Purple Noon

Saw Purple Noon, an early adaptation of the novel Plein Soleil which was more recently adapted into The Talented Mr Ripley.  This film therefore follows Tom Ripley who is sent to Italy to fetch Phillipe, the idle rich son of an American tycoon.  In Italy, Tom copies Phillipe's mannerisms, his way of talking and writing, even wears his clothing.  There's a strong queer undercurrent to all of this of course which is made more explicit in the modern version.  In this version however, all of that is sublimated and Phillipe's girlfriend is made into the goal of Tom's designs.

This film is very understated.  The story works best as a kind of mystery or thriller.  It's fun to watch Tom change identities and swap names and lie and contort and always manage to stay just one inch out of danger.  It was hard for me to follow who he was to different people however.  There were times he told lies or changed clothing and it was clear to me why.  Surely more than one guy has a pin-striped jacket in Rome, right?  Also the backstory is explained through dialog with little preamble.  I was grateful that I kind of knew the story beforehand.

The other drawback of the film is that although Tom is supposed to be a forgettable, chameleon-like, non-entity, he's played by Alain Delon who is one of the most beautiful people to have ever existed.  Tom is supposed to be taken with and fascinated by the "beautiful people" that he encounters through Phillipe.  This dude is so freakin pretty, they look like frogs in comparison.

Anyway, the film showed its age a bit, not only in the elaborate rules of hotels and police, but also in the moral tone of the film which is far less dark and muddy than the modern version.  This is a pity, but whatever.  Mostly I wanted to see this because it had Alain Delon in a queer-coded role, and that it delivered on.