directed by anthony minghella
DESCRIPTION
Directed by Anthony Minghella. Directed by: Anthony Mingella Starring Matt Damon – Tom Ripley Jude Law – Dickie Greenleaf Marge Sherwood – Gwyneth Paltrow Meredith Logue – Cate Blanchett Freddie Miles – Philip Seymour Hoffman Peter Smith-Kingsley – Jack Davenport Awards - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Directed by Anthony Minghella
Directed by: Anthony Mingella
StarringMatt Damon – Tom Ripley
Jude Law – Dickie GreenleafMarge Sherwood – Gwyneth
PaltrowMeredith Logue – Cate
BlanchettFreddie Miles – Philip
Seymour HoffmanPeter Smith-Kingsley – Jack
Davenport
AwardsOscar nominatedBAFTA winning
Character mapTom Ripley
Dickie Greenleaf
Marge Sherwood
Herbert Greenleaf
Meredith Logue
Freddie Miles
Peter Smith Kingsley
Silvana
Connect the characters and explain how they are connected.
Dickie’s d
ad
Princeton classmates
What’s what in The Talented Mr. Ripley
ThemeLiterary allusions
MusicSymbolismCostuming
StructureForeshadowing
Setting
Living a lieTalented Mr. Ripley explores the
psychological and societal effects of living a lie.In groups answer these four questions .
• How does Tom live a lie? (Eg. What helps him to live a lie?)
• What lies does he tell?• What are the effects of living a lie?
(On him and others.)• What film techniques get used to
help portray this theme?
Allusions
MacbethShakespeare’s play follows Macbeth who hears a prophecy that he will become king of Scotland, and his fellow general Banquo will be the father to a line of kings.
His wife pressures him into killing the king and becoming king himself. This one murder leads to a series of murders to cover up his crime. He also has Banquo killed.
Both Macbeth and lady Macbeth are plagued by nightmares, visions and guilt for their actions. Macbeth is finally killed and Lady Macbeth commits suicide.
What to look for
Themes of the play Macbeth are the psychological damage of crime, the dangers of overvaulting ambition and the risks of living a lie – much like TMR.
Macbeth features symbols like bloodshed, apparitions, nightmares, clothing.
Macbeth is accused of wearing “borrowed robes” and having “overvaulting ambition.”
Tom Ripley use a quote from Macbeth to analyse Dickie’s writing, “Stars hide your fires” it comes from Act 1 S4:
The prince of Cumberland! That is a stepOn which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Pick one allusion to Macbeth which features in the film and explain why this is significant.
(An example could be the “borrowed robes”, the above quote, the thematic parallels of “over vaulting ambition” or living a lie.)
Plato’s republicIn Plato’s philosophical work, “The Republic” he describes people who have lived
chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and
comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen
by the prisoners.
Tom Ripley’s “basement” references Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. While in the cave, the people cannot escape the fake world they believe to be real.
Think/pair/share.How is this similar to Tom’s “basement”?
Allusions & MUSIC
Cain & Abel
Cain & Abel are the sons of Adam and Eve and the first murderer and first human to die.
Cain committed the first murder by killing his brother. No motive is given in the narrative for the murder although commentators have typically assumed that the motive was driven by jealousy.
An aural motif throughout the film is the “Lullaby of Cain”.
When is the song played? And what is the significance?
Siren songA number of times in the film, particularly the boat scene, we hear a chorus of singers which brings to mind the sirens of mythology. The sirens were supposed to lure men to their deaths at sea through their beautiful singing. Once the men were in their charms, the sirens would turn into monsters and murder the men.
In Talented Mr. Ripley, who is the siren? Explain your
answer.
Mirrors/reflection
Mirrors and reflection are used throughout the film to symbolise Tom’s duplicity (treachery, betrayal, deceit) and duality.
What are three examples of mirrors or reflection that are used in the
film, and what do these show us?
ClothingClothing comes to symbolise the difference between the life Tom has and the one he wants. They represent disguise and class.
