Excerpt, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Tom glanced behind him and saw the man coming out of the Green Cage, heading his way. Tom walked faster. There was no doubt the man was after him. Tom had noticed him five minutes ago, eyeing him carefully from a table, as if he weren't quite sure, but almost. He had looked sure enough for Tom to down his drink in a hurry, pay and get out.

At the corner Tom leaned forward and trotted across Fifth Avenue. There was Raoul's. Should he take a chance and go in for another drink? Tempt fate and all that? Or should he beat it over to Park Avenue and try losing him in a few dark doorways? He went into Raoul's.

Automatically, as he strolled to an empty space at the bar, he looked around to see if there was anyone he knew. There was the big man with red hair, whose name he always forgot, sitting at a table with a blonde girl. The red-haired man waved a hand, and Tom's hand went up limply in response. He slid one leg over a stool and faced the door challengingly, yet with a flagrant casualness.

'Gin and tonic, please,' he said to the barman.

Was this the kind of man they would send after him? Was he, wasn't he, was he? He didn't look like a policeman or a detective at all. He looked like a businessman, somebody's father, well-dressed, well-fed, greying at the temples an air of uncertainty about him. Was that the kind they sent on a job like this, maybe to start chatting with you in a bar, and then bang! -- the hand on the shoulder, the other hand displaying a policeman's badge. Torn Ripley, you're under arrest. Tom watched the door.

Here he came. The man looked around, saw him and immediately looked away. He removed his straw hat, and took a place around the curve of the bar.

My God, what did he want? He certainly wasn't a pervert, Tom thought for the second time, though now his tortured brain groped and produced the actual word, as if the word could protect him, because he would rather the man be a pervert than a policeman. To a pervert, he could simply say, 'No, thank you,' and smile and walk away. Tom slid back on the stool, bracing himself.

Tom saw the man make a gesture of postponement to the barman, and come around the bar towards him. Here it was! Tom stared at him, paralysed. They couldn't give you more than ten years, Tom thought. Maybe fifteen, but with good conduct--In the instant the man's lips parted to speak, Tom had a pang of desperate, agonized regret.

'Pardon me, are you Tom Ripley?'

'Yes.'

'My name is Herbert Greenleaf. Richard Greenleaf's father.' The expression on his face was more confusing to Tom than if he had focused a gun on him. The face was friendly, smiling and hopeful. 'You're a friend of Richard's, aren't you?'

It made a faint connection in his brain. Dickie Greenleaf. A tall blond fellow. He had quite a bit of money, Tom remembered. 'Oh, Dickie Greenleaf. Yes.'

'At any rate, you know Charles and Marta Schriever. They're the ones who told me about you, that you might--uh--Do you think we could sit down at a table?'

'Yes,' Tom said agreeably, and picked up his drink. He followed the man towards an empty table at the back of the little room. Reprieved, he thought. Free! Nobody was going to arrest him. This was about something else. No matter what it was, it wasn't grand larceny or tampering with the mails or whatever they called it. Maybe Richard was in some kind of jam. Maybe Mr Greenleaf wanted help, or advice. Tom knew just what to say to a father like Mr Greenleaf.

'I wasn't quite sure you were Tom Ripley,' Mr Greenleaf said. 'I've seen you only once before, I think. Didn't you come up to the house once with Richard?'

'I think I did.'

'The Schrievers gave me a description of you, too. We've all been trying to reach you, because the Schrievers wanted us to meet at their house. Somebody told them you went to the Green Cage bar now and then. This is the first night I've tried to find you, so I suppose I should consider myself lucky.' He smiled. 'I wrote you a letter last week, but maybe you didn't get it.'

'No, I didn't.' Marc wasn't forwarding his mail, Tom thought. Damn him. Maybe there was a cheque there from Auntie Dottie. 'I moved a week or so ago,' Tom added.

'Oh, I see. I didn't say much in my letter. Only that I'd like to see you and have a chat with you. The Schrievers seemed to think you knew Richard quite well.'

'I remember him, yes.'

'But you're not writing to him now?' He looked disappointed.

'No. I don't think I've seen Dickie for a couple of years.'

He's been in Europe for two years. The Schrievers spoke very highly of you, and thought you might have some influence on Richard if you were to write to him. I want him to come home. He has responsibilities here -- but just now he ignores anything that I or his mother try to tell him.'

Tom was puzzled. 'Just what did the Schrievers say?'

'They said -- apparently they exaggerated a little -- that you and Richard were very good friends. I suppose they took it for granted you were writing him all along. You see, I know so few of Richard's friends any more--' He glanced at Tom's glass, as if he would have liked to offer him a drink, at least, but Tom's glass was nearly full.

