Plein Soleil: Ripley’s Forbidden Fruit
Renè Clement’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, Plein Soleil (English: Purple Noon), came out in 1960, in a post-World War II period when the French New Wave cinema movement was all rage.
This filmmaking subculture was all about the rejection of tradition that embraced a personal and unconventional storytelling style that gave filmmakers more creative control. Filming techniques like on-location shooting, natural lighting, and avant-garde editing techniques were adopted. Films made during this period explored themes that tackled political subjects, social inequalities, and complexities of human nature.
Plein Soleil subtly introduces us to a world of class differentiation that creates ambition through the perspective of our protagonist, or rather anti-hero, Tom Ripley. Ripley’s desire stems from his deprivation which becomes more apparent when contrasted to Greenleaf’s abundance. The part of the world that Philippe Greenleaf inhabits is not only glorified tenfold but is also presented as an inaccessible paradise where Ripley stands out like a sore thumb, and despite his best efforts to blend in, he is as much a visitor in the film’s social milieu as the viewers of the film.
Tom Ripley, played by the suave Alain Delon, is a maverick grifter who happens to possess a beauty that is capable of making Adonis himself envious; he is also much shrewder and more adept than the Greenleaf heir. Such characterisation propels the audience to buy into the idea of Ripley being more worthy of acceding the ‘Garden of Eden’ that Phillipe Greenleaf inherited. The film invites the viewers not only to root for its protagonist but essentially also to project onto him, the underdog.
Shot in the scenic landscapes of Italy paired with French luxury, the story is delivered by a glamorous stellar cast, culminating into what became Renè Clement’s visual masterpiece rivalled only by Italian tourism commercials.
The world of Plein Soleil is full of hedonistic indulgence that showcases the crème de la crème revelling in almost all the seven biblical sins of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. The skin-deep beauty of this paradise stripped Ripley of his morality as he leisurely ravished Mediterranean cuisine without losing his appetite over spilled blood. The film also expertly desensitizes the viewers of their preconceived notions of virtue. Greenleaf’s indulgent life, unfortunately for Ripley, is but an image of perfection. This decadent paradise was Ripley’s forbidden fruit, his ultimate desire and inadvertent undoing, a rattrap.
The zeitgeist of a post-World War II audience strongly reckoned with the sentiment of class mobility; Highsmith capitalized on the sentiment in creating the character- Tom Ripley, which is considered an early manifestation of the idea of ‘Eat the Rich’ which is now a fairly overused MacGuffin in contemporary cultural texts with examples spanning from shows like The White Lotus to popular Hollywood films like Saltburn and even international films such as Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite.
“The curious truth in human nature is that falsity becomes truth finally,” writes Patricia Highsmith, author of the Ripliad series, in her journal. A queer female author active in the 1950s, Highsmith was no alien to pretences; if anything, she lived vicariously through Tom Ripley, who, by virtue of his masculinity, had access to much more freedom and social mobility than his creator.
Ambition is one of the primary facets of individual identity; we see, we aspire, and we try to imitate, at the very least. Every self-proclaimed social media influencer is often struggling in vain to imitate the lifestyles of their idols, today’s thought leaders, and the present-day equivalent of Philippe Greenleaf. While others may simply have found merit in the idea of ‘fake it till you make it,’ talented Mr. Ripley made a beeline for it.
