Three Influences - ORSON WELLES - Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil (particularly the framing and the lighting); FELLINI - La Dolce Vita (particularly the end scene on the beach); CARAVAGGIO - the perfect duality.
Ways of Seeing - the camera POV Tom arrives at ATRANI: a stranger in a strange land. The first bus ride has proceeded R to L (creating unease - against the norm of much western cinematography and culture), accentuated by the desperate curves and careless driving of the bus on the road. On his getting off we see in long shot the bus proceed from L to R (crossing the line quite explicitly and reflecting Tom's dislocation and sensory confusion). A deliberate visual jolt? Once there, Tom is confronting linguistically and physically by people and geographical challenges. Tom perceives people through his own filter - beautiful in Dickie's case, lumpen in Marge's case, menacing in Freddie's case (and initially baffling in all the Italians' cases - soon overcome with language skills), so the camera shooting Marge as "large" always reflects his jaundiced view. Significantly, his first view of Dickie and Marge is a entwined couple lying on the beach - a reverse Pieta - seen from a high, detached angle.
The Lighting The B&W lighting is not flattering by Hollywood standards to Andrew, Dakota or Johnny - rather it's deliberately shows up character in every face and body. And the cast of local yokels are especially vivid. Zaillian delights in showing the working faces of working people. The only ones rescued from that revealing lighting are the magical, mystical singers and female hangers-on of the gilded set (reflecting Tom's rather dazzled vision of this brave new world of money). An exception is Freddie Miles who is presented as a young Dorian Gray - beautiful on the outside, ugly on the inside - who is cleverly embodied in the sexually ambiguous Eliot Sumner. But Freddie (and Max - another gilded youth briefly glimpsed) is part of the Eurotrash world that Tom is so jealous of.
Zaillian's Tempo Zaillian aimed to reproduce the book so this Ripley is for the readers but he still had to make choices other than Highsmith's. The movie camera sees what Tom Ripley sees. But perception of events is not equal in time. Some sequences edited in almost real time - such as the boat murder - are excruciating because of their length (not a criticism, by the way). Similarly, the finding of Freddie's body by the Police and the details of his mortuary journey are slow and treated with high irony. Other events are shot and edited in standard movie time. The contrast emphasizes the power of the real time events. Zaillian's uses of diegetic music (in collaboration with the great Jeff Russo) and film score plus his wonderful ambient sound fits with the B&W images perfectly.
Black humour: Murder as farce: the killing of Dickie is tragedy but the killing of Freddie becomes pure farce; and there is no shortage of humour in this series. So many examples - Why does the purchase of the frig make Tom so uneasy? It's a domestic symbol of connection between Dickie and Marge and he cannot bear it. Repetitions used as jokes: stealing the pen & then the ring, the suitcases dragged back and forth - hidden and not hidden, stairs in Atrani, stairs in Rome, the drive to and from the Appian Way round the Victor Emmanuel palace. However, the best joke is the silent comedy of the cat, who apart from performing the best side-eye in the business, stands witness for us as Tom laboriously drags himself, bodies and suitcases up and down stairs. The cat of course then gets the blame for the blood. Tom is always lucky.
Zaillian's sense of the characters Tom is a vampire. Not by drinking blood but by becoming Dickie Greenleaf, an act of homage. Tom adopts Dickie's coat, hat, scarf, style and lifestyle. Sometimes, the light of wickedness shines through Andrew Scott's eyes thanks to key lights and some occasional unflattering low lights. Tom's taste is aspirational but initially vulgar (the robe) but he's a quick study and by the end he's a different person. He truly has absorbed Dickie who has taught him (only too well) about Caravaggio, personal style and how to manage the world with sangfroid. His initial lack of taste betrays him to Freddie and to Marge who both know he's faking it. But Tom will gradually grow into an art lover - his taste in furnishings improves, his taste in clothes improves, his taste in cities improves, his ability to handle murder investigations improves... Dickie is the ICON at the heart of the story. As an icon he doesn't have to do much except BE. Dickie trusts people. He is an Innocent, easily scammed and perhaps flattered. Does Zaillian perceive him as a Dostoevskian holy fool? Not entirely: Dickie is very suspicious of the Camorra guy, Carlo. But he is no threat to Tom other than to his armour propre (not wanted for skiing). This sets off murder in this version (differing from the book). Why does Dickie take the boat out? A good-mannered sense of sparing Tom the bad news in public? No notion that the world could turn on him? A belief that he is safe in the water but Tom not. Hoping to avoid a scene after the tastelessness of the "daffodils" on the beach? Ep 6 sees a visitation of Dickie's ghost (the second and last), fully dressed in winter coat and dripping water through the Rome apartment. He nudges Tom with his finger - "Tom, Tom, wake up.... I swam." Tom wakes up with a smile. The moment is delightful and shows why Tom fell in love with Dickie (his offbeat humour and charm, the lack of resentment).
Marge is Tom's alternative gender rival but lacking in murderous impulses and LUCK, that supreme element so remarkable in Tom's path to paradise which as Dante Alighieri mentioned '... begins in hell.' Marge is a small-town girl from the Midwest. Tom's NY emollience means nothing to her and she distrusts him from the get go. Does she instinctively recognise his inner neediness?
You can't keep a good actor down - they have smuggled in their own interpretations as they should (just doing their jobs) and despite Steve Zaillian are more than his meat puppets as became clear doing the Media for the launch.
