René Clément

Purple Noon

Purple Noon

Alain Delon was at his most impossibly beautiful when Purple Noon was released and made him an instant star. This ripe, colorful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s vicious novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by the versatile René Clément, stars Delon as Tom Ripley, a duplicitous American charmer in Rome on a mission to bring his privileged, devil-may-care acquaintance Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet) back to the United States. What initially seems a carefree tale of friendship soon morphs into a thrilling saga of seduction, identity theft, and murder. Featuring gorgeous location photography of coastal Italy, Purple Noon is crafted with a light touch that allows it to be at once suspenseful and erotic, and it gave Delon the role of a lifetime.

Film Info

  • France
  • 1960
  • 117 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • French
  • Spine #637

Special Features

  • New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New interview with René Clément scholar and author Denitza Bantcheva
  • Archival interviews with actor Alain Delon and novelist Patricia Highsmith, on whose book The Talented Mr. Ripley the film is based
  • Original English-language trailer
  • PLUS: A new essay by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien and excerpts from a 1981 interview with Clément

    New cover by Michael Boland

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New interview with René Clément scholar and author Denitza Bantcheva
  • Archival interviews with actor Alain Delon and novelist Patricia Highsmith, on whose book The Talented Mr. Ripley the film is based
  • Original English-language trailer
  • PLUS: A new essay by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien and excerpts from a 1981 interview with Clément

    New cover by Michael Boland
Purple Noon
Cast
Alain Delon
Tom Ripley
Marie Laforêt
Marge
Maurice Ronet
Philippe Greenleaf
Erno Crisa
Inspector Riccordi
Frank Latimore
O’Brien
Bill Kearns
Freddy Miles
Ave Ninchi
Gianna
Viviane Chantel
Belgian tourist
Nerio Bernardi
Travel agent
Barbel Fanger
Mr. Greenleaf
Lilly Romanelli
Waitress
Nicolas Petrov
Boris
Elvire Popesco
Madame Popova
Romy Schneider
Freddy’s companion
Credits
Director
René Clément
Producers
Robert Hakim
Producers
Raymond Hakim
Based on the book The Talented Mr. Ripley by
Patricia Highsmith
Written by
René Clément
Written by
Paul Gégauff
Music
Nino Rota
Director of photography
Henri Decaë
Editor
Françoise Javet
Choreographer
Jean Guélis

Current

Purple Noon: In Broad Sunlight
Purple Noon: In Broad Sunlight

In René Clément’s sparkling but menacing anti-noir, the Mediterranean setting is as seductive as Alain Delon’s baby blues.

By Geoffrey O'Brien

Amy Seimetz’s Top 10
Amy Seimetz’s Top 10

The multitalented filmmaker behind Sun Don’t Shine (now playing on the Criterion Channel) and She Dies Tomorrow shares a list of favorites that subvert narrative convention and dive into the mysteries of identity.

The Beautiful Crimes of Henri Decaë

Dark Passages

The Beautiful Crimes of Henri Decaë

In her latest column, critic Imogen Sara Smith explains how cinematographer Henri Decaë brought a risk-taking spirit and seductive allure to some of the most iconic French crime films.

By Imogen Sara Smith

“The Kind of Film You Make Passionately”: René Clément on Purple Noon
“The Kind of Film You Make Passionately”: René Clément on Purple Noon
The following is excerpted from an interview that originally appeared in the February 1, 1981, issue of L’avant-scène: Cinéma. It was conducted by Olivier Eyquem and Jean-Claude Missiaen. Eyquem is a documentalist and former staff member at Posit…