Tom remembered going to a cocktail party at the Schrievers' with Dickie Greenleaf. Maybe the Greenleafs were more friendly with the Schrievers than he was, and that was how it had all come about, because he hadn't seen the Schrievers more than three or four times in his life. And the last time, Tom thought, was the night he had worked out Charley Schriever's income tax for him. Charley was a TV director, and he had been in a complete muddle with his free-lance accounts. Charley had thought he was a genius for having doped out his tax and made it lower than the one Charley had arrived at, and perfectly legitimately lower. Maybe that was what had prompted Charley's recommendation of him to Mr Greenleaf. Judging him from that night, Charley could have told Mr Greenleaf that he was intelligent, level-headed, scrupulously honest, and very willing to do a favour. It was a slight error.

'I don't suppose you know of anybody else close to Richard who might be able to wield a little influence?' Mr Greenleaf asked rather pitifully.

There was Buddy Lankenau, Tom thought, but he didn't want to wish a chore like this on Buddy. 'I'm afraid I don't,' Tom said, shaking his head. 'Why won't Richard come home?'

'He says he prefers living over there. But his mother's quite ill right now-- Well, those are family problems. I'm sorry to annoy you like this.' He passed a hand in a distraught way over his thin, neatly combed grey hair. 'He says he's painting. There's no harm in that, but he hasn't the talent to be a painter. He's got great talent for boat designing, though, if he'd just put his mind to it.' He looked up as a waiter spoke to him. 'Scotch and soda, please. Dewar's. You're not ready?'

'No, thanks,' Tom said.

Mr Greenleaf looked at Tom apologetically. 'You're the first of Richard's friends who's even been willing to listen. They all take the attitude that I'm trying to interfere with his life.'

Tom could easily understand that. 'I certainly wish I could help,' he said politely. He remembered now that Dickie's money came from a shipbuilding company. Small sailing boats. No doubt his father wanted him to come home and take over the family firm. Tom smiled at Mr Greenleaf, meaninglessly, then finished his drink. Tom was on the edge of his chair, ready to leave, but the disappointment across the table was almost palpable. 'Where is he staying in Europe?' Tom asked, not caring a damn where he was staying.

'In a town called Mongibello, south of Naples. There's not even a library there, he tells me. Divides his time between sailing and painting. He's bought a house there. Richard has his own income--nothing huge, but enough to live on in Italy, apparently. Well, every man to his own taste, but I'm sure I can't see the attractions of the place.' Mr Greenleaf smiled bravely. 'Can't I offer you a drink, Mr Ripley?' he asked when the waiter came with his Scotch and soda.

Tom wanted to leave. But he hated to leave the man sitting alone with his fresh drink. 'Thanks, I think I will,' he said, and handed the waiter his glass.

'Charley Schriever told me you were in the insurance business,' Mr Greenleaf said pleasantly.

'That was a little while ago. I--' But he didn't want to say he was working for the Department of Internal Revenue, not now. 'I'm in the accounting department of an advertising agency at the moment.'

'Oh?'

Neither said anything for a minute. Mr Greenleaf's eyes were fixed on him with a pathetic, hungry expression. What on earth could he say? Tom was sorry he had accepted the drink. 'How old is Dickie now, by the way?' he asked.

'He's twenty-five.'

So am I, Tom thought, Dickie was probably having the time of his life over there. An income, a house, a boat. Why should he want to come home? Dickie's face was becoming clearer in his memory: he had a big smile, blondish hair with crisp waves in it, a happy-go-lucky face. Dickie was lucky. What was he himself doing at twenty-five? Living from week to week. No bank account. Dodging cops now for the first time in his life. He had a talent for mathematics. Why in hell didn't they pay him for it, somewhere? Tom realized that all his muscles had tensed, that the matchcover in his fingers was mashed sideways, nearly flat. He was bored, God-damned bloody bored, bored, bored! He wanted to be back at the bar, by himself.

Tom took a gulp of his drink. 'I'd be very glad to write to Dickie, if you give me his address,' he said quickiy. 'I suppose he'll remember me. We were at a weekend party once out on Long Island, I remember. Dickie and I went out and gathered mussels, and everyone had them for breakfast.' Tom smiled. 'A couple of us got sick, and it wasn't a very good party. But I remember Dickie talking that week-end about going to Europe. He must have left just--'

'I remember!' Mr Greenleaf said. 'That was the last weekend Richard was here. I think he told me about the mussels.' He laughed rather loudly.

'I came up to your apartment a few times, too,' Tom went on, getting into the spirit of it. 'Dickie showed me some ship models that were sitting on a table in his room.'

'Those are only childhood efforts!' Mr Greenleaf was beaming. 'Did he ever show you his frame models? Or his drawings?'

Dickie hadn't, but Tom said brightly, 'Yes! Of course he did. Pen-and-ink drawings. Fascinating, some of them.' Tom he'd never seen them, but he could see them now, precise draughtsman's drawings with every line and bolt and screw labelled, could see Dickie smiling, holding them up for him to look at, and he could have gone on for several minutes describing details for Mr Greenleaf's delight, but he checked himself.

'Yes, Richard's got talent along those lines,' Mr Greenleaf said with a satisfied air.

