andrew scott

A Damn Fine Espresso: July 2024

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Summer is a good time to catch up on films and series – in this case, the Netflix series Ripley, created by Steven Zaillian and released last spring. The Talented Mr. Ripley has been adapted before, most famously as Plein Soleil (AKA Purple Noon, by René Clément and starring a deliciously evil Alain Delon) and under its original title in 1999 (by Anthony Minghella, with Matt Damon as a more soulful murderer) – so what is the purpose of another adaptation? Join Sam and Matt as they ponder this question. What does Zaillian’s Ripley bring to the discussion, compared to the films by Clément and Minghella? What is the effect on the story of casting Andrew Scott as a Ripley a dozen years older than the earlier versions? What are the unique qualities of Netflix’s Tom Ripley? And is this version a more faithful adaptation of Highsmith’s story and character?

For more on Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley and the various film adaptations of his adventures, make sure to check out these posts and podcasts:

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Love, longing, loss: All of Us Strangers (2023)

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Would you say that, when you were a child, your parents really knew you? Did they see the person you considered yourself to be? Were there things you wished they’d known about you, but you were afraid of what they would think if indeed they did know? Did you feel that, in so many ways, you and your parents were strangers to one another?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: See Venice and die. Or kill.

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Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

Getting into a series, a franchise, a fictional world: it requires time – and, yes, even energy. And sometimes it’s better to decide early on that it’s not worth it, as Mege writes in this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees. Though sometimes, just sometimes, we have the choice between a long series of book and a series of film’s that isn’t quite as long.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: When you absolutely, positively need to drag a boat across a mountain

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Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

What better way to start the end-of-the-week post than with that most loveable of odd couples, Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski? Definitely the guys you want to have with you if you need to build an opera house in the Amazon. Make sure not to miss Alan’s Six Damn Fine Degrees post on Fitzcarraldo!

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