Purple Noon movie review & film summary (1960)

"Purple Noon" is Rene Clement's 1960 French adaptation of the first Ripley novel, starring a young Alain Delon as Tom Ripley, a man who is just learning that he can get away with almost anything. As the film opens, Tom has been sent to Rome to find his longtime friend Philippe (Maurice Ronet), a rich playboy whose parents want him to return to San Francisco. Tom is in no hurry to return to the States, and enjoys letting Philippe introduce him to the sweet life. (The movie's opening scenes are on Rome's Via Veneto, immortalized in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita"; Nino Rota composed the music for both films.)

Philippe is dating Marge (Marie Laforet). Soon Tom Ripley wants to be dating Marge, too, and there is an odd little scene when he dresses in Philippe's clothes and kisses the mirror in Philippe's bedroom, whispering as if he were Philippe, "My Marge knows I love her and won't go with that nasty Tom to San Francisco.'' The three travel around Italy, and the men at one point strand Marge while they fly back to Rome for drinks and womanizing.

Eventually they all end up on a boat, sailing toward Sicily, and by now, it is fairly clear that Marge is superfluous, and that the two men, unable to acknowledge their sexual attraction, are expressing it through hostility. Tom overhears Philippe's plans for putting him ashore. Philippe mistreats Tom, to see how much he'll put up with. Tom moves on Marge. Philippe banishes Tom to a rowboat, and while Marge and Philippe make love, the tow rope splits, and Tom is marooned alone in the ocean, the sun blistering his skin. Tom is rescued. Margeis put ashore.

And then -- read no further if you'd rather not know -- there is a scuffle and Tom kills Philippe and disposes of his body -- safely, so he thinks.

All of these events are essentially just the set-up for the real story, which is about how Tom, improvising brilliantly, plans to get away with the murder and win not only Philippe's fortune but even Marge. Rene Clement's film is shot in sunny pastels and a travelog style that works as an eerie contrast to Tom's scheme. The Nino Rota music doesn't often go for sinister undertones; instead, it's quietly, unobtrusively cheerful, which is all the creepier (Clement uses less music, less obviously, than Fellini). The young Alain Delon, who in 1960 had not yet matured into his full status as a matinee idol, seems young and callow, which is right for the role; "Purple Noon" is essentially about an aimless young man who has stumbled onto his life's work.

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