'I think he has,' Tom agreed. His boredom had slipped into another gear. Tom knew the sensations. He had them some-times at parties, but generally when he was having dinner with someone with whom he hadn't wanted to have dinner in the first place, and the evening got longer and longer. Now he could be maniacally polite for perhaps another whole hour, if he had to be, before something in him exploded and sent him running out of the door. 'I'm sorry I'm not quite free now or I'd be very glad to go over and see if I could persuade Richard myself. Maybe I could have some influence on him,' he said, just because Mr Greenleaf wanted him to say that.

'If you seriously think so -- that is, I don't know if you're planning a trip to Europe or not.

'No, I'm not.'

'Richard was always so influenced by his friends. If you or somebody like you who knew him could get a leave of absence, I'd even send them over to talk to him. I think it'd be worth more than my going over, anyway. I don't suppose you could possibly get a leave of absence from your present job, could you?'

Tom's heart took a sudden leap. He put on an expression of reflection. It was a possibility. Something in him had smelt it out and leapt at it even before his brain. Present job: nil. He might have to leave town soon, anyway. He wanted to leave New York. 'I might,' he said carefully, with the same pondering expression, as if he were even now going over the thousands of little ties that could prevent him.

'If you did go, I'd be glad to take care of your expenses, that goes without saying. Do you really think you might be able to arrange it? Say, this fall?'

It was already the middle of September. Tom stared at the gold signet ring with the nearly worn-away crest on Mr Greenleaf's little finger. 'I think I might. I'd be glad to see Richard again--especially if you think I might be of some help.'

'I do! I think he'd listen to you. Then the mere fact that you don't know him very well -- If you put it to him strongly why you think he ought to come home, he'd know you hadn't any axe to grind.' Mr Greenleaf leaned back in his chair, looking at Tom with approval. 'Funny thing is, Jim Burke and his wife--Jim's my partner--they went by Mongibello last year when they were on a cruise. Richard promised he'd come home when the winter began. Last winter. Jim's given him up. What boy of twenty-five listens to an old man sixty or more? You'll probably succeed where the rest of us have failed!'

'I hope so,' Tom said modestly.

'How about another drink? How about a nice brandy?'


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(Excerpted from The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Copyright © 1955 by Patricia Highsmith. Copyright renewed 1983 by Patricia Highsmith. Excerpted by permission of Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.)

Desea Matt Damon dirigir una película

EFE
El Universal
Ciudad de México
Lunes 03 de septiembre de 2007

Señala el actor que le gustaría colocarse detrás de cámaras siempre y cuando tenga un material adecuado

18:06 El actor estadounidense Matt Damon afirmó hoy que le gustaría ponerse detrás de las cámaras para dirigir una película, pero aclaró que ello se supedita a encontrar "el material adecuado".
"Estos diez años en el cine han sido como una clase maestra de dirección", dijo el actor en rueda de prensa para presentar en México "The Bourne Ultimatum", tercera entrega de la saga en la que da vida a un espía amnésico, que se estrena en México el viernes.

Durante su carrera, Damon ha trabajado con directores como Martin Scorsese en "The Departed", Anthony Minghella en "The talented Mr. Ripley" y Gus Van Sant en "Good Will Hunting", entre otros.

"Spielberg me aconsejó que comenzara con algo pequeño, para ver si se tiene talento", explicó el actor, que se mostró muy afable con los medios en la que es una etapa más de la intensa gira de promoción de la película.

Para Damon, la dirección cinematográfica es una "dictadura con colaboraciones" más que una democracia.

El actor recordó también una conversación con Minghella cuando éste acababa de dirigir "The english patient", en la que el director le remarcó la suerte que tenía como actor al poder trabajar con tantos directores y aprender de ellos.

"Me dijo: los directores vivimos en una isla, los actores pueden ir de isla en isla", explicó Damon.

Así, de presentarse el material adecuado el actor podría seguir los pasos de su compañero Ben Affleck, con quien dio el salto al cine en 1997 con "Good Will Hunting" y ganó un Oscar al mejor guión original.

Affleck acaba de dirigir ahora su primer filme, "Gone baby gone", que Damon calificó de "maravilloso".

El protagonista de la saga de Bourne esperó poder trabajar "en muchos proyectos" con Affleck en el futuro, y afirmó que ahora tienen más posibilidades de hacerlo dado que pueden escribir, actuar y dirigir, además de estar más asentados en Hollywood.

"En Hollywood no te sientes bienvenido durante los primeros cinco años en los que intentas trabajar", bromeó el intérprete.

Respecto al estudio de la revista Forbes que le proclamaba como el actor más rentable en taquilla, Damon dijo sentirse halagado, aunque no le dio excesiva importancia.

El intérprete de "The Bourne Ultimatum" afirmó también que entre sus proyectos está interpretar próximamente una película con el director de las dos últimas entregas de la saga de Bourne, Paul Greengrass.

