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December 1999, Week 3

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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From:
Lang Thompson <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 19 Dec 1999 23:42:48 -0500
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Maybe you've noticed but the new Entertainment Weekly cover story on "The
Talented Mr. Ripley" very conveniently fails to mention that there was an
earlier adaptation of the same novel, Rene Clement's "Plein Soleil"/"Purple
Noon" (which with a recent Scorsese-fuelled re-release and a video easily
available even at Blockbuster can't be called an obscure film).  So it's
certainly no surprise that when EW questions the director about whether
he'll adapt other novels in the Ripley series they also don't mention that
one was filmed by Wenders ("Ripley's Game" as "The American Friend").
Perhaps it's the same impulse that makes EW portray the film as honest and
up-to-date in its portrayal of homosexuality which it claims is only a
"subtext" in the novel, never mind that the novel very explicitly discusses
Ripley's possible homosexuality (though without using that term).
Supposedly the film's addition of a male lover for Ripley is an advance
over those presumably unenlightened times but that seems to miss the point
for a book that was about the construction of identity and the ambiguity of
human behavior.  (Though oddly enough "Plein Soleil" completely removed any
gay aspects on a narrative level instead pushing it--perhaps
unconsciously--to a visual level where any opportunity to display a
shirtless young Alain Delon is not missed.)  Guess we'll see.

LT
Full Alert Film Review
http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/fafr.htm

Funhouse
http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/funhouse.htm

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