The Talented Mr.Ripley

We have now come to the stage where we are planning our own title sequence within our groups.  However to get some ideas we watched a longer title sequence from the film The Talented Mr Ripley and analysed it to see how it establishes an effective title sequence.  

In the title sequence a lot of information is established about Tom Ripley (the protagonist).  We know that he is a Manhattan lavatory attendant, who borrowed a Princeton jacket to play piano at a garden party. When the wealthy father of a recent Princeton grad chats Tom up, Tom pretends to know his son and is soon offered $1,000 to go to Italy to convince Dickie Greenleaf to return home.  This created some enigmas such as - Is Tom Ripley going to succeed in bringing Dickie Greenleaf home?, and also at the beginning of the title sequence we hear Tom Ripley saying: "I wish I could rub it all out, it all starting with borrowing a jacket" this created the enigma - Why does he want to start all over?

The dramatic music which was almost harmonious and death like established the genre of drama, which may suggest the film has lots of depth to it.  

The character that we are introduced from the beginning is Tom Ripley.  Our first impression of him is that he is a young, mature adult is is very ambitious.  He wants to get out of poverty, aspires to be rich and will take an opportunity passed to him.  We see him working as a lavatory attendant, which suggests that he has a working class background.  We get the impression that the character of Tom Ripley is very intelligent as later in the title sequence we see him watching people playing the piano where he works.  He then tries to teaches himself in the middle of the night from what he saw.  This conveys that Tom Ripley is unable to afford a professional pianist who can teach him, therefore he is trying to teach himself.  We also see him trying to teach himself to learn the Jazz musicians with his eyes blindfolded. This suggests that he is ambitious and eager to learn.  Tom Ripley is portrayed as a poor character.  This is established through his small, cheap apartment, with the ceiling crumbling and the walls unplastered.  His apartment is situated near a meat packing district which is a poor area to live.

Textual Analysis 

We see a close up shot of the clock when Tom Ripley is playing the piano where he works.  This close up was trying to emphasise that it is very late in the middle of the night.  This suggests that he may be shy and wants to hide from the rest as he may be afraid of what others say.  

We also see a long shot of Tom Ripley and his ceiling crumbling because the people living above him are fighting.  This conveys that he has poor living conditions as he is from a working class background.

A close up shot of the first class ticket for Tom Ripley to go Italy establishes that Mr Greenleaf is rich.  This links to the use of dialogue which the driver says to Tom Ripley: "I can tell the you Greenleaf name opens a lot of doors"  This tells us that Greenleaf is powerful and there is a chance that Tom Ripley will be successful.  

We see a close up shot of Tom Ripley with a blindfold on his eyes.  This tells us that he is clever and is trying to have something in common with Dickie Greenleaf.  

In terms of editing - transitions the screen looks like broken glass gradually revealing Tom Ripley's face.  Suggests that he is multi-faceted and creates an enigma - Maybe somethings not right?