Asimismo, Damon también participará en "The Informant", de Stephen Soderbergh, con quien ya rodó las tres entregas de la saga iniciada con "Ocean`s eleven".

"Solo trabajar con los directores que ya conozco sería una vida maravillosa", afirmó Damon, quien apuntó su deseo de trabajar con Clint Eastwood, los hermanos Cohen y Kevin Smith.

Destacó también el trabajo de los mexicanos Alfonso Cuarón y Guillermo Del Toro, de quienes dijo que tienen "un nivel que pocos alcanzan alguna vez".

Preguntado sobre qué le falta en su vida, el actor bromeó: "un gran escándalo".

"The Bourne Ultimatum se estrena este viernes 7 de septiembre en los cines mexicanos".
cvtp

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Vintage screening room. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

"Patricia Highsmith's novels are peerlessly disturing . . . bad dreams that keep us thrashing for the rest of the night, with the sense that an awful possibility has been articulated only to be left unresolved." --The New Yorker

About the Book

"[Highsmith] has created a world of her own--a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger." --Graham Greene

In a chilling literary hall of mirrors, Patricia Highsmith introduces Tom Ripley. Like a hero in a latter-day Henry James novel, is sent to Italy with a commission to coax a prodigal young American back to his wealthy father. But Ripley finds himself very fond of Dickie Greenleaf. He wants to be like him--exactly like him. Suave, agreeable, and utterly amoral, Ripley stops at nothing--certainly not only one murder--to accomplish his goal. Turning the mystery form inside out, Highsmith shows the terrifying abilities afforded to a man unhindered by the concept of evil.

About the Author

"One of our greatest modernist writers." --Gore Vidal

Patricia Highsmith was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in New York. She was educated at the Julia Richmond Highschool in Manhattan and then at Columbia University, where she earned her B.A. in 1942. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), tells the story of a tennis player and a psychotic who meet on a train and agree to swap murders. The terrifying tale caught the attention of director Alfred Hitchcock, who, with Raymond Chandler, filmed it in 1951. Both the book and the resulting movie are considered to be classics of the crime genre. Highsmith's subsequent novels, particularly five featuring the dashing forger/murderer Tom Ripley, have been vastly popular and critically acclaimed. In 1957 Highsmith won the coveted French Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere and in 1964 was awarded the Silver Dagger by the British Crime Writers Association. As a reclusive person, Highsmith spent much of her life alone. She moved permanently to Europe in 1963 and spent her final years in an isolated house near Locarno on the Swiss-Italian border. Upon her death, Highsmith left three million dollars of her estate to Yaddo, the artist community in upstate New York.

About the Film

To be young and carefree amid the blue waters and idyllic landscape of sun-drenched Italy in the late 1950s; that's la dolce vita Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) craves -- and Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) leads. When Dickie's father, a wealthy ship builder, asks Tom to bring his errant playboy son back home to America, Dickie and his beautiful expatriate girlfriend, Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), never suspect the dangerous extremes to which Ripley will go to make their lifestyle his own. After all, it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.

Paramount Pictures and Miramax Films present "The Talented Mr. Ripley" from Academy Award¨-winning director Anthony Minghella, starring Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge Sherwood, Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf and Cate Blanchett as Meredith Logue. Minghella directs from a screenplay he wrote based on Patricia Highsmith's acclaimed suspense novel. William Horberg and Tom Sternberg are the producers of the Mirage Enterprises and Timnick Films production. Sydney Pollack is executive producer. The line producer is Alessandro Von Normann. Paul Zaentz co-produces. Paramount Pictures is part of the entertainment operations of Viacom Inc.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" is Minghella's first motion picture since Miramax Films' highly acclaimed "The English Patient" which won the Academy Award as Best Picture and for which Minghella won the Oscar¨ as Best Director. Rejoining Minghella from "The English Patient" are Walter Murch A.C.E., film editor; John Seale A.C.S, A.S.C., director of photography; Ann Roth, costume designer; and composer Gabriel Yared, all of whom earned Academy Awards for their work on that film. Also on the production team from "The English Patient" is costume designer Gary Jones. Collaborating with Minghella for the first time is production designer Roy Walker, who earned an Oscar as art director on "Barry Lyndon," and Set Decorator Bruno Cesari, Academy Award winner for "The Last Emperor."

Other cast members featured in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" are British actor Jack Davenport ("The Wisdom of Crocodiles," TV's "This Life I and II"), Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Boogie Nights," "Patch Adams"), James Rebhorn ("Snow Falling on Cedars," "The Game"), Philip Baker Hall ("The Truman Show," "Hard Eight"), Celia Weston ("Dead Man Walking"), and four prominent Italians: Sergio Rubini (Fellini's "Intervista," "L'Alberro delle pere"), Ivano Marescotti ("Il cielo  sempre pi blu"), Stefania Rocca ("Nirvana") and singer/performer Rosario Fiorello ("Anastasia").

