Purple Noon

“Purple Noon is one of my favorite films in the world and it’s always a sort of reference of mine. Again, Maurice Ronet. And Alain Delon, who was just amazing.”

“Okay, Purple Noon. This film, it was it was perhaps the first time that I captured this wonderful essence that many thrillers from France have that they don't explain too much the psychology or the psychoanalysis behind why the characters do what they do or why the, you know, the bad guys are the bad guys or what, you know? And because if you compare that to what happens in the United States, it's like it's all about, you know, having a justification for what they do. And I love that the French don't do that. We don't acquire more tension by understanding, oh, it's because, you know, their parents treat them badly and this is why. Like that doesn't, life doesn't work like that also, no? Cinema doesn't, but life even less. So it's yeah, this film is fantastic. I recommend it a lot. And Alain Delon is very beautiful in this one, very, very, very gorgeous.”

“So this holds a very special place in my heart, Purple Noon or Plein Soleil, which was the first realization of The Talented Mr. Ripley, or Patricia Highsmith's Talented Mr. Ripley. And of course I was recommended this by Anthony Minghella. A little like the series that's on at the moment, Ripley, it demonstrates how this incredible character from this book can be interpreted in so many different ways, because it's very different to The Talented Mr. Ripley that I made with Minghella. If anything, to choose Delon to play Ripley himself. And they don't change it from the book that he's a painter, in the film what I did, we made him a musician. It's got lots of twists and turns, the same color blue in the sea as our one, and not quite as dark as the Ripley on TV at the moment.”

“So Purple Noon, the same source material as The Talented Mr. Ripley, so I never saw Purple Noon because, as famous as it is, I stayed away from it to do Ripley. I didn’t want to see it, and Anthony Minghella didn’t want me to see it, and I never watched it after. But it is a classic, and so I’m going to pick this one up.”

“Purple Noon. Another film I saw on a flight. This is a theme that’s happening. I see a lot of films on a flight. And now– I built a little cabin on my property, and I think that’s the place where I’m going to really watch films like this. Alain Delon, one of the most beautiful men that has ever graced a screen. And it’s all complicated, and it’s all about being someone else and aspiring with the wealth, wealthy, and doing dastardly things, and looking like this.”