"Purple Noon" A picaresque romance about Tom The Talented Mr. Ripley, a man who betrayed the sun and destroyed himself

Desire to transform from a poor person to a rich person

It is a famous story that Nagaharu Yodogawa once pointed out that The Talented Mr. Ripley was homosexual. Roger Ebert also wrote in a column that "Though it is not directly mentioned, there is clearly a hidden level of homosexuality in the film."

However, to be honest, I don't really get the flavor of this with my level of appreciation. The scene where The Talented Mr. Ripley kisses herself in the mirror is often cited as evidence that The Talented Mr. Ripley is homosexual. The explanation seems to be, " The Talented Mr. Ripley, who is playing Philip, kisses the mirror, so it's the same as The Talented Mr. Ripley kissing Philip! That's why The Talented Mr. Ripley loves Philip!" But is that really the case? To me, it just looks like a desire to transform, "a poor person wanting to metamorphose into a rich person."

Certainly, the remake of "The Talented The Talented Mr. Ripley" was strongly influenced by this. Matt Damon's character The Talented Mr. Ripley clearly expresses her romantic feelings for Jude Law's Dickie (who plays the same role as Philip), and the film also depicts her falling in love with a young man named Peter.

"The Talented Mr. The Talented Mr. Ripley" trailer

Considering that the original author, Patricia Highsmith, herself was lesbian, and that her 1952 novel " The Price of Salt " (adapted into a film in 2015 by director Todd Haynes as " Carol ") was a story about a love affair between two lesbians, the theory that The Talented Mr. Ripley is lesbian is quite plausible. But at least in "Purple Noon," it is unclear whether The Talented Mr. Ripley is gay or not. In fact, Rene Clement tries to thoroughly conceal who he is. Tom The Talented Mr. Ripley is a character whose background is never revealed. He is a poor, lonely, and ambitious young man, that's all.

The opening scene of the movie is symbolic. "Purple Noon" starts with a scene where The Talented Mr. Ripley and Philip are talking in a cafe in Rome. Ripley buys a cane for a blind person for 20,000 lira, pretends to be blind with the cane and seduces women, and does whatever he wants. You would think that the two are old bad friends, but Philip says, "I only recently met him."

In the remake of "The Talented The Talented Mr. Ripley," the story begins with The Talented Mr. Ripley being asked by the millionaire Greenleaf to bring back his idle son Dickie (the same character as Philip, but with a different name). The Talented Mr. Ripley then studies jazz hard to attract Dickie's attention. However, "Purple Noon" completely skips this important introduction. It's a pretty tricky structure, but it creates the effect that "as the story progresses, The Talented Mr. Ripley becomes more mysterious and incomprehensible."

Yes, ``Purple Noon'' is a picaresque romance about an unknown man who commits murder and ends up destroying himself.