Ripley's Game (2002)
(Il Gioco di Ripley)
Country: IT/GB/US
Technical: Fujicolor 112m
Director: Liliana Cavani
Cast: John Malkovich, Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone
Synopsis:
Ripley has become an inordinately wealthy dealer in art forgeries. When a felonious contact approaches him to carry out an assassination, Ripley conceives the idea of punishing a slight inflicted by a casual acquaintance, who happens to be terminally ill from leukaemia, by persuading him to perform the hit for the sake of his family's financial comfort. Innocence, however, is not always the equal of professional sang froid.
Review:
Less concerned with character, more a conventional thriller, and none the worse for that, this entertaining and tautly told immoral tale provides some amusing star turns while adopting a slightly different focus to the Wenders version (cf. The American Friend). It is proof that it is still possible to make a genre picture without resorting to Hollywood hyperbole and cliché, but rather by appealing to the brain and the heart. The film encountered post-production problems to do with the processing which delayed its release and seem to have damaged the soundtrack.
(Il Gioco di Ripley)
Country: IT/GB/US
Technical: Fujicolor 112m
Director: Liliana Cavani
Cast: John Malkovich, Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone
Synopsis:
Ripley has become an inordinately wealthy dealer in art forgeries. When a felonious contact approaches him to carry out an assassination, Ripley conceives the idea of punishing a slight inflicted by a casual acquaintance, who happens to be terminally ill from leukaemia, by persuading him to perform the hit for the sake of his family's financial comfort. Innocence, however, is not always the equal of professional sang froid.
Review:
Less concerned with character, more a conventional thriller, and none the worse for that, this entertaining and tautly told immoral tale provides some amusing star turns while adopting a slightly different focus to the Wenders version (cf. The American Friend). It is proof that it is still possible to make a genre picture without resorting to Hollywood hyperbole and cliché, but rather by appealing to the brain and the heart. The film encountered post-production problems to do with the processing which delayed its release and seem to have damaged the soundtrack.
(Il Gioco di Ripley)
Country: IT/GB/US
Technical: Fujicolor 112m
Director: Liliana Cavani
Cast: John Malkovich, Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone
Synopsis:
Ripley has become an inordinately wealthy dealer in art forgeries. When a felonious contact approaches him to carry out an assassination, Ripley conceives the idea of punishing a slight inflicted by a casual acquaintance, who happens to be terminally ill from leukaemia, by persuading him to perform the hit for the sake of his family's financial comfort. Innocence, however, is not always the equal of professional sang froid.
Review:
Less concerned with character, more a conventional thriller, and none the worse for that, this entertaining and tautly told immoral tale provides some amusing star turns while adopting a slightly different focus to the Wenders version (cf. The American Friend). It is proof that it is still possible to make a genre picture without resorting to Hollywood hyperbole and cliché, but rather by appealing to the brain and the heart. The film encountered post-production problems to do with the processing which delayed its release and seem to have damaged the soundtrack.