Anthony Minghella says that after reading Patricia Highsmith's book, the first in her series of "Ripley" novels, he found himself personally connected to the material. The story of a young man who feels like a complete outsider and longs to exchange his identity for someone else's excited Minghella's imagination. He believed there was potential in it for a wonderful film.

"The idea of somebody wanting to change his identity for someone else's--it's the novel's core notion," he says. "Wanting to give yourself up to become someone else stems from some inner discontent, some self-dissatisfaction, even self-loathing. It's basic to human nature".

"Most of us, I think, are disappointed with ourselves at some point, feel inferior in some way, at the edge of things and wish we were someone else. It's something we can all empathize with, and it's what really fascinated me with the story. Certainly as an immigrant son who didn't feel I entirely belonged to the culture I was living in growing up in England, I often wanted to exchange myself for someone else."

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" first takes Tom Ripley to Italy as an emissary for the rich playboy's father. Then, as the killings occur and Ripley's lies and crimes mount, the story follows him as he darts all across the country trying to stay one step ahead of the police Ð and anyone else who might expose him.

For all its suspense, however, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is no ordinary thriller.

"The landscape is an important part of the story," says producer William Horberg. "The canvas in the film is the Italy of the late 1950s Ð its music, the high style of the Via Veneto in Rome, the clothes, the cars, the motor scooters, the atmosphere of rich Americans abroad, even the great movies of the period by Fellini, Antonioni and Visconti," he explains.

According to producer Tom Sternberg, " "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is a romantic movie, not a film noir, shot in romantic colors. And the Italian location is part of its romantic style."

The film was shot all across the country in nine different locations, stretching from Venice, Tuscany and Rome, to Naples and the islands of Ischia and Procida in the Gulf of Naples, and Palermo in Sicily to the south. Filming also took place on location in New York City.

The imaginative use of music--classical and jazz--are also key to revealing character, background and the period in "The Talented Mr. Ripley."

"The film is full of music and the idea of improvisation is crucial," Horberg says. "Ripley's real talent is to improvise his way through life, on his own mysterious search for love and identity."

The astonishing attention Minghella has lavished on period details also embellishes the film's romantic palette, adding another layer to the story, illuminating the drama, bringing it brilliantly to life.

Thank you, Randomhouse

Critica Matt Damon al gobierno de EU

Asegura el actor que su más reciente cinta, Bourne: el ultimátum, refleja la realidad de su país, pues muchos ciudadanos se dieron cuenta del engaño que sufrieron cuando se planteó la guerra con Irak

El actor estadunidense Matt Damon aseguró que su reciente película "Bourne: el ultimátum" es muy realista porque refleja, de algún modo, la situación que vive su país en la actualidad, informó hoy el diario colombiano El Tiempo.
En entrevista con el periódico, Damon dijo que "la mayoría de los estadunidenses se han dado cuenta de que fueron engañados bajo pretensiones falsas" por el gobierno del presidente George W. Bush cuando se planteó la guerra con Irak, en 2003.
Indicó que el gobernante "abusó de las agencias de inteligencia y seleccionó a su acomodo información para crear argumentos para ir a la guerra (con Irak), a la cual quería ir de todas formas por razones diferentes".
Damon aseguró que "Bourne: el ultimátum" es la última de la zaga porque la búsqueda de identidad que mantiene el personaje protagónico se agota, por lo que un eventual cuarto episodio "tendría que ser una reimaginación de todo".
Dijo que en una década de carrera profesional ha aprendido mucho y que no cambiaría nada de lo que ya ha vivido, aunque lamentó que Estados Unidos haya llegado en los últimos años a una situación que calificó como "pésima".
"En 1997 nadie pensó que esto fuera posible, teníamos superávit presupuestal, estaba el auge de Internet. Todo se veía espectacular y ahora parece que eso pasó hace 100 años", afirmó el actor estadunidense.
Matt Damon indicó, en un plano personal, que está tratando de aprender español y de criar a sus hijas bilingües.
Precisó que vive en Miami, Florida, para evitar a los paparazzi, porque en esa ciudad sólo viven la cantante colombiana Shakira y "el papá de mi hijastra radica allí, así que tratamos de mantener a la familia unida".

cvtp

Notimex El Universal Bogotá
Domingo 19 de agosto de 2007

Foros

EL TALENTOSO MR. RIPLEY (1)
Mayo 6, 2000


De Minghella sólo había visto "Con quién caso a mi mujer", y lo ubicaba como el rey de los oscars del 97, así que fui a ver El talentoso Mr. Ripley sin saber mucho de él ni de la película, y me sorprendí con una película muy buena, entretenida, desprejuiciada, fascinante. Tiene mucho para gustar, el paisaje, la música, la espectacularidad del elenco, su origen novelístico, y la verdad me parece que las combina bien a todas. Es cierto que es infiel, a partir de la segunda parte, a Patricia Highsmith, pero independientemente de la novela, la película es excelente. He leído críticas diversas, algunos se quejan de su extensión, otros de la dificultad en la resolución del conflicto, en fin. A mi me parece una película elegante, sensual y perversa. No intenta redimir a sus personajes, sino que nos hace cómplices de sus miserias. Matt Damon está genial, y no sé cómo será "El paciente inglés" pero seguramente voy a ir a ver la próxima de Minghella.

