Ripley: La dolce vita Show Only
April 9, 2024 7:32 PM - Season 1, Episode 4 - Subscribe
Dickie heads to Rome.
Vulture recap
Vulture recap
I have started counting every scene that shows steps at this stage - and there are very many at this stage!
I love how they made everywhere so empty looking: if Tom walks into a hotel lobby, arrives at a station, chooses to look at a Caravaggio in a church or walks the streets at night - it is pretty much just him.
An interesting technical observation for me is that the entire age of black and white movies came and went without technology which could show true black with either a projector or a TV. Now, if we watch this on something like an OLED display, we can see it in its true inkiness - an ocean depth should look that way no?
posted by rongorongo at 3:53 AM on April 18
I love how they made everywhere so empty looking: if Tom walks into a hotel lobby, arrives at a station, chooses to look at a Caravaggio in a church or walks the streets at night - it is pretty much just him.
An interesting technical observation for me is that the entire age of black and white movies came and went without technology which could show true black with either a projector or a TV. Now, if we watch this on something like an OLED display, we can see it in its true inkiness - an ocean depth should look that way no?
posted by rongorongo at 3:53 AM on April 18
I have taken to saying "Oh, Rip-lee" in the manner of Mr. Butlertron when our hero does something dastardly.
I say it a lot! It's fun!
One passing thought -- I'm not sure exactly when this is set, but I wonder if the "black and white means oldie-times" years are creeping up as we move forward into the future. Ripley is set in the 1960s, well after the advent of colour film. Has the '60s ever been "it's a long time ago so it's black-and-white" in media before? Or are the years that are "black and white old" creeping forward at the same pace as we are?
I know there are other artistic reasons to film in black and white, but the question interests me.
posted by Shepherd at 2:01 PM on May 8
I say it a lot! It's fun!
One passing thought -- I'm not sure exactly when this is set, but I wonder if the "black and white means oldie-times" years are creeping up as we move forward into the future. Ripley is set in the 1960s, well after the advent of colour film. Has the '60s ever been "it's a long time ago so it's black-and-white" in media before? Or are the years that are "black and white old" creeping forward at the same pace as we are?
I know there are other artistic reasons to film in black and white, but the question interests me.
posted by Shepherd at 2:01 PM on May 8
I’m pretty sure that, as of this episode, we are in December 1960: the first episode opens in Paris 1961, and then we jump six months earlier to New York.
Big movies were still being released in black and white in 1960 (The Apartment and Psycho came out that summer) and most TV sets were still black and white even if some shows were broadcast in color. It’s not necessarily anachronistic, especially considering that like, those two movies, Ripley is dealing with darker matters.
But thematically, the black and white—or, uh, the chiaroscuro, heh—just works well here. My partner pointed out that it’s a bummer that we’re traveling to some of the most beautiful locations in the world and we’re seeing it stripped of all color, but that’s exactly the point. Is Tom really enjoying this? Even if he were secure in his knowledge that he’d gotten away with it, would he be capable of relaxing enough to delight in it?
posted by thecaddy at 4:46 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
Big movies were still being released in black and white in 1960 (The Apartment and Psycho came out that summer) and most TV sets were still black and white even if some shows were broadcast in color. It’s not necessarily anachronistic, especially considering that like, those two movies, Ripley is dealing with darker matters.
But thematically, the black and white—or, uh, the chiaroscuro, heh—just works well here. My partner pointed out that it’s a bummer that we’re traveling to some of the most beautiful locations in the world and we’re seeing it stripped of all color, but that’s exactly the point. Is Tom really enjoying this? Even if he were secure in his knowledge that he’d gotten away with it, would he be capable of relaxing enough to delight in it?
posted by thecaddy at 4:46 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
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posted by chavenet at 1:19 PM on April 12