf's old friend Freddie Miles visits Ripley at what he supposes to be Greenleaf's apartment in Rome. He is immediately suspicious of Ripley and inadvertently discovers his scam. Ripley murders Miles and dumps the body.
Over the next few weeks, Ripley's existence becomes a cat and mouse game with the Italian police and Greenleaf's friends. Ripley is particularly careful around Meredith Logue, a heiress whom he met while traveling to Italy, who believes Ripley to be Dickie Greenleaf. He eventually restores his own identity, forges a suicide note in Greenleaf's name and moves to Venice. In succession, Marge, Greenleaf's father and an American private detective confront Ripley. He contemplates murdering Marge but is interrupted when Marge's friend Peter Smith-Kingsley enters the apartment with a key that Ripley gave him.
Toward the end of the film, the private detective reveals that Greenleaf's father has decided to give Ripley a portion of Dickie's income with the understanding that certain details about his son's past will not be revealed to the Italian police. A relieved Ripley goes on a cruise with Smith-Kingsley, his new lover, only to discover that Meredith Logue, who has the potential to reveal his stolen identity, is also on the boat. The movie concludes with a tortured Ripley killing Smith-Kingsley.
[edit] Differences from the book
The film broadly follows Highsmith's plot, but Minghella's screenplay made some changes and introduced characters to complicate Ripley's dilemma.
In the novel, Marge is insecure and frumpy (described as having a "gourdlike figure") and she may be one in a line of Greenleaf's meaningless flings. As portrayed by Paltrow, she is a more compatible counterpoint to Greenleaf, and both film versions of the novel suggest that Greenleaf's feelings for her are genuine.
The film differs somewhat from the novel and the earlier film in its portrayal of Ripley. While the Ripley character in the novel has some sympathetic qualities, he is primarily a sociopath with no qualms about committing cold-blooded murder whenever it suits him; as portrayed in Minghella's film, however, he is an almost tragic figure motivated by his own self-hatred and not completely immune to guilt. This characterization received a certain amount of criticism. [1]
The Greenleaf character in the film also differs somewhat from the novel. While Highsmith's characterization of him as a charismatic, spoiled playboy remains fundamentally intact, the character in Minghella's film has a darker side that is absent from the novel. In the film, he has a fierce temper that can give way to violence — his father sent him to Italy to escape publicity after he nearly killed a man in a barfight — and he heartlessly abandons a local woman he has impregnated, who eventually commits suicide.
The 1999 film also explores Ripley's fascination with Greenleaf as more overtly sexual. While this is alluded to in the novel, the film expands upon Ripley's feelings of jealousy and inadequacy and creates greater tension between the characters.
The motivation for the murder of Greenleaf is treated quite differently, although the setting is identical. In the 1999 film, Ripley kills Greenleaf in a moment of rage after being mocked and rejected. In the novel and in Plein Soleil, the murder is premeditated, with Ripley planning each detail in advance and then carrying it out.
Minghella created one character and modified another to provide Ripley with additional complications. Meredith Logue is an American heiress who is bored by her family's wealth but quite content to spend the money. She meets Ripley shortly after his arrival in Italy, and he introduces himself to her as Greenleaf. With their shared contempt for their families, she feels she has found a kindred spirit in Ripley (as Greenleaf), and the two have a romance of sorts. Her presence in Rome causes Ripley problems when he is with Marge, as Meredith, who knows him only as Greenleaf, keeps appearing at inopportune moments.
Peter Smith-Kingsley is a minor character in the novel, appearing only in a few scenes and having no real influence on the plot. In the film, however, he becomes Ripley's confidante and, eventually, his lover. The final scene, in which a sobbing Ripley strangles him to avoid his scheme being revealed, does not appear in the novel.
[edit] Filming locations
The second filming of Highsmith's novel conjures up Italy of the 1950s from a patchwork of locations.
The film opens in New York, where Ripley works at the Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues (used in the 1947 George Cukor backstage melodrama A Double Life.)
The interior of Ripley's dismal basement apartment was actually the ground floor of a tenement on Second Avenue at 26th Street in the Gramercy district, but the exterior, with the steep flight of iron steps, is the tiny passageway of Franklin Place, between White Street and Franklin Street in Tribeca.
