032901 la Repubblica

March 29, 2001
la Repubblica
Il Giornale
"For the Love of Mr. Ripley"
by Roberto Rumbi
(translated from the original Italian by the webmistress - any errors are mine)

After a seven year absence from the set, the director of "Night Porter" returns to film a person created by Patricia Highsmith with John Malkovich.

ROME - There are two reconstructed train cars in Theater 21 at Cinecittà (studios). On the train, traveling from Berlin to Düsseldorf, a crime is committed. Liliana Cavani directs the scene of a homicide by strangling in the new film, "Ripley's Game", based on one of Patricia Highsmith's books - an authoress who is evidently much loved by cinema (directors) from Hitchchock to Wenders, from Clement to Minghella, its a history of anxiety and murders that have intrigued directors of rank. In this Highsmith obsession re-enters John Malkovich, the protagonist of the new Cavani film, whose intention was to have directed the film before Minghella's "The Talented Mister Ripley".

Eight weeks of working in Asolo, Padua and in the palladiane Venetian villas, to this one in Cinecittà, while the last two will be Berlin settings. The film, shot in English, shows Malkovich as an aged Ripley, twenty years older than Minghella's Matt Damon. Also (starring) is Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone, Chiara Caselli, and Lena Headey. Produced by Ileen Maisel and Simon Bosanquet, with Italian Cattleya (productions), "Ripley's Game" will be distributed all over the world by Fine Line. Cavani, screenwriter for "The Cannibals", "Milarepa", "Night Porter" and two films on Saint Francis (of Assisi), returns to cinema after a seven year absence.

Liliana Cavani, why another film on Ripley?

"It appealed to me and they proposed the work on a commission (percentage) basis. This is also a very passionate thriller to me, a psychological character without the need for too many action scenes. I have read all of Patricia Highsmith's novels, she is one writer that goes beyond ordinary and is dazzling in the creation of this man."

Which things interest you with this type of writing?

"The ambiguity of human nature. This is a topic that I had also faced in "Night Porter". The idea is that with man, (it) is neither black nor white, but all a little gray. It depends on the circumstance if we behave good or bad."

What changes in the film (are there) from the book?

"The location from the French provinces (is changed) to that of Italian (provinces). And it takes place in the present."

How come?

"The subject is timeless. To be seduced by those who have the most understanding of our own thinking, one thing that also happens today - both in life changes and great events. I say this without making any political references." (Note: this response was extremely difficult to translate, but I think I captured the gist of it.)

How is it to work with Malkovich?

"He is in an actor who has the ability to appear extremely normal and then to unexpectedly become disturbed."

Why do you like this thriller?

"Ripley's Game was proposed to me while I was working on "Dissociated States", a thriller about a woman with a double personality. I have also watched some Hitchcock films in order to enter a particular atmosphere, where brutality within normality are fulfilled. When I was a young person, I did research for the documentary "History of the Third Reich" which hit me, and made a mark on me, which has been to discover all those normal people who had collaborated with Nazism."

Have the times changed to you?

Yes, decidedly for the best. In spite of all, there is a more disseminated knowledge, it's no longer possible to shelter yourself with "I did not know, I did not see." It's true it is always necessary to be vigilant, but it is difficult today to impose one's own model culture on all, even if we were sure people would want it."

Seven years far from the cinema...

"I had lost a year on a project then set it aside, (and) for a year I was a member of the board of directors of RAI, and then I directed grand operas. But I had taken a little distance from the cinema after my film, "Where Are You, I am Here". I left with six copies of Jurassic Park. Therefore, it was not possible to make films."