Plein Soleil
30 August 2013
No film-maker has ever nailed Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr Ripley, but René Clément’s lyrical, nutty 1960 adaptation certainly gets closer than Anthony Minghella’s starry 1999 soap.
Alain Delon is parasite-turned-predator, Tom Ripley, and the mechanics of the plot are less important than the chemistry between Clement and his star. The 25-year-old beauty wanders around Italy (he visits a street market for no particular reason) and the film itself seems to be holding its breath. Decent actors come and go (Maurice Ronet; Marie Laforêt). Poor things. Like Highsmith’s Ripley, Delon annihilates the competition with ease.
