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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 83.98.9.4
Posted on Sunday, April 06, 2008 - 05:05 pm:   

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?
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 83.98.9.4
Posted on Sunday, April 06, 2008 - 05:06 pm:   

Alain Delon, that's the one - in Le Plein de Soleil.

Knew I'd remember it eventually
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.16.76.36
Posted on Sunday, April 06, 2008 - 05:51 pm:   

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...?
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Albie (Albie)
Username: Albie

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.195.236.131
Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 11:09 am:   

Hopper as Ripley?

Sweet lord.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.158.156.168
Posted on Monday, July 23, 2012 - 03:29 pm:   

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.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.158.156.168
Posted on Monday, July 23, 2012 - 03:31 pm:   

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...)
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.178.159.240
Posted on Monday, July 23, 2012 - 03:41 pm:   

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.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.158.156.168
Posted on Monday, July 23, 2012 - 03:42 pm:   

In the film?
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.158.156.168
Posted on Monday, July 23, 2012 - 03:43 pm:   

You can see the roots of Dexter in this character, can't you?
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.145.210.168
Posted on Monday, July 23, 2012 - 04:30 pm:   

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.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 06:47 am:   

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?
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.145.208.12
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 10:23 am:   

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.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.185.15
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 11:17 am:   

picture
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.185.15
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 11:18 am:   

I love Patricia Highsmith.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.17.173
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 12:27 pm:   

Forgive me, what is the 11.17 posting meant to be?
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.185.15
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 01:33 pm:   

Ramsey - it's Patricia Highsmith! She did a nude photo shoot when she was about twenty.
I think she looks absolutely stunning.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.44.185.15
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 01:35 pm:   

All authors should pose nude. :-)
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.17.173
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 01:36 pm:   

Thanks for the clarification, Tony. She was very beautiful (and twenty-one at the time).
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.76.229
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 01:39 pm:   

>>>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 . . .
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.17.173
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 01:45 pm:   

My brain reels.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.76.229
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 01:47 pm:   

Yeah, that's horror, Campbell - none of your fey stuff. :-)
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.156.210.82
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 01:58 pm:   

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.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.76.229
Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - 02:32 pm:   

Your lawyer walks through Leeds banging a tin drum and singing songs about monkeys. Everyone hears from him.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.145.131.120
Posted on Sunday, March 03, 2013 - 12:34 pm:   

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.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, March 04, 2013 - 01:03 pm:   

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.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, March 04, 2013 - 01:06 pm:   

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.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.239.242.10
Posted on Monday, March 04, 2013 - 02:41 pm:   

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.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 135.196.115.78
Posted on Monday, March 04, 2013 - 02:52 pm:   

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.

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