Jorge Luis Peralta (San Luis, Argentina)



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EL TALENTOSO MR. RIPLEY (2)
Mayo 18, 2000


Salí del cine totalmente pensativo. ¿Sera buena o mala pelicula?, me preguntaba continuamente. Al dia siguiente por la mañana me compre el libro y cogí en el videoclub "El paciente ingles"... Ahora soy un apasionado de Ripley, un apasionado de la Sra. Highsmith, un apasionado del Sr. Minghella, un apasionado de nuestro mar (mare nostrum). La asimilación de este "pack" (personaje, libros y pelicula) es lenta y pausada, como ellos mismos. El "lujo a lo pobre" que nos quieren mostrar unido a posiblemente uno de los lugares mas bellos del mundo me hicieron llegar a la conclusión de haber visto una de las peliculas mas "COMODAS" y "CONFORTABLES" de mi vida. La actuacion de Matt Damon me recordo una vez mas a Steve McQueen. Si Rounders es a El rey del juego, Tom Ripley ya Dickie Greenleaf es a Thomas Crown, un listo y con dinero.

Pelayo Barcia (Gijón, España)

Jude Law como nunca lo viste

Un representante de Miller con sede en Londres rechazó hacer comentarios el miércoles sobre la versión de la revista People, difundida en su página de internet y sin citar fuente alguna de la información. La pareja, que compartió papeles en la cinta "Alfie" del 2004, se había comprometido a fines del año pasado.

Public Eye, la empresa que representa a Miller en Londres, dijo que no haría comentarios sobre la vida personal de la actriz.

The Associated Press envió el miércoles temprano un correo electrónico a Tor Belfrage, un representante de Law con sede en Los Angeles, para solicitarle sus comentarios.

Varios medios de comunicación británicos publicaron esta semana que Miller, de 23 años, había estado viendo a Daniel Craig, un amigo de Law, mientras el actor estaba luchando por recuperar la confianza de ella. Miller y Craig aparecieron juntos en la película "Layer Cake", del 2004.

Miller fue citada el mes pasado diciendo: "No hay nada entre Daniel y yo. Estuvimos juntos hace dos años en una película".

Law, de 32 años, fue nominado al Oscar por sus papeles en "The Talented Mr. Ripley" y "Cold Mountain". Sus créditos en pantalla también incluyen "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", "Closer" y "The Aviator".

Craig ha aparecido en cintas como "The Jacket", del 2005, con Adrien Brody y Keira Knightley en los papeles protagónicos.

Ap. Andina

Tracklist

Tu vuo' fa l'Americano >(3:03)
Performed by Matt Damon, Jude Law, Fiorello, and The Guy Barker International Quintet
My Funny Valentine (2:34)
Performed by Matt Damon and The Guy Barker International Quartet
Italia * (1:40)
Lullaby for Cain * (3:31)
Performed by Sinead O'Connor
Crazy Tom * (4:47)
Ko-Ko (2:54)
Performed by Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillepsie
Nature Boy (4:48)
Performed by Miles Davis
Mischief * (2:26)
Ripley * (3:29)
Pent-Up House (2:39)
Performed by Guy Barker, Pete King, Iain Dixon, Robin Aspland, Arnie Somogyi, and Clark Tracey
Guaglione (3:16)
Performed by Marino Marini
Moanin' (4:16)
Performed by The Guy Barker International Quintet
Proust * (1:58)
Four (3:41)
Performed by Guy Barker, Pete King, Iain Dixon, Robin Aspland, Arnie Somogyi, and Clark Tracey
Promise* (2:49)
The Champ (2:45)
Performed by Dizzy Gillespie
Syncopes * (4:49)
Stabat Mater (excerpt) (2:55)
Performed by Clifford Gurdini and The London Metropolitan Ensemble
You Don't Know What Love Is (5:23)
Performed by John Martyn and The Guy Barker International Quintet

* Música original de Gabriel Yared

Gabriel Yared en El talento de Mr. Ripley

The Talented Mr. Ripley
Título en español: El talento de Mr. Ripley
Compositor : Yared, Gabriel Año: 1999
Distribuidora: Sony Classical
Duración: 63:43

