The rise of Delon
 

PostED ON 20.10.2024

Delon knew, more than anyone else, what he owed to this brilliant picture... and to its director: “The film, which went around the world, paved the way for my career”.

© DR

At the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, Delon accepted Thierry Frémaux's invitation to discover the restored print of the masterpiece by his mentor René Clément. The actor declared, "Before Purple Noon, nobody knew who I was. I don't know where I'd be now if I hadn't had the chance to make it.” When Clément set out to adapt Patricia Highsmith's darkly ambiguous novel ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’, he was already over 45 years old, and branded ‘over the hill’. Yet the filmmaker kept a cool demeanour, stating “You shouldn’t take yourself too seriously, but you should take your work seriously”. Getting down to business, Clément tapped the gifted, notoriously incorrigible Paul Gégauff, a colourful character who’d fascinated Godard (Gégauff had apparently served as a model for Jean-Paul Belmondo’s character in Breathless (1960)...), as well as Rohmer and Chabrol, whose films he had also penned. Clément then brought on cinematographer Henri Decae, who had shot Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows (1958) or The 400 Blows (1959) by Truffaut. The picture owed much to the hypnotic, aesthetic quality of the lighting - and the photogenic perfection of Delon, whose image would later be etched into our subconscious thanks to Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967).

© Paris Film - Paritalia - Titanus / DR

Clément already had the whole movie worked out in his head. The Hakim brothers would produce; judging from Pépé Le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937) or Casque d'or (Jacques Becker, 1952), these two knew their stuff. They were cunning and had flair. However, when it came to casting, Clément was stumped. Jacques Charrier had convincingly played a smooth seducer in Youthful Sinners / Les Tricheurs (Marcel Carné, 1958). Charrier was young, good-looking and he lived with Brigitte Bardot. A surefire hit. He’d be perfect as ‘Greenleaf’, the exasperating daddy's boy. Maurice Ronet was recruited to play the venomous Monsieur Ripley, tasked with bringing Greenleaf back to his father...

But then B.B.'s husband ditched the team, which had already set up shop on the island of Ischia. Changing course, Clément put his money on 24-year-old Alain Delon to play the villain. He was devastatingly handsome. But did he have talent? He wasn’t so sure. Until now, he'd only played neatly conventional characters in the five features he'd made. With Clément, that was about to change. The actor, who was self-conscious about not having attended the Conservatory, instinctively understood that with a René Clément vehicle, he was on his way to stardom. “Alain was progressively transforming into the character day by day, following all our instructions to a tee. He had an exceptional ability to concentrate. Someone that receptive was rare and a filmmaker’s dream. How many actors didn’t comprehend what was working in their favour?” In terms of the veracity he was looking for, “I always had a Delon that was ready to step up to the plate”, said Clément. The 2.4 million tickets sold validated the gamble and had already succeeded in expanding the actor's cinematic personality: a sombre, taciturn, gorgeous man, capable of murder. Luchino Visconti loved Purple Noon. Delon would soon be taking on the traits of Rocco...

Carlos Gomez

CLOSING CEREMONY OF LUMIÈRE 2024

A TRIBUTE TO ALAIN DELON
Plein Soleil by René Clément (Plein Soleil, 1960, 1h56)

A Studiocanal 4K restoration with the participation of La Cinémathèque française and the support of the Franco-American Cultural Fund: DGA MPA SACEM WGAW.
Our thanks to Studiocanal and Carlotta Films

HALLE TONY GARNIER Sunday, 20 October, 3.00 pm
In the presence of Anthony Delon