TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

Double Take

Plein soleil

René Clément
1960 - France / Italy - 1h55

Screenings : wednesday 24 - 10:15 pm - Pathé - 1 friday 26 - 4:30 pm - Pathé - 1

Tom Ripley is hired by an American millionaire to bring his son to San Francisco. Philippe has gone for a long holiday in Italy, and Ripley intrudes into his and his fiancée Marge's lives. An unhealthy complicity grows between the two men…

Adapted from The Talented Mr Ripley by American writer Patricia Highsmith (who has inspired a number of directors looking for twisted plots, from Alfred Hitchcock to Claude Chabrol), Plein soleil (Purple Noon) is a Franco-Italian coproduction that turned Alain Delon into an international star. The film is entirely carried by the ambiguous charm of the young actor and reveals the duality of a man who dreams of being another. Moving like a hypnotic predator, he allows the audience to become an accomplice in the make-believe cast by a man we don't actually know anything about. A successful blend between the film noir and the portrait of decadent privileged youth living the dolce vita, Plein soleil pursues themes found elsewhere in René Clément's work, notably Monsieur Ripois in 1954, in which Gérard Philippe roams round London, a stranger to the world, adapting himself to fit each of the reflections others project on him.

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Alain Delon, Marie Laforêt, Maurice Ronet, Erno Crisa, Frank Latimore, Billy Kearns, Ave Ninchi
Screenplay : René Clément, Paul Gégauff
Cinematography : Henri Decaë
Sound : Jean-Claude Marchetti
Editing : Françoise Javet
Music : Nino Rota

Production : Robert et Raymond Hakim, Paris Film, Paritalia, Titanus

French distributor : Carlotta