USA: FILM PREMIERE OF ANTHONY MINGHELLA'S FILM THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY STARRING MATT DAMON AND GWYNETH PALTROW

Record ID: 388825

  • Title: USA: FILM PREMIERE OF ANTHONY MINGHELLA'S FILM THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY STARRING MATT DAMON AND GWYNETH PALTROW
  • Date: 12th December 1999
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 12) (RTV-LA) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MATT DAMON SAYING OF HIS NEWFOUND CELEBRITY, Yeah, no, it is an odd place for me to be. I still feel like the same person I always was and, so, so, yeah, It's not that I'm reluctant to be a celebrity, it's just that I don't want to be different, you know? I like my life and I like the peop
  • Embargoed: 27th December 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, US AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA4ALX2XR93RM66NLBB4GZP635
  • Story Text: A group of recent Oscar winners and nominees gathered in Los Angeles on Sunday, December 12 to celebrate the World Premiere of "The English Patient" director Anthony Minghella's newest film "The Talented Mr.Ripley," starring Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow.
    For his first starring role since storming the Oscars and the world stage with his writing and acting in the hit film "Good Will Hunting," Damon chose to play Tom Ripley, a deeply confused and tormented American who travels to Italy in the 1950's to take on the persona of the charming and wealthy son of a New York shipbuilding magnate.
    The film is based on the suspenseful novel by the late writer Patricia Highsmith, whose first book "Strangers On a Train" was adapted into a film by Alfred Hitchcock.
    Director Anthony Minghella had this connection firmly in mind while he was putting "Mr.Ripley" together, going so far as to create an opening sequence that seems to be a ode to "North By Northwest" and "Vertigo."
    Ripley is initally sent to Italy when the wealthy New York tycoon played by James Rebhorn mistakes him for a college friend of his son Dickie's, who's currently living la dolce vita in Italy with his beautiful expatriate girlfriend Marge Sherwood, played by Gwyneth Paltrow.
    But once Ripley arrives in Italy and meets up with Dickie and Marge, he becomes infatuated with their lifestyle and, having always spent his life as an awkward outsider, starts to covet everything Dickie has and, more importantly, everythinghe is.
    The book and Minghella's film also touch upon Ripley's ambiguous sexuality, which manifests intself in scenes bristling with sexual tension between Damon and actor Jude Law, who plays Dickie.In all, Damon and Minghella both admit this role was a big challenge and huge risk.
    It also required Damon to lose 20 pounds to fit the role, learn how to play the piano and practice up on his singing for the sake of a sequence in the film where he and Dickie perform in a jazz club outside Rome.One of the highlights of the characters' obsession with jazz is Damon's falsetto rendition of the standard "My Funny Valentine," which is a dead-on impersonation of the famous version by American jazz great Chet Baker.
    Also in the cast are Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddie Miles, one of Dickie's fellow expatrites in Italy and Oscar nominee and "Elizabeth" star Cate Blanchett in a small role as Meredith Logue, another wealthy American youth traveling abroad who falls for Ripley's deception that he is Dickie Greenleaf.
    After six months of location scouting, 16 weeks of pre-production and two weeks of rehearsal, Minghella, his cast and crew all departed for months of on location filming in cities throughout Italy including Rome, Naples and Venice.
    "The Talented Mr.Ripley" opens in theaters throughout the United States on Christmas Day.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register