20 Appropriate Ways to Celebrate "The Talented Mr Ripley"

by Murtada Elfadl

1999 is considered by many to be one of the best years for cinema. The Matrix, Eyes Wide Shut, Fight Club, Election, Magnolia, All About My Mother, Run Lola Run, Go, Boys Don't Cry, The Sixth Sense, American Pie, Three Kings and Being John Malkovich. It is also the year that The Talented Mr Ripley was released. Ripley was well reviewed at the time if not ecstatically so. Perhaps that was because it came after the juggernaut that was The English Patient -- Anthony Minghella’s previous film was a big hit and won 9 Oscars. Since then Ripley has elevated in estimation in large part because of the subsequent huge careers of the then young actors who starred: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cate Blanchett. Aesthetics have also stood the test of time; the clothes, the attitudes, sun soaked Italy. The story still resonates with its undertones of queer identity and its thriller framework. Today Ripley is rightly considered a classic and beloved by many cinephiles.

Released 20 years ago this week, here are 20 ways you can celebrate this fabulous film...

1. Travel to Italy on false pretenses

2. Travel under an assumed name like Meredith Logue

3. Call your refrigerator an icebox

4. Go to a jazz club and sing "Tu Vuo Fa’ L’Americano"

5. Smoke slowly and deliberately like Cate 

6. Go to the opera and see Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky

7. Cry while you are watching the opera

8. Peep in while your friends are having sex...

9. Get called out by your obnoxious but right frenemy

10. Invite someone who claims to have gone to college with you over for lunch

11. Try to get into a bathtub with Jude Law

12. Be part of a friend group that will eventually win 5 Oscars and be nominated 19 times 

13. Avoid being the Jack Davenport of your friend group i.e the only one with no Oscar nominations

14. Recite the titles of the films and categories for all these Oscar nominations. Gwyneth has 1, Jude 2, Phillip 4, Matt 5 and Cate 7

15. Light a candle and watch a Philip Seymour Hoffman movie to celebrate his talent gone too soon

16. Light another candle for Anthony Minghella, also gone too soon

17. Sing a very sad version of My Funny Valentine

18. Freak people out by proclaiming "I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody."

19. Listen to Sundays with Cate podcast episode about the film 

20 ...and finally tell us an anecdote about you watching Ripley, now or then 

Comments

[Me]

Yes ^^

Plus Bentley, Cooper, Plummer, Malkovich, Wahlberg and I think Ice Cube as well, Sarsgaard, Hoffman...

Wow, what a good year.