PURPLE NOON / Plein Soleil
West Coast Premiere (Restored Version) • Thriller • France, 1960
DCP • 1.66 • Mono • Color • 118 min
Directed by: René Clément
Written by: René Clément, Paul Gégauff, from the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith.
Cinematography: Henri Decaë
Film Editing: Françoise Javet
Original Score: Nino Rota
Produced by: Robert Hakim, Raymond Hakim (Paris Film Production)
Coproduced by: Titanus Produzione
Cast: Alain Delon (Tom Ripley), Maurice Ronet (Philippe Greenleaf), Marie Laforêt (Marge Duval), Bill Kearns (Freddy Miles)
International Sales: StudioCanal
US Distributor: Janus Films
Some are born killers; others have killing thrust upon them. Tom Ripley, an aimless young man drifting through life, is hired by a wealthy industrialist to go to Europe and collect his gadabout son Philippe, a friend of Tom’s. But when Philippe’s father suspects that he’s being taken advantage of and cuts the opportunist off, a newly ambitious Ripley discovers his life’s calling – crime. What is remarkable about this work from filmmaker René Clément, like the Patricia Highsmith novel it’s based on, is the seductive way we are drawn into the meticulous, inventive mind of a monster. Young Alain Delon, who leapt off the screen and into international stardom with this role, radiated a callow charm that was the perfect counterpoint to Ripley’s selfish, hedonistic, and ultimately murderous rationalizations. Echoes of Nino Rota’s score can be heard in his later work for The Godfather. Martin Scorsese rescued Purple Noon from oblivion with a 1996 Miramax re-release. Now COLCOA is pleased to present a beautifully restored version of a film that is only getting better with age.
It’s been said that every new generation of artists must begin by destroying their idols. Perhaps this oedipal urge was the reason French New Wave critics, especially Truffaut, had it in for writer/director René Clément. After getting his foot in the feature film door as a technical advisor for Jean Cocteau’s version of Beauty and the Beast (another 2014 COLCOA Classics selection), Clément grabbed the Special Jury Prize at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival with his first feature, The Battle of the Rails. Celebrated for his technical bravado and a cold approach that never surrendered to sentimentality, Clément had attained the heights of French postwar cinema with two Best Foreign Film Oscar winners, The Walls of Malapaga (1950) and Forbidden Games (1952). Despite these successes, it seemed that the new wave of French moviegoers had passed him by after his epic Is Paris Burning (1966) failed to find an audience. But in 1984, after years of obscurity, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement César.
“It's two hours of pure suspense that puts many of the recent so-called "thrillers" to shame.”
- James Berardinelli REEL VIEWS
“Purple Noon is a rarity in that it is a genuinely unpredictable and suspenseful film.”
- Keith Phipps A.V.CLUB