No es la primera vez que una edición discográfica de una banda sonora de Gabriel Yared es menos extensa de lo que debiera. Es habitual en las películas de Minghella el uso de canciones y el de música compuesta expresamente para la película. Esto ya ocurrió en El Paciente Inglés y, por extensión, en varias películas en las que Yared ha sido el encargado de poner música. En esta edición, son sólo 25 minutos de score original los que podemos disfrutar en una grabación de más de 60.
Es una lástima que no podamos escuchar el trabajo completo: se trata de una partitura magnífica, con gran protagonismo, que no entorpece en absoluto el discurrir de la trama.
Además de la música de Yared encontramos jazz y un par de canciones italianas que tienen sentido en la película, pero que, por desgracia, rompen el ritmo del CD. El uso de jazz sí está justificado, no sólo por la época en la que se desarrolla la historia sino por todo lo que significa: pasión y cambios constantes. El jazz es impredecible, inquietante, es Ripley. Gabriel Yared compone, para equilibrar la película, una banda sonora igualmente inquietante, pero elegante a su vez. El uso de varios estilos musicales potencia ese sentimiento de desasosiego e imprevisión que transmite el protagonista.
La selección de temas adicionales es excelente, versiones de gran calidad de la mano de Guy Barker, Dizzy Gillespie o del mismísimo Miles Davis. Incluso Matt Damon interpreta en la película uno de los grandes temas de la historia del jazz (My Funny Valentine) con un estilo inconfundible, el de Chet Baker, haciendo un guiño al guión y tomando la personalidad de éste.
La partitura de Yared se basa principalmente en tres temas: Italia, Ripley y Lullaby for Cain. La versión cantada de éste último corre a cargo de una magnífica Sinnead O'Connor, haciendo gala de su voz maravillosa. El contraste con los temas adicionales es evidente: la música pausada y romántica de Yared se ajusta a las imágenes dotando a ástas de calma, pero de una calma engañosa, tortuosa, que crece a medida que avanza la película. El uso del saxo acrecienta este sentimiento aunque la cuerda sea la principal protagonista.
Pero no todo es tranquilidad; curiosamente, uno de los mejores temas de la banda sonora es Crazy Tom, con una sección de cuerda muy cercana al estilo de Herrmann y un ritmo creciente que define perfectamente la angustia del protagonista.
Gabriel Yared sabe jugar con el conflicto interior de los personajes, y el espectador llega a conocer las intenciones de los mismos gracias a una excelente partitura. El efecto que busca la historia se ve compensado con la música y esta logra realzar el misterio de la narración.
Lo Mejor: La funcionalidad de la partitura.
Lo Peor: Los pocos minutos de música original.
El Momento: Syncopes y Crazy Tom.

Congratulations Jesús Castro

El Talento de Mr. Ripley

Todos los blogs tienen un sentido de ser, un origen o un caos este es el nuestro, el gran Mister. Ripley. Mayor información adquieranlas con la película
Título original: The Talented Mr.Ripley
Año: 1999 País: USA
Duración: 139 min
Estreno en España: 25-02-2000
Estreno en USA: 25-12-1999
Director: Anthony Minghella
Reparto: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Davenport, James Rebhorn, Sergio Rubini, Philip Baker Hall
Productora: Miramax International / Paramount Pictures
Género: Drama - Intriga
Sinopsis: Ser rico y joven en una Italia llena de sol. Esa es la vida que Tom Ripley desea, y que Dickie Greenleaf lleva. Joven sin ningún rumbo concreto en su vida, Ripley ha recibido un encargo del acaudalado padre de Dickie: ir a Italia y convencer al playboy pródigo para que regrese a América. Sin embargo, en cuanto llega a su destino Ripley queda seducido por la encantadora existencia de Dickie: la casa en Amalfi, las escapadas a Roma, los hoteles de primera clase, y una hermosa muchacha, que completa el triángulo.

