SALTBURN

Last but not least: SALTBURN. Let’s (re)watch it, finally!

Penned from 1955 all the way to 1991, the original Highsmith books — The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, and Ripley Under Water — each depict Ripley as a calculating sociopath whose sophistication serves as his greatest alibi. Surely a man who seems so well-heeled wouldn’t strangle anybody! One of the most widely known literary characters, Ripley is often coded as gay through subtle references and allusions, but Highsmith never confirmed that’s how she saw the character, and even said in a late-in-life interview, “I don’t think Ripley is gay,” adding that while he “appreciates good looks in other men,” he may just not be “very strong in the sex department.” But authorial intention doesn’t matter as much as what’s on the page, which explains why some adaptations are quite queer and others aren’t.

***** NOVEMBER: RIPLEY *****

Who is the gayest version of Ripley ever put on screen? Given the (…) TV series, and all the Saltburn-adjacent interest in homoerotic class climbing in a dark academia setting, I have been immersing myself in the Ripley-verse to find out if we’ve been sleeping on any of the lesser known portrayals. None of these movies are officially connected to each other, and some of them present radically different versions of the character, but they all treat us to the simple pleasures of watching a handsome man do terrible things. You might think the bathtub scene in the ’99 version is about as queer as Ripley can get (and yes, Saltburn’s bathtub scene was almost certainly inspired by that one), but that’s not necessarily the case.

(Samantha Allen, Them)