The Ripleys again: Matt or Alain?

We had to have another look at THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY on television once again, the other day, despite rushing to it when released in 1999 and seen it several times since. It is Anthony Minghella's glossy adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's classic novel and is an engaging, if hollow, thriller in bright Italian sunshine. Minghella though, as per his published screenplay, greatly expands on the novel fleshing out characters, played by Cate Blanchett and Jack Davenport, who are barely mentioned by Highsmith. Cate is rich girl Meredith, while Jack is Ripley's new love - whom he has to get rid of in order to continue his duplicitous new life. 

We note also how Dickie is made more of a heel - getting that local girl pregnant and his indifference when she drowns herself - so presumably we the audience do not feel too bad when he is bumped off - but of course Jude Law is so charismatic here the film drifts once he is not there to tease and taunt Matt Damon's nerdy needy Tom. So its an overlong, drawn out affair as our glamorous people act out Highsmith's chilling tale. Philip Seymour Hoffman scores too in that key small role

What sinks it for me is the trowelled-on Fifties period detail - all those fussy '50s fashions they wear, with hats and gloves. Whereas in Rene Clement's PLEIN SOLEIL, the 1959 original, they were smart casual clothes that would still be fashionable now, they look strikingly modern in fact - and 24 year old Alain Delon, stunnng Marie Laforet and Maurice Ronet as Dickie are all perfectly right. Its a shorter tale, and even with that changed ending, it works better. Delon in that ice blue suit strolling around the market, and Marie Laforet as Marge strumming that guitar surrounded by her Fra Angelico prints, and the tensions of the three of them on the boat, and of course Dickie suddenly realising he is in danger after pushing Tom too far ... all set on the real mediterranean of 1959 as captured by Henri Decae's glowing colours. 

I have written a lot about PLEIN SOLEIL here, see the labels below, It is of course the tale of how New York wannabe Tom Ripley's life changes after he is sent to Italy to haul back errant playboy Dickie Greenleaf. In the 1999 version Matt Damon makes Ripley suitably sinister and needy and Jude Law is at his charismatic best as the wastrel rich boy whom Ripley wants for himself or failing that to be him, taking over his life ...just as Delon and Ronet played it in 1959.
I first saw that version when 14 in 1960, when it opened my eyes to European glamour and beauty. Its a seminal movie for me. as much as 2001, BLOW-UP, or LA NOTTE BRAVA, SANDRA, MODESTY BLAISE, WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT? etc. but THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY is fascinating too.

Italy or Greece? The talented Captain Corelli ...

Summer holiday time? Two stunning books - two (three, actually) very different films

Anthony Minghella expanded Patricia Highsmith's novel THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY for his 1999 film, while James Madden's scriptwriter Shawn Slovo filleted Louis de Bernieres' CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN ....

Finally, a look at CAPT CORELLI which I had refused to see so far, as I had heard how the book was changed for the 2001 film. Again, the heavy hand of Miramax (see 54 review, below) is evident - it all looks marvellous on that Greek island of Cephalonia, 
and after the wonderful SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1990s label, mind you thats mainly due to the perfect witty script by Tom Stoppard), John Madden seemed the right man to bring it to the screen. First the casting - the only real Greek among the leads seems to be the venerable Irene Papas, John Hurt though is ideal as the doctor - but Spanish Penelope Cruz is Pelagia (she is also Italian in that recent Woody Allen - is there a worldwide shortage of Greek or Italian actresses so a Spanish actress, terrific in Spanish movies, has to play these nationalities?) and Nicolas Cage has been widely seen as ill-cast here.

The film is set against the backdrop of war between the Germans and Italians on that Greek island; the Italian Captain is billeted with Dr Iannis and his daughter, as we see the initial idyll fall away as the grim realities of war intrude. We also get Christian Bale as Mandras, the fisherman son of Drousula (Papas) who goes to join the resistance - Mandras here though is not as vicious as in the book, and as for Carlo, one of the main voices of the novel, as he tell us his story of his secret love for Corelli.  In the film Carlo (Piero Maggio) is reduced to a minor character whose sole function is to sacrifice himself to save Corelli's life when the Germans retaliate .... his heart-breaking story is gone. Then the ending is fudged too - the Captain and Pelagia meet again when they are old in that marvellous ending in the book - in the movie he just walks back after the war and its no big deal - rather like this forgettable film. After this and THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL which I loathed with a vengance (in that one, as per my review, 2000s label, Madden inserted a gay character not in the book, only to kill him off when no longer needed, as the others continue to live in India), so we be giving Madden films a wide berth from now on.  So the great complex novel has been Miramaxed: been turned into a date movie with added war stuff and no depth at all - its a Greek travelogue like MAMMA MIA!. Pauline Kael talked of "the higher trash" and "the lower trash" - this travesty is lower with a vengance. 


Minghella's glossy adaptation of Highsmith's novel  is an engaging if slightly hollow noir thriller. New York wannabe Tom Ripley's life changes after he is sent to haul an errant playboy home from Italy. Matt Damon is suitably sinister in the lead and Jude Law gives a convincing performance as the wastrel playboy. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Marge, Dickie's girlfriend, who rightly never quite trusts Ripley ... 

