Ok, I feel
I need to give you a heads up on this one. This is by no means, shape or form
easy viewing. It’s tricky, because on the surface it very much seems so – and indeed,
it can be taken as such – but if you want to burrow down into the whole thing,
you’re going to suddenly find there is one heck of a lot of burrowing to do.
But then again, hey. It is Wim Wenders. If you’re a fan, you’re a fan because
you like to burrow. I have been on the fence with him on quite a few films, but
I have to put this in here because well… Say what you will he is damn good at
making a truly striking film. This is one of them, without a doubt.
This is the
story of Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper). He is a wheeler- dealer and makes a living
passing off imitations of famous artworks to rich clients and auction houses as
genuine. While he has a several fingers in some rather dark pies, however, that’s
about as far as he is prepared to go. So when one of his “darker” acquaintances
calls in an old favour and asks him to kill a man, Tom is not exactly overjoyed
at the prospect. But ducking and diving is his “thing”, so he is quick to spot
an easy way out: a German restorer and picture framer he ran into on his
travels, Jonathan Zimmerman. Now the man doesn’t actually lead a double life as
a hit man, but he is severely ill. There are rumours going round that he is at
death’s door. So surely, a man with
nothing (well, almost nothing) left to lose should be easy enough to convince?
Right? After all, everyone has their price. Unfortunately though, these kinds
of things tend to have a habit of not being as “clean cut” as they first seem.
And with a complete novice to the underworld in the picture as well, things
could get very ugly, very quickly.
Now, you
can watch this film with no “burrowing” at all. It is a rather “film noir” ish
thriller. And an arm-chair gripper of a thriller it is too (is that a thing?).
I love the ambiguity that comes with a lot of Wenders’ films, it is rather
close to life. Possibly too close for comfort for some. The characters are,
like a lot of us, neither quite one thing nor the other. This puts you in the
rather bizarre position of neither being able to get too angry with the “villain”
nor quite sympathize with the protagonist. I think it’s this feeling of
detachment that gives the film its realistic edge and doesn’t quite allow you
to “submerge” yourself into it. I mean, it’s a “thing”, you either like it or
you don’t. I’m a fan. It gives you time to think – which is the aim of making a
film like this of course. You can’t get people completely immersed in a film
then expect them to extract complex political and philosophical messages from
it.
And there
is a lot of deep questions to be asked here. I have read multiple reviews and
ranges from the philosophical (specifically whether it is “ok” to kill a
criminal The type of thing we have been discussing since Crime and Punishment)
to the political, reading the relationship between Zimmermann and Ripley as an allegory
of the relationship between East Germany and USA back in the day. I don’t
really want to comment on it too much, because it’s one of those films where
you’re going to get as many interpretations as you have viewers. I don’t want
to influence you. Give it a gander (or possibly two) and see for yourself.
But I can
promise you that, by Wim Wenders’ standards it’s a pretty damn accessible film.
And even if you don’t want to “burrow”, it’s definitely a fun film to watch
just for the sake of the story. Tell you what, watch it with a few friends with
strong opinions. You’ll have a whale of a time discussing it afterwards J
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