EL TALENTOSO MR. RIPLEY- Estados Unidos, 1999
Fue dirigida por Anthony Minghella, con Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Davenport, James Rebhorn en el reparto.
La historia de El talentoso Mr. Ripley, film de Anthony Minghella inspirado en novela de Patricia Highsmith, empieza hablando de un joven bastante enérgico, algo fabulador e imitador talentoso, que a fines de la década del '50 engancha el trabajo de su vida: un millonario le ofrece mil dólares para que viaje a Italia y traiga a su hijo –el del millonario– de vuelta a casa. Lo correcto no sería decir que Thomas Ripley (Matt Damon) engañó a ese hombre, haciéndole creer que había sido compañero de colegio y amigo de su hijo Dickie, sino que ese hombre se engañó solo. Pero Ripley le siguió el juego. Y extrajo provecho de la confusión... o por lo menos eso cree. Si algo de todo esto ya les recuerda a A pleno sol (René Clément, 1960) es porque se trata básicamente de la misma historia. Aquella consagró a Alain Delon; esta a Matt Damon.
A los mil dólares hay que sumarles los viáticos. ¡Y qué viáticos! Tom cruza el océano a bordo de un Queen Mary majestuosamente recreado, aunque muy breve y a lo lejos. (Digresión: ¿no hubiera convenido acomodar por lo menos una secuencia sobre el transatlántico?) Cuando Ripley desembarca en Mongibello, uno de esos pueblitos mediterráneos congelados en un Medioevo de postal –¡pero sin guerras!– y vestido de costas azules espléndidas, una etapa exhibicionista desembarca en el relato. No es que no pasen cosas, aunque no pasan muchas. Pasa, por ejemplo, que Ripley hace buenas migas con Dickie (Jude Law) y su novia Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow, casi tan irresistible como siempre). Acaso conmovida por su franqueza –ya que Ripley les "confiesa" todo a poco de llegar–, la pareja se abre para hacerle un sitio. No en la cama sino asociado a esa plácida manera de matar el tiempo que forja los días y las noches de Marge y Dickie en Mongibello (luego en Capri, Roma, etc.). Marge, Dickie y Ripley se hacen compinches. De Marge se dice que está escribiendo un libro, aunque no hay mayor constancia de ese empeño ni de sus consecuencias. A Dickie le gusta tocar el saxo (no el sexo) –no lo hace mal– y todos, Ripley incluido (aunque con él nunca se sabe...), gustan del buen jazz. Ora be-bop, ora variaciones algo más modernas y ambientales; de la mano de Charlie Parker y otros genios en versiones sobresalientes. En grabaciones que suenan maravillosamente bien. El jazz se oye tan bien y las postales están tan magníficamente fotografiadas que se adueñan del film. Y El talentoso Mr. Ripley empieza a parecerse a un estupendo documental turístico inmejorablemente musicalizado. ¿Que cuál es el problema? ¡El problema son esos tres personajes todo el tiempo en el medio! En otros términos: esta primera etapa es demasiado larga.
Pero El talentoso Mr. Ripley mejora, y mucho. No lo hace en el sentido del documental turístico sino para el lado del thriller. De un thriller sofisticado y psicológico, que empieza a esforzarse por recuperar el tiempo perdido. Y aunque no lo consigue enseguida ni de golpe, se pone cada vez más interesante. Hay una muerte, no digamos de quién ni por quién, en el Mediterráneo. Es una escena clave. No un asesinato premeditado sino uno que hasta parece accidental, involuntario. ¿Pero lo es realmente? Esta y otras ambigüedades empiezan a ocupar el lugar de las postales y el jazz. Que se seguirán viendo y oyendo, pero adonde deben estar: un poco más cerca del fondo. Las ambigüedades se irán aclarando, pero no del todo sino apenas lo necesario como para dar lugar a otras. Acá está la sofisticación.
Hablando de ambigüedades: Ripley no es el tipo que parecía ser. ¡Pero esto ocurre al menos media docena de veces! Tom siempre cambia en el mismo sentido (no en el mejor, créanme): sus mutaciones coherentes imprimen ritmo. No es habitual que un personaje opere tantas y tan sutiles transformaciones como las que obtiene Ripley de Matt Damon, quien llega a convertirse, especialmente cerca del final, en un "espectáculo aparte". Y las comillas valen, ya que se integra perfectamente con todo lo demás. Gwyneth Paltrow está muy bien. Si los combates entre divas estuvieran vigentes, lo apostaría todo a ella contra Julia Roberts. Jude Law no desentona.
El director es Anthony Minghella, uno de esos tipos que filman muy bien. Y es curioso: no se trata de un principiante sino del hombre que estuvo detrás de El paciente inglés y otros cuatro largometrajes. Lo curioso es que se pueda seguir diciendo de él: un director para tener en cuenta.

Thank you! Guillermo Ravaschino and Cineismo

TAKING THE HIGHSMITH ROAD

Patricia Highsmith belonged to a world which was already pretty rarefied in her own day - the forties and fifties - and which has now all but vanished: a world of wealth, privilege and good manners. To put it bluntly, when New Yorkers lunched together in Highsmith´s world, they did so for social reasons, not to conclude some business deal. They attended the opera and the ballet. They spent summer in the Hamptons and, every other year, toured Europe, staying in elegant hotels where everyone spoke English. They travelled with steamer trunks full of evening wear and jewellery cases loaded with precious gems. Boredom was the only real threat. Oh, and the occasional murder...It was a world which Highsmith herself (born in Texas in 1921 but a New Yorker from the age of six) knew well, although she never immersed herself in it to the extent that her characters did. Because Highsmith was, in many ways, the spectre at the feast, uncovering the dark secrets - the petty cruelties and the rather less petty crimes - which lurked just beneath the surfaces of high society. She was, said her admirer Graham Greene, “a poet of apprehension” who “created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger”. Reading a Patricia Highsmith novel is like losing your moral virginity: you find yourself accepting behaviour you know is wrong, and sympathising with all the wrong people. Which is pretty much what Anthony Minghella´s lavish, loving and elegantly depraved film version of Highsmith´s The Talented Mr Ripley makes you do.

Fifty years after Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, director Anthony Minghella has followed up his Oscar-winning The English Patient with another classic adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel: The Talented Mr Ripley.