plein soleil or the talented mr ripley

Plein soleil (purple noon) is a film adaptation of the book the Talented Mr Ripley done as well as it could. The whole point of Mr Ripley is, unlike his 1999 portrayal , A sociopath . A machine. a whimper of feeling gets through him when he kills Phillipe, a shocked expression. But that is more to the scream he lets out. Tom Ripley then assumes his wealth and power by taking on his voice, wearing his clothes and writing his letter. He represented his ability to assume people by pretending to be Phillipe while looking into Phillipe's mirror and wearing Phillipe's clothes. Phil then sees him and questions Tom replies with "it was for a gag" knowing well that Phil understands Tom's ability to cast his nobody life aside and start anew. Yet in Tom's vanity he makes mistakes. Even though he spent days learning Phillipe's signature and speaking in his voice he was too cold and unfeeling to write a convincing letter to Marge. He didn't expect Phil's friends to come looking for him, not knowing how friendship works of course he wouldn't. He didn't expect anyone to think to ask Phil's friends about the murder of Freddie Miles. All of his mistakes where not understanding emotion not mimicking it well enough. When Tom killed Freddie he left him on the floor for half a day and walked round him like a dog asleep on the floor. The way he gets away is by reverting back to his nobody self and pretending to grieve before just enjoying his life and never caring. In the 1999 version it is obvious that Tom at least feels guilty let alone a broken man yet in this 'better' version not a shred of discomfort shows on his smug face he is pleased that he got away with killing his 'friend' and briefly taking his role and convincing suicide. Even his last crime in the movie is lying to Marge and then proceeding to seduce her. All of his actions where driven by sociopathic vanity. The only thing that Tom Ripley feels is love for himself and his needs. everyone else doesn't even show up on his mental radar. Not a blip.