funnystrange.com

Mar. 1 movie: Purple Noon. I expected to enjoy this, and I did. It's Rene Clement's (Diabolique and The Wages of Fear) take on The Talented Mr. Ripley. Ripley is does some very-not-nice things, but for me probably the most chilling scene was one near the beginning where he puts on Phillipe's clothes, looks in the mirror and talks like Phillipe while kissing his reflection. Brrr! [spoiler alert!] My only quarrel was with the ending, which is from what I understand radically different from Patricia Highsmith's novel and the recent Hollywood movie. Maybe Clement couldn't deal with letting Ripley get away with it. I did like the fact that he let the story play all the way out & then snatched victory away from Ripley in the very final moments. The last shot is Ripley's triumphant face, just before he finds out that he's lost. So you never see him defeated. That made it easier for me to treat this movie like Suspicion and pretend it has the ending that it should. [end spoiler] I added The Talented Mr. Ripley to my Netflix queue & am looking forward to comparing the two movies.