Michael Dirda, This Woman Is Dangerous:
There was a time when readers were outraged that Highsmith never judges Tom, indeed quite likes him, even identifies with him as a fellow artist. (She occasionally signed letters or books "Tom/Pat.") Like Oscar Wilde, Highsmith insisted (in Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, 1966) that
art essentially has ( Read more... )

( Feel-good movies, musical instruments, snacks, places, hats, legs, and antiheroes )

The five novels of Patricia Highsmith's "Ripliad" have been adapted for radio by the BBC, with Ian Hart playing Tom Ripley, and are being aired on five consecutive Saturdays, starting February 28. I've only just found out about it now, but you can still catch the last novel, Ripley Under Water, next Saturday. Hopefully they'll become available on ( Read more... )

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, and starring Barry Pepper as Tom Ripley, Ripley Under Ground is based on the second novel in the series. Of all the film adaptations of Highsmith's Ripliad I've seen - Plein soleil, The Talent Mr Ripley, Ripley's Game - this is my favourite. It's truest to the spirit of the character: Ripley the opportunist, the ( Read more... )

Interview by Melvyn Bragg in 1982, interwoven with a dramatization of "Ripley Under Ground".

Click to view

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Watching this talk between Charlie Rose and director Anthony Minghella (RIP) about his movie The Talented Mr Ripley, brings back all of my old frustrations with the adaptation. Especially when Minghella says that he wished Patricia Highsmith had been alive still when he was working on the script and the film, because he would have loved her input ( Read more... )

Films and books:

• Trust The Man
  I would watch Billy Crudup in anything, even Mission: Impossible 3. Even dysfunctional romantic comedies, which is what Trust The Man looks to be. It doesn't hurt that he's starring with Maggie Gyllenhaal, David Duchovny and Julianne (why does she keep doing comedy when she's no good at it?) Moore.
  
  You can see the ( Read more... )