Tom feels that if he wears the right clothes he’ll become Dickie. “Borrowed robes” – Macbeth.
“The clothes make the man”.
Right from the start Tom is fooling people through what he wears….”It started with a jacket”.
What are 3 other examples of where clothes play a symbolic role in the film? Pick one of the 3 and explain its symbolism.
Pick either clothing or mirrors and write a paragraph answering this question:
How is symbolism used in Talented Mr. Ripley?
Be sure to use your paragraph structure.S - StatementE – Example (or explain)X – Explain (or example)E – 2nd ExampleX – 2nd ExplanationY – Your opinion
Mus
icMusic has multiple layers of meaning in the film. Jazz - • It provides Tom with
his intro into Dickie’s life. Tom learns “My Funny Valentine” and memorises jazz musicians.
• It also symbolises the generation gap. Herbert describes jazz as “insolent noise”.
• Represents sexual freedom. Tom can’t tell if singers are“male or female” and Tom uses a jazz metaphor to question Dickie – “sax or drums?”
Music also
shows
class
divisions.
Tom ge
ts ch
ased off
the piano in th
e opening
scenes, a
nd has to w
atch
the music
from behind a
curta
in. He ca
n only play
at
the garden party
by
pretending to be fro
m Princeton.
The rich attend th
e opera,
and finally To
m is allo
wed to
attend w
hen he is livi
ng as
Dickie.
Minghella uses music as a way to comment on people.Dickie is said to hate opera “you couldn’t drag Dickie to the opera”, while Meredith Logue is perfectly comfortable there.
What else is significant about that opera scene?
ItalyItaly doesn’t just provide the setting for the film. It’s also
symbolic of a number of ideas.
In post world war two, Italy represented “La Dolce vita” or the good life. It was where people from Britain and America went to escape and live a life of wine, food, music and no responsibility.
Both Dickie and Tom use Italy as a way to reinvent themselves and live a fake life.
The
base
men
t
The basement metaphor is used by Tom to show us the damage of living a lie.
Tom talks about being “stuck in the basement” where it’s “dark”. The basement is a metaphor that Tom uses to describe how trapped he is by his own lies. He thought he could escape the basement when he left with Peter, but then discovered he couldn’t escape it.
While the basement is dark, Italy, Dickie and the life Tom wants are filled with light.
Symbolism
Symbols
Music
Italy
The basemen
t
Pick two of the five symbols and explain what they show us about the theme of living a lie?
Ensure you provide an example from the film.
Draw a picture of the symbol to help you remember it.
Boat scene
Music
Dialogue
Characters
Camera shots
In a group you will be assigned one of these 4 techniques that features heavily in the key scene.
Identify as many examples of your film technique and explain what they reveal about the themes, characters, plot etc.
Why is this scene important to the film?
Key Scene 1
Key Scene 2
The opening
and closing scenes
Dialogue
Cinema-tography
Characters
Lighting
In a group you will be assigned one of these 4 techniques that features heavily in these scenes.
Identify as many examples of your film technique and explain what they reveal about the themes, characters, plot etc.
Why are these scene important to the film?
Production techniques - costuming Minghella uses costuming to indicate a number of things
through his use of dark vs light clothing. In your books write down as many ideas for each side as you can.
Dark
Light
Brainstorm all the techniques that build to this theme
Living a lie
Paragraph writingPick one technique we have looked at so far and explain it’s relevance to the film, using the SEXEXY structure to answer it.
Your paragraph could begin: Director Anthony Minghella uses symbolism in Talented Mr. Ripley to….. Or Directory Anthony Minghella uses the mirrors as a symbols to ……
The techniques we have looked at so far are:
Symbolism – Music, clothing, Italy, The basement, Mirrors.
Literary allusions – Macbeth, Plato, The Sirens and Cain & Abel.
Costume – light and dark.
Music – Cain & Abel in key scenes plus Sirens in murder scenes.
Camera shots – in key scenes, close ups, panning, spiral camera in nightmare scenes.