So there was less of CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN in the film, but we get a lot more of THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY as Minghella expands on Highsmith's original, a book I first discovered as a teen, setting me up for a lifetime passion for Highsmith books, developing the characters played by Cate Blanchett and Jack Davenport, and creating a whole new ending and making a bigger movie out of it. The '50s locations are terrific, around Capri and the Amalfi coast, and the period feel is laid on with a trowel, as they wear those fussy '50s outfits, hats and gloves. But in the original PLEIN SOLEIL - which I have written about here several times, as per label, filmed in 1959 and released in 1960, they (Delon, Ronet, Laforet) look marvellous in those casual clothes of the time, which still look fashionable now, and the mediterranean feel is perfectly captured as it really was in Henri Decae's stunning colour photography. 

Jude Law of course made his name here as the glamorous Dickie Greenleaf - no wonder needy nerd Matt Damon wants not only him but to be him, as bored Dickie toys with him and then thinks he can get rid of him when he has had enough - that murder on the boat is brilliantly done, and a nice contrast to the Rene Clement version in PLEIN SOLEIL (PURPLE NOON), where Delon, Ronet and Marie Laforet's Marge are effortlessly glamorous. As if Dickie is not enough of a heel, Minghella invents the sub-plot of Dickie making a local girl pregnant, and who drowns herself - presumably so we don't feel too bad about him being killed off halfway through the film. It all gets very convoluted then with the Blanchett and Davenport characters. It was obviously a labour of love for Minghella, as per his published screenplay.

So, two books I like a lot (the Highsmith is very re-readable for a book published initially in the mid-50s) and two very different films. The Madden Miramax CORELLI is disposable Trash, but we like Minghella's as a different addition to the Ripley canon - while the Clement-Delon version is always there, and now on Blu-ray, thats another for the collection then ... 

Its contagious ....

CONTAGION, 2011

Soon after her return from a business trip to Hong Kong, Beth Emhoff dies from what is a flu or some other type of infection. Her young son dies later the same day. Her husband Mitch however seems immune. Thus begins the spread of a deadly infection. For doctors and administrators at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, several days pass before anyone realizes the extent or gravity of this new infection. They must first identify the type of virus in question and then find a means of combating it, a process that will likely take several months. As the contagion spreads to millions of people worldwide, societal order begins to break down as people panic. - thats a blurb synopsis.
Soderburgh seems to be aiming for another TRAFFIC, that multi-stranded thriller of his from 2001, and assembles a roster of stars all suitably deglamorised - I knew Gwyneth would not hang around long, but we get to see more of her, including at the end when we revert back to 'Day 1' when the virus spreads to humans ... the film begins with 'Day 2' which led me to think I had missed something so I started it again!

This re-unites Paltrow, Damon and Law from THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY but they hardly meet here, and good to see Jennifer Ehle and Elliott Gould too. Matt seems bulked up as the ordinary guy left with his daughter as they try to come to terms with what has happened and cope with the escalating violence in the streets as hoarding begins and the virus spreads - you won't want to be near people coughing or touch anything on public transport after this, and certainly not dip into a bowl of peanuts! Doctors and scientists race against time to try and contain the virus as all those over-populated cities start to have victims. It shows humanity at its most vulnerable, but as the film cuts around so much there are no real characters to latch on it, not even poor Doctor Kate Winslet ... interesting then, but not that much better than that 1976 lulu about containing a plague the hilariously wonderful THE CASSANDRA CROSSING, where one cared more for the stars crammed on the train: Sophia, Ava, Alida and the rest.

Mr Grant and Mr Scott at home ... / Ewan & Jude lark about

We are surely all familiar with those classic photos from the mid-'30s of Cary Grant and Randolph Scott living and playing together, two classic Hollywood bachelors who shared a house in beween all their marriages [as did Erroll Flynn and David Niven]. I have now though come across another batch of these pictures, which I had not seen before. So, following on from Scotty Bowers' book which has quite a bit about them, it really begs the question: were people really that naive back then that they saw nothing odd in these photographs - if any two rich and famous actors (who could clearly afford their own establishments) did shots like these today people would automatically assume they were a couple and think nothing more of it, so were Cary and Randy just play-acting or were they, as they say, hiding in plain sight? Whatever! It certainly makes for fascinating photos though!

It seems Grant and Scott remained friends into their old age (Cary got to 82, Randolph 89) with Scott wealthy from real estate after his later screen years as that tough cowboy in those Budd Boetticher films in the 50s; while Cary (always a notorious tightwad, so perhaps he was just saving on rent money?) - after his 30s and 40s hits - perfect with Hepburn and Bergman to name just two, had that great run in the '50s, ideal for Hitchcock and those leading ladies like Grace Kelly, Deborah Kerr, Sophia Loren, Eva Marie Saint, Ingrid Bergman (again), Audrey Hepburn, Doris Day etc. and it seems he really was smitten with Sophia ...

Now for 2 more lads around town: Ewan McGregor and Jude Law have teamed up for photos lots of times - but no rumours to quash about their sexuality - though they have played gay more than a few times (like Colin Firth)... good to see the boys larking around and at those various events actors have to force themselves to attend ... at least Cary and Randy never posed in the bathroom !