108 - Purple Noon (The Talented Mr. Ripley), 1960, France/Italy. Dir. Rene Clement.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

108 - Purple Noon (The Talented Mr. Ripley), 1960, France/Italy. Dir. Rene Clement.

Tom Ripley loves life.

At least when that life is provided for him by his rich friend Philippe Greenleaf.

It is apparent that without that life, Tom would not want to live.

No, this is the life for him.  The only life.  The one in which he may wear Philippe's clothes, spend Philippe's money, and have Philippe's girl.

The one in which he will be Philippe.

Until he can be Tom again.  With all that Philippe ever had.

Tom is charming.  Tom is clever.  Tom is determined.

If you are rich and have a beautiful girlfriend, you might want to stay away from Tom.

Tom is not good for your health.

Or your life.

Because he wants yours.  And he tends to get what he wants. 

Purple Noon was filmed in beautiful Naples, Italy, with parts of it filmed in Rome.

It was filmed in beautiful Eastmancolor by master cinematographer Henri Decae

We have seen plenty of Decae's work--The Silence of the Sea (1949), Les Enfants Terribles (1950), Bob le Flambeur (1956), Le Beau Serge (1958), Les Cousins (1949), Leon Morin, Priest (1961), Le Samourai (1967), Le Cercle Rouge (1970)--and we will see more.

Most of the films listed above were shot in black and white, with the last two listed filmed in color. 

We have now seen three films close together that were shot in Eastmancolor and which take place in cities or villages on the sea--. . . And God Created Woman (1956), Black Orpheus (1959), and now Purple Noon (1960).

The colors of these films are rich and vibrant and beautiful.

They make you want to watch the movies.

They make you want to go to the movies.

It is worth taking the time to discover these films and the color palette they used.

Many people know about Technicolor, but how many know about Eastmancolor?

And how brilliantly it was used in the 1950s.

Technicolor required three strips.  Eastmancolor was the breakthrough technology that used one strip, with multiple layers.  It was first used in 1950.

And the films that used it are more brilliantly colorful than much of what you see at the movies today.

Today the biggest films are still filmed on film.

But more and more movies are going digital.

And young independent filmmakers celebrate cameras with higher resolutions and the ability to shoot what they call raw.

But do they celebrate color?

Raw.

Where you can change every pixel however you want to in a program.

Where the cinematographer no longer makes the decisions in the camera.

But the editor now makes the decisions on a computer.

And who has the better eye?

When was the last time you went to the movies today and left exclaiming, "What beautiful color that film had!  I want to watch it again so that I can see those rich, vibrant colors."

Or did you find yourself saying, "That movie sure did have a dark tone.  Was it sepia?  Was it earth tones?  Or was it just dark?  A lot of details got lost in the darkness."

Watch these three movies back-to-back--. . . And God Created Woman (1956), Black Orpheus (1959), and Purple Noon (1960)--and see what Eastmancolor film can do.

For a city by the sea.

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Here is the charming and handsome Alain Delon.  We have now seen him in two masterful French films by Jean-Pierre Melville--Le Samorai (1967) and Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) (1970).

We are going to see him in at least one Italian film, Visconti's The Leopard (1963).

Today we get to see him in a French film set in Italy, the original Talented Mr. Ripley, Purple Noon.