The Netflix series takes its example from the master director

The miniseries Ripley has been running on Netflix since April 4, 2024 and, with Sherlock villain Andrew Scott in the lead role, gives us an incredibly beautiful remake of the psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, which has already been adapted several times. And what’s particularly exciting for film fans: At one point, director and screenwriter Steven Zaillian even includes a tongue-in-cheek reference to his good colleague Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg reference? There is a red element in the black and white Ripley series

Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) is sent from New York to Italy to persuade rich heir Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) to return home. Once there, however, the man from a humble background begins to desire the affluent life he has experienced and a story of fraud and murder begins. The entire 8-part Netflix series unfolds in black and white. The entire series? Not quite. This is where the Spielberg connection comes into play. (Attention, it follows Ripley spoilers.)

In the 5th episode of Ripley (“Lucio”), the title character already has hers second murder under his belt: After Dickie, his friend Freddie Miles (Eliot Sumner) also has to believe in it by hitting him in the back of the head. The motive: He threatened to expose Tom’s identity theft. In order to get the body out of his apartment in Rome, Ripley drags the body down the stairs at night in view of the broken elevator.

But although the murderer cleans up after himself afterwards, he overlooks an important detail: the landlady’s cat apparently walked through the pool of blood on the stairs while he was away disposing of the body. And even though Ripley wipes away the drag marks on the body, a few remain bloody cat tracks – in red – back:

Even if the red paw prints become the threatening cliffhanger of episode 5, they do not pose a threat to Ripley in the end. The property manager discovers it, but attributes the blood to a mouse that her cat caught. Nevertheless, it can be done only red color element in the black and white narrative as a Spielberg reference read.

Because series creator Steven Zaillian was too Screenwriter of Schindler’s List. And this black and white Spielberg masterpiece is known to have something to do with it little girl in red coat also an ominous splash of color. That can not be a coincidence. In a sense, the murdered Frankie in Ripley even shares with the Jewish girl from Schindler’s List his role as an innocent victim of a larger tragedy.

Why is Netflix’s Ripley a black and white series?

In an interview with Vanity Fair (via Men’s Health ), Steven Zaillian revealed that he got the idea for the black-and-white adaptation of the Ripley remake of Patricia Highsmith’s novel from an impressive book: His Novel edition had a black and white photo cover.

The image stuck with Zaillian and fit the story he told IndieWire “pretty scary and dark” described. He couldn’t imagine such a dark story “in the beautiful Italian countryside with light blue skies and colorful outfits” took place. The previous film adaptations The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Only the Sun Was Witness (1960) had both implemented the original book in color.

Podcast with Ripley: The 15 best series starts in April on Netflix, Amazon and Co.

Do you need more fresh streaming tips? We present the most exciting series in April, which start on Netflix, Amazon, WOW and Co., in the monthly overview:

Among the 15 streaming highlights of the series you will find the large-scale sci-fi video game film Fallout on Amazon in April. Netflix is ​​also showing Ripley, a promising thriller remake with a Sherlock villain, and Robert Downey Jr. is hardly recognizable in The Sympathizer.

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