Film

Purple Noon

Name: Purple Noon
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Released: 1960
Cast: Alain Delon, Marie Laforêt, Maurice Ronet, Erno Crisa, Frank Latimore

René Clément's sun-bleached 1960 thriller is the original screen Ripley, and it's less a whodunit than a study in seduction — Alain Delon as a broke charmer who insinuates himself into a rich man's Mediterranean idyll and simply never lets go. Gorgeous, unhurried, morally cool: it wants you to enjoy the crime as much as Tom does.

TMDb rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow-burn crime stories where the tension lives in glances, heat and a charming man's quiet calculation, and you don't mind sitting with a protagonist you can't quite trust.

Skip it if you need brisk plotting, since this one is languid, takes its time over Italian sunshine and mood, and its 1960 pacing and dated dialogue may feel slow.

What it asks of you: Just under two hours, unhurried and watchful, with long silences and close attention to faces rather than dialogue, so it rewards staying still.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Talented Mr. Ripley1999

The same Highsmith novel, adapted with more psychology and guilt than Clément allowed — Matt Damon's Ripley squirms where Delon glides. Seeing both is the real education in how one character can be played two ways.

But Warmer, more explanatory, more American — some of the chilly ambiguity gets traded for plot and pathos.

Strangers on a Train1951

Hitchcock adapting Highsmith too, nine years earlier — another charming stranger who attaches himself to a man he shouldn't, with murder as the price of intimacy. Essential back-catalogue for anyone who just fell for this story.

But More plot-mechanical and less sensual — it's a thriller of coincidence and blackmail rather than seduction.

Le Samouraï1967

Delon again, seven years on, playing a hitman with the same unreadable stillness he brought to Tom Ripley. If you fell for his face doing nothing while everything happens behind it, this is the purest version.

But Almost wordless and ascetic — patience-testing if you want dialogue, warmth or a way in to the character's interior.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Purple Noon

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Imposter2012

Same engine as Ripley — a plausible liar who studies a family closely enough to become someone else — but pulled out of fiction into a real courtroom, where the con is uglier and the stakes are a child's disappearance.

A documentary about a real con man who convinced a grieving Texas family he was their long-missing son — stranger, colder and more unsettling than any fiction because it actually happened, and the impostor narrates his own scam to camera.

But No music-video gloss, no Delon cheekbones — it's talking-head true crime, and its horror is quiet and administrative rather than cinematic.

Diabolique1955

A French thriller from the same era with its own murder plot hidden inside a sun-drenched surface — two women, one cruel husband, and a twist that critics still argue about spoiling.

But Black-and-white and stagier than Purple Noon's technicolour glamour — the pleasures are colder and more claustrophobic.

Rope1948

Hitchcock's real-time experiment about two young men hiding a body at their own dinner party — a study in the arrogance of thinking yourself smarter than everyone in the room, which is Ripley's whole philosophy too.

But Theatrical and single-set by design — the gimmick (one continuous shot) may interest you more than the murder does.

The American Friend1977

Wim Wenders adapts a later Highsmith Ripley novel, with Dennis Hopper playing him as older, sadder, and stranger — a scuzzy, atmospheric detour if you want to see the character age into something more haunted.

But Loose, moody, and deliberately opaque — this is arthouse Wenders, not a tightly plotted thriller.

Match Point2005

Woody Allen's London thriller about a charming social climber who marries into money and then finds the life isn't quite enough — the same class envy curdling into something worse, dressed in tennis whites.

But Talkier and more philosophical about luck than Purple Noon's pure sensation — some find the moralising heavy-handed.

A Simple Favor2018

A glossy, gleefully trashy modern thriller about identity theft and a friendship built on lies — if you want Ripley's game played for wicked comic pleasure rather than dread, this delivers.

But Broad and knowing where Purple Noon is cool and controlled — it's having fun rather than getting under your skin.

Knife in the Water1962

Polanski's debut: a married couple invite a young hitchhiker aboard their yacht, and the confined space turns three people into a slow-burn triangle of jealousy and menace, all under a punishing sun.

But Almost plotless by design — three characters, one boat, and a lot of silence rather than incident.

Ripley2024

Same source, same character, but built for a different era of television — where Clément gave you sun and speed, this gives you shadow and patience, proof of how much a single novel can be reshaped by format alone.

A recent limited series adapting the same Highsmith novel in stark, gorgeous black-and-white, with Andrew Scott playing Tom as older, wearier and more calculating — the story stretched to eight hours lets the dread breathe in ways the film can't.

But Deliberately slow and monochrome by design — if you want Purple Noon's speed and colour, this will feel like a very different, more austere animal.

Zelig1983

Where Ripley's chameleon act is chilling, Zelig's identical impulse — the need to erase yourself into someone else — is played as pure comedy, showing how close the horror and the joke sit to each other.

Woody Allen's mockumentary about a man so eager to fit in he physically transforms to resemble whoever he's near — a comic, absurdist mirror of Ripley's talent for becoming other people, played entirely for laughs.

But A spoof documentary with fake newsreel footage and deadpan gags — utterly different tone, and its humour is very specifically of its moment.