The Most Terrifying Thing About ‘Ripley’ Isn’t What You See 51g5l

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Netflix’s Ripley.

The Big Picture o4q5z

• Netflix’s
  Ripley
  is the most faithful Patricia Highsmith adaptation yet, with a terrifying and immersive sound design that heightens the tension.
• The show’s sound design, inspired by classic film noir techniques, enhances the viewer’s experience of the conman’s world.
• Ripley
  ‘s success as a technical masterpiece on Netflix could pave the way for more artistically minded shows on the platform.

The novels of author Patricia Highsmith have frequently inspired several big-screen adaptations. Anthony Minghella’s 1999 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley stands out in particular as a darkly funny, yet uncompromising brutal sexual thriller that features a haunting performance by Matt Damon in the titular role. Memorable performances by Dennis Hopper in The American Friend and John Malkovich in Ripley’s Game also managed to deliver thoughtful new interpretations of the morally dubious conman at the heart of Highsmith’s stories. However, Steven Zaillian’s Netflix miniseries Ripley isn’t just the most faithful adaptation of the original novel thus far, but perhaps the most terrifying. While this can be attributed to the clever use of black-and-white visuals that Zaillian included, Ripley is able to get under the audience’s skin through its inventive and immersive sound design.

The Sound Design Makes ‘Ripley’ More Thrilling 4d484s

Compared to the other films inspired by Highsmith’s source material, Ripley is a much more accurate depiction of the novel’s original events. Set in New York City during the 1960s, the series picks up with the illustrious con man Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), who has managed to make a name for himself through the art of deception. The wealthy shipbuilder Herbert Greenleaf (Kenneth Lonergan) has grown to suspect that his adult son, Dickie (Johnny Flynn), has been wasting the benefits of his fortune by engaging with the bohemian culture of Italy alongside his girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning). Although Herbert sends Ripley to Italy in hopes that he can get his son to see the errors of his ways, Ripley begins to grow a little too obsessed with the target of his mission.

While the subsequent events may be familiar for those who are aware of the narrative direction thanks to The Talented Mr. Ripley, Zaillian creates tension in Ripley through the use of background sound. According to sound mixer Maurizio Argentieri, the production crew of Ripley wanted to create “an atmosphere of silence” where the viewer is forced to pay attention to the “footsteps, the rustle of fabric, all the tiny details.” Essentially, the show directs the viewers to observe what happens through Ripley’s perspective, as the illustrious conman is highly attuned to picking up subtle audio changes. In order to maintain the highest level of authenticity, Argentieri revealed that he “wanted to create the sound live on set to give the audio team as much information as possible when they came to mix the show in post-production.”

The decision to shape Ripley as a film noir inspired by the classic mystery movies of the 1940s certainly inspired its black-and-white photography, but it also allowed Argentieri to use more classical techniques when recording the show’s audio. After he recognized that the crew “to invest a lot of effort into capturing the unique sounds of these locations,” Argentieri developed his own technology to “capture the ambience of those locations and applied the same technique that one uses to record a drumkit.” While the inclusion of “ambient noise” may seem superficial, it proved essential in showing the mundanity of Dickie and Marge’s daily lives. The weaponization of silence also comes in handy when it becomes clear that Ripley has grown accustomed to his environment, and is willing to deceive Dickie and Marge into thinking that they are safe.

‘Ripley’ Gets Into Its Main Character’s Head 1x4p

Zaillian is certainly an accomplished screenwriter, having penned such modern classics as Schindler’s List, The Irishman, American Gangster, and the groundbreaking HBO series The Night Of. However, Ripley is rather sparse on dialogue, making the sound work even more important. While The Talented Mr. Ripley created tension by showing Tom (Damon) vying for the attention of Dickie (Jude Law) and Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow), Scott’s version of Ripley is merely observing his new companions from afar. His conversations with them are largely inconsequential, as they are dependent on a series of lies; it’s only through seeing what sounds Ripley begins to hyperfixate on that the viewer can get a grasp of his motivations.

Sound is an integral factor in one of Ripley‘smost shocking moments. After receiving a letter from Herbert telling him that his mission has been a failure, Tom takes Dickie out on a boating trip, where he intends to murder him. While Tom’s motivations are evident from the moment that the two men enter the boat, Zaillian does a great job at isolating the sound of the boat’s engine and the whooshing sound of the open ocean, which emphasizes how isolated they are. There’s a hypnotic quality to the ambient sounds of the sea that makes for a major tonal shift once Tom attacks and murders Dickie; the tension between the two actors comes across solely through the silence that exists between them.

‘Ripley’ Is a Step Up for Netflix 2r531w

Although Netflix has no shortage of highly expensive shows in production, Ripley is a technical masterpiece that contains the same aesthetic qualities of a film. Although the project was originally produced for Showtime before being picked up by Netflix, its success could pave the way for more auteurs like Zallian to work with the streamer. Given how masterful Ripley’s sound design is, the network is clearly interested in artistically minded shows that make bold technical decisions.

The status of a second season of Ripley is unclear, as the process of completing the first season was a laborious one for both Scott and Zaillian. Nonetheless, if the subsequent novels intend to adapt Ripley’s Game or any of the other novels in Highsmith’s series, a similarly nuanced approach to sound design will be necessary to retain the same consistent level of high quality. Ripley’s adventures get darker and weirder as the books continue, making it more important for the viewer to understand how the enigmatic conman views the world.

Ripley is streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

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