Conclusion Would Patricia Highsmith have liked this version? My guess is she would have given her grudging approval (she was a famous curmudgeon) but she would have LOVED the cat!
Ways of Seeing - the camera POV Tom arrives at ATRANI: a stranger in a strange land. The first bus ride has proceeded R to L (creating unease - against the norm of much western cinematography and culture), accentuated by the desperate curves and careless driving of the bus on the road. On his getting off we see in long shot the bus proceed from L to R (crossing the line quite explicitly and reflecting Tom's dislocation and sensory confusion). A deliberate visual jolt? Once there, Tom is confronting linguistically and physically by people and geographical challenges. Tom perceives people through his own filter - beautiful in Dickie's case, lumpen in Marge's case, menacing in Freddie's case (and initially baffling in all the Italians' cases - soon overcome with language skills), so the camera shooting Marge as "large" always reflects his jaundiced view. Significantly, his first view of Dickie and Marge is a entwined couple lying on the beach - a reverse Pieta - seen from a high, detached angle.
The Lighting The B&W lighting is not flattering by Hollywood standards to Andrew, Dakota or Johnny - rather it's deliberately shows up character in every face and body. And the cast of local yokels are especially vivid. Zaillian delights in showing the working faces of working people. The only ones rescued from that revealing lighting are the magical, mystical singers and female hangers-on of the gilded set (reflecting Tom's rather dazzled vision of this brave new world of money). An exception is Freddie Miles who is presented as a young Dorian Gray - beautiful on the outside, ugly on the inside - who is cleverly embodied in the sexually ambiguous Eliot Sumner. But Freddie (and Max - another gilded youth briefly glimpsed) is part of the Eurotrash world that Tom is so jealous of.
Zaillian's Tempo Zaillian aimed to reproduce the book so this Ripley is for the readers but he still had to make choices other than Highsmith's. The movie camera sees what Tom Ripley sees. But perception of events is not equal in time. Some sequences edited in almost real time - such as the boat murder - are excruciating because of their length (not a criticism, by the way). Similarly, the finding of Freddie's body by the Police and the details of his mortuary journey are slow and treated with high irony. Other events are shot and edited in standard movie time. The contrast emphasizes the power of the real time events. Zaillian's uses of diegetic music (in collaboration with the great Jeff Russo) and film score plus his wonderful ambient sound fits with the B&W images perfectly.
Black humour: Murder as farce: the killing of Dickie is tragedy but the killing of Freddie becomes pure farce; and there is no shortage of humour in this series. So many examples - Why does the purchase of the frig make Tom so uneasy? It's a domestic symbol of connection between Dickie and Marge and he cannot bear it. Repetitions used as jokes: stealing the pen & then the ring, the suitcases dragged back and forth - hidden and not hidden, stairs in Atrani, stairs in Rome, the drive to and from the Appian Way round the Victor Emmanuel palace. However, the best joke is the silent comedy of the cat, who apart from performing the best side-eye in the business, stands witness for us as Tom laboriously drags himself, bodies and suitcases up and down stairs. The cat of course then gets the blame for the blood. Tom is always lucky.
Zaillian's sense of the characters Tom is a vampire. Not by drinking blood but by becoming Dickie Greenleaf, an act of homage. Tom adopts Dickie's coat, hat, scarf, style and lifestyle. Sometimes, the light of wickedness shines through Andrew Scott's eyes thanks to key lights and some occasional unflattering low lights. Tom's taste is aspirational but initially vulgar (the robe) but he's a quick study and by the end he's a different person. He truly has absorbed Dickie who has taught him (only too well) about Caravaggio, personal style and how to manage the world with sangfroid. His initial lack of taste betrays him to Freddie and to Marge who both know he's faking it. But Tom will gradually grow into an art lover - his taste in furnishings improves, his taste in clothes improves, his taste in cities improves, his ability to handle murder investigations improves... Dickie is the ICON at the heart of the story. As an icon he doesn't have to do much except BE. Dickie trusts people. He is an Innocent, easily scammed and perhaps flattered. Does Zaillian perceive him as a Dostoevskian holy fool? Not entirely: Dickie is very suspicious of the Camorra guy, Carlo. But he is no threat to Tom other than to his armour propre (not wanted for skiing). This sets off murder in this version (differing from the book). Why does Dickie take the boat out? A good-mannered sense of sparing Tom the bad news in public? No notion that the world could turn on him? A belief that he is safe in the water but Tom not. Hoping to avoid a scene after the tastelessness of the "daffodils" on the beach? Ep 6 sees a visitation of Dickie's ghost (the second and last), fully dressed in winter coat and dripping water through the Rome apartment. He nudges Tom with his finger - "Tom, Tom, wake up.... I swam." Tom wakes up with a smile. The moment is delightful and shows why Tom fell in love with Dickie (his offbeat humour and charm, the lack of resentment).
Marge is Tom's alternative gender rival but lacking in murderous impulses and LUCK, that supreme element so remarkable in Tom's path to paradise which as Dante Alighieri mentioned '... begins in hell.' Marge is a small-town girl from the Midwest. Tom's NY emollience means nothing to her and she distrusts him from the get go. Does she instinctively recognise his inner neediness?
You can't keep a good actor down - they have smuggled in their own interpretations as they should (just doing their jobs) and despite Steve Zaillian are more than his meat puppets as became clear doing the Media for the launch.
Conclusion Would Patricia Highsmith have liked this version? My guess is she would have given her grudging approval (she was a famous curmudgeon) but she would have LOVED the cat!