Film Review: Purple Noon (1960)

In the last Criterion sale, I bought two adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley series: Purple Noon and The American Friend. I’m not very familiar with the Ripley series, I’ve never read the books, but I was aware of them and I’m sure the Matt Damon film from the late 90s helped keep the name circulating. What interested me was the fact that these two films were based on two different books in the series but had nothing to do with each other outside of that, and I was curious to see how each handled the material. This first one, based on the first novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, isn’t a bad film at all, but I don’t think I’d call it a favorite. I’ll get more into why in a bit, but first, I’ll lay down the story.

We follow Tom Ripley who’s been sent to Italy to bring Philippe Greenleaf back to his father (Philippe has been running from his responsibility to the family business). Philippe doesn’t want to go home, and he and Tom strike up an odd, loose sort of friendship. They end up palling around Italy, partying and using a may-or-may-not-be-blind man’s cane to trick a rich woman into giving them money. This ticks off Philippe’s fiancé, Marge, though the matter is sort of settled with that kind of semi-forceful French romance/lovemaking (I don’t know what the term for it is, but I’ve never really understood it myself). Tom seems to envy Phillipe’s more lavish lifestyle, almost wanting to be more than just a side element of Phillipe’s life, but Tom’s clingy behavior causes Phillipe to lash out against him. This comes to a head on a sailing trip the three of them take, wherein Phillipe intentionally strands Tom on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. Phillipe had intended to just pull Tom along from a safe distance, but the rope accidentally snaps, and it takes hours for Phillipe to find Tom again. At this point, Tom starts planning something, and plants the earrings of the rich woman in Phillipe’s jacket pocket. When Marge finds them, she and Phillipe have a huge argument and she leaves the boat when they next dock. Phillipe figures out that Tom is behind this and confronts him about it. It turns out that Tom has also taken Phillipe’s bank documents and is intending to kill Phillipe and steal his identity (all of which is revealed remarkably casually between the two men, considering the tense situation). Phillipe tries to bribe Tom to leave, but it’s no use, and Tom stabs Phillipe in the chest. He then wraps the body up and ties the anchor to it, sinking it into the Mediterranean. When he docks once more, Tom puts his plan into action, creating cover stories, altering documents, copying signatures, and overall usurping Phillipe’s life. However, things don’t go as smoothly as Tom probably hoped, since Phillipe’s friend gets suspicious and goes to check out the hotel room that “Phillipe” is supposedly staying at. Tom kills him too, but when his body is discovered later, the police start tailing Tom, either suspecting him or wanting to get information or both. Now, Tom has to outrun the cops and think twelve steps ahead to keep this charade going. Will he get away with this deceit? I’ll let you find out. For now, let’s go over my thoughts.

So, like I said in the intro, I wasn’t super enthralled with this film. It’s not a bad film, and I definitely think it could appeal to some people, but it just didn’t seem to engage me as much as I’d hoped. It was certainly a very beautiful film; Italy looks wonderful with the way they captured the colors and overall environment. It reminded me a lot of the sort of paintings, images, and styles I would see at my grandmother’s house, as well as how parts of her house looked in general. She came from an Italian family, and very much carried on aesthetics from that culture. It kind of made the film feel more “at home” for me, or at least familiar to a degree. Also, if I didn’t know any better, I’d almost think that this might have been a vacation film, as in when a director makes a movie in order to vacation in a foreign country. Obviously, I don’t think that was actually the case here, but it would be funny if that turned out to be true. Aside from the gorgeous cinematography, though, I just wasn’t as invested in this film as I’d hoped. It felt like the film never had a consistent enough level of tension for its thriller-based storyline. Ironically, I think the “Italian vacation” feel that they start with kind of undercuts the whole experience, as the film feels too relaxed or like there’s a lot of down time. It just doesn’t seem to carry the audience through as well as other thriller films, even ones from that timeframe (not sure if it’s an unfair comparison, but Hitchcock had made many great thrillers before this film even came out). Another thing that didn’t help this problem was that I never found the characters to be all that investable. Ripley seems like he should be an interesting character, but his desire to live Phillipe’s life of luxury wasn’t really engaging to me. I feel like his character got stuck somewhere between the unassuming master schemer and the young flighty guy who thinks he knows what he’s doing. I was never able to feel true dread from his character, nor did I find him to be someone I really wanted to follow. Phillipe, on the other hand, was mostly just kind of a dick. I realize that might have been the point, since his behavior has obvious repercussions and he does feel some amount of remorse in his final moments, but again, I didn’t really feel strongly about his character one way or the other (either as a dick I could hate or someone that I could feel sorry for and wish that he’d gotten the chance to get better). I also didn’t vibe with the whole “aggressive, arguing, semi-abusive, but passionately in love” thing that he had with Marge. I think that might be just a part of French culture, or maybe French culture of the time, or even just something they like to play with in media, but man, that whole aspect just made me dislike Phillipe even more. I think the overall issue I have is that the film just didn’t make me feel strongly about it. It just kind of ended up being a lower-energy thriller with characters that never quite hit the mark on interest or investment. Maybe it was the old problem of not being in the right headspace, and I might try to revisit this film again down the line to see if I feel different, but as of now, this is one that I just have to call “alright.”

So, that’s about what I felt about Purple Noon. I don’t mean to completely decry the film, as I do think that people could end up liking it. It’s rather well regarded from what I’ve found, so that must mean it works for some people. I don’t know how it compares to the Matt Damon film, but I’ve heard that, while that one is still good, it’s not as regarded as Purple Noon, so make of that what you will. Next week, I’ll be checking out Wim Wenders’s The American Friend. While not a sequel to Purple Noon itself, it is based on a sequel novel to the book that Purple Noon was based on, so I’m curious to see how Wenders handles Ripley’s next adventure. Until then, give Purple Noon a shot. You might find more to connect with in it than I did.