| Author | Message | ||
     Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
I managed to find a copy of the American Friend recently. I was really looking forward to watching it - surely Dennis Hopper as Ripley was going to be great... I thought it was a real let down. Hopper was just Hopper, he wasn't Ripley, Malkovich was much better in his version of Ripley's Game. Matt Damon I thought was better in Talented Mr R tham JM was in the sequel. Is the other version of Talented Mr R worth tracking down? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
Alain Delon, that's the one - in Le Plein de Soleil. Knew I'd remember it eventually | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.16.76.36 |
It's worth watching, Weber. I have never read the novel, but I gather two things from the Delon ending, wonder if I'm right: it's closer to the original novel's ending, at first; and then, it's farther away from the original novel's ending, than even the Matt Damon version. Can anyone verify this for me...? | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
Hopper as Ripley? Sweet lord. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.158.156.168 |
I've just watched The Talented Mr Ripley for the first time and loved it. It did drag a little later - the peak happened with the killing on the boat - and while I can't comment on the book not having read it I thought it was superbly done. Such a sense of place, and the acting - Jude Law was so so very good (what the hell happened to him?), and Damon just shone in what must be his best performance. It captured the poetry in Highsmith, I think. Great film. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.158.156.168 |
To go back to Jude Law - he was so superb. He was in Gattacca, too. But the type of film he's in just doesn't allow him to shine. It's actually a bit tragic. (Funny - his role in Gattacca was a kind of spin on Dickie Greenleaf...) | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.178.159.240 |
Tony - it's very close to the book from what I recall, except there's a crucial plot change that makes the guy Ripley kills appear to deserve it. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.158.156.168 |
In the film? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.158.156.168 |
You can see the roots of Dexter in this character, can't you? | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.145.210.168 |
It makes several major changes to the book. The major one being that it removes all of the brilliant ambiguity of ripley's sexuality and his feelings toward greenleaf. In the book we do sympathise with ripley on this killing. The introduction of a boyfriend for ripley was a massive change from highsmith's narrative which almost spoilt the movie for me. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Since we're on the topic of Highsmith, and you seem to be the resident aficionado, Weber.... I had stumbled across a very cheap and fine copy of, but then didn't buy, Highsmith's 1965 novel A Suspension of Mercy. I had never heard of it, and didn't know if it were worth starting there... anyway, any thoughts concerning that one? | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.145.208.12 |
I've really enjoyed all her books - including that one. I just checked my copy to remind myself of the details and it's a very fine tale of false accusations and actual violence. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.185.15 |
 | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.185.15 |
I love Patricia Highsmith. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.17.173 |
Forgive me, what is the 11.17 posting meant to be? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.185.15 |
Ramsey - it's Patricia Highsmith! She did a nude photo shoot when she was about twenty. I think she looks absolutely stunning. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.185.15 |
All authors should pose nude.  | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.17.173 |
Thanks for the clarification, Tony. She was very beautiful (and twenty-one at the time). | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
>>>All authors should pose nude. Hold on a minute, I've got some pics of Gary McMahon asleep on the toilet, Fantasy Con 2008 . . . I was saving them for blackmail purposes, but what the hell . . . | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.17.173 |
My brain reels. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
Yeah, that's horror, Campbell - none of your fey stuff. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
Damn you, Fry...wasn't that last payment of a bag of chips enough to settle this photo thing forever? You'll be hearing from my lawyer. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
Your lawyer walks through Leeds banging a tin drum and singing songs about monkeys. Everyone hears from him. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.145.131.120 |
Well I finally managed to watch Plein Soleil last night and Alain Delon is the closest to Highsmith's creation of all of them. The storyline is closest as well of the 2 versions, up until the final few minutes. To do a stevie I need to list them now in order 1 - Alain Delon by far and away the best 2 - John Malkovitch 3 Matt damon - with a more faithful script he might have stolen 2nd or even 1st place - it's still a career best performance for him. 4 - Dennis Hopper. pathetic. Nothing like Ripley at all. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Only seen the two recent versions and thought Matt Damon was badly miscast and nowhere near menacing enough as Tom Ripley. I found that version much too sedate for my liking. Like a tasteful Sunday night TV adaptation, which may be alright for Agatha Christie but is most definitely not for Patricia Highsmith! John Malkovitch was superb as the older Ripley in 'Ripley's Game' - a much underrated film - and got the mixture of suave charm and cold-eyed menace just right. One could believe in him as a killer devoid of conscience. Alain Delon I could see working for the same reasons Malkovitch did but Dennis Hopper strikes me as much too manically deranged a persona, in every one of his roles, to be a convincing Ripley. Tom may have been a psychopathic killer but he was far from deranged as anyone who has read the books will realise. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Jesus!! I've just seen that photo for the first time!! I keep thinking the woman can't go up anymore in my estimation and then I see that... sigh. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.239.242.10 |
Like I said, the problem with Damon was the script. You have to remember that the people around Ripley don't find him threatening until it's too late. Damon's performance was rather good imho. The biggest mistake in that version is the Jack Davenport character. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 135.196.115.78 |
The more I think of Tom Ripley the more I see him as a natural born criminal sociopath who was driven to kill by opportunistic circumstances and then repeatedly to protect himself. He wasn't really a true psychopath in the usually understood violent sense of the word but he was completely devoid of conscience and a coldly menacing character in the books. Damon just didn't capture that element of him. The desperation, yes, but not the menace. Malkovitch nailed Ripley superbly, IMO, and 'Ripley's Game' was much more cinematic and tense as a thriller. |