Purple Noon

Director: René Clément

1960 / 118min / 35mm

“I chose Purple Noon for its sublime aesthetics, both the scenery, and the characters, who are living the decadent life in Southern Italy. An age-old yet compelling story of intrigue and deception, set against the backdrop of old-world Italian beauty, is what makes it one of my favorite films.” —Victoria Ashley, Metrograph Events team

A supernally beautiful Alain Delon is the screen’s first Tom Ripley—“perfect” for the part, per creator Patricia Highsmith—in Clément’s sun-kissed loose adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, which has Tom and the feckless playboy he’s been tasked with bringing back to daddy (Maurice Ronet) playing a deadly cat-and-mouse game on a boat scudding across the Mediterranean.