Ripley arrives in Italy at the art deco terminal of Palermo, on the northwest coast of Sicily.
To represent the fictitious resort of Mongibello, where Greenleaf idles away his time with Marge, the movie uses the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples.
The cobbled square where Ripley gets off the bus is Ischia Ponte, below the towering 12th century Castello Aragonese which dominates the island's northeast coast. The best way to reach Ischia Ponte is by catching a bus, about a mile east of the ferry landing at Ischia Porto.
The private beach where Ripley first discovers Greenleaf and Marge is Bagno Antonio, between Ischia Ponte and Ischia Porte.
The main shopping street and town square of Mongibello, however, can be found on Procida, a neighboring island, twenty minutes away by ferry.
The Vesuvio nightclub, supposedly in Naples, where Greenleaf takes Ripley for a night on the town, is the Caffe Latino, Via Monte Testaccio 96 in Rome, whereas the Rome opera house, where Ripley poses as Greenleaf, is the Teatro San Carlo, Via San Carlo in Naples.
The San Remo jazz festival, where Ripley begins to realize that the idyll is coming to an end, is the seafront at Anzio, on the coast about 30 miles south of Rome (the real San Remo is up at the French border).
Ripley's Roman hotel, the Grand Hotel Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando 3, off Piazza della Repubblica, is in the Eternal City, as is the cafe where Freddie Miles turns up, on Piazza Navona opposite Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers.
When Ripley returns to Rome after Dickie's murder, he stays in an apartment on the fictitious 'Piazza Gioia', which is actually near the old Jewish Ghetto, on Piazza Mattei. The interior of the apartment‚ which also functioned as the Grand Hotel suite‚ is the 14th century Palazzo Taverna, Via di Monte Giordano 36.
After he moves on to Venice, Ripley stays in an apartment which is an amalgam of the abandoned Ca Sagredo and the Palazzo Mosto.
Marge, having arrived at the Santa Lucia Railway Station, at the northern end of Canal Grande, finally voices her suspicions about Greenleaf's disappearance at Venetian landmark Caffè Florian, Piazza San Marco 56-59.
The hotel where Ripley meets Greenleaf's father is the Europa e Regina, Calle Larga 22 Marzo, San Marco 2159 on the Canal Grande, facing the Chiesa della Salute.
The Venetian church where Smith-Kingsley rehearses the Stabat Mater is in fact the 14th century Chiesa della Martorana, Piazza Bellini in Palermo, Sicily.
[edit] Awards
[edit] Academy Award nominations
[edit] Golden Globe nominations
| Award Nomination | Person |
|---|---|
| Best Actor | Matt Damon |
| Best Supporting Actor | Jude Law |
| Best Picture | The Talented Mr. Ripley |
| Best Original Music Score | Gabriel Yared |
| Best Director | Anthony Minghella |
[edit] Awards won
- BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actor – Jude Law
- Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actor – Jude Law
- BFCA Award for Best Score – Gabriel Yared
- NBR Award for Best Director – Anthony Minghella
- NBR Award for Best Supporting Actor – Philip Seymour Hoffman
- Writers Guild of America for Best Adapted Screenplay – Anthony Minghella
- National Society of Film Critics for Best Supporting Actor – Philip Seymour Hoffman
[edit] See also
- The novel The Talented Mr. Ripley was first filmed as Plein Soleil (also known as Purple Noon) in 1960. It was directed by Rene Clement and starred Alain Delon as Ripley.
- Other film adaptations featuring the character of Thomas Ripley are Mr. Ripley's Return (aka Ripley Under Ground), Ripley's Game, and The American Friend.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Talented Mr. Ripley at the Internet Movie Database
- The Talented Mr. Ripley at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Talented Mr. Ripley at Metacritic
- The Talented Mr. Ripley Trailer at the New York Times website
- Psychological profile of Ripley and his victims by Dr. Sam Vaknin
| Tom Ripley series (the Ripliad) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Novels | Films | |
| The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) | Plein Soleil (1960) | The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) |
| Ripley Under Ground (1970) | Ripley Under Ground (2004) | |
| Ripley's Game (1974) | The American Friend (1977) | Ripley's Game (2002) |
| The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980) | ||
| Ripley Under Water (1991) | ||
