Interpreting an Eclectic Score – The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
An Analysis By Virginia Kilbertus
In one of the final scenes of Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Tom Ripley
(Matt Damon) sits at the piano playing the first movement of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater in f-minor, as his
lover Peter (Jack Davenport) leans over his shoulder and says: “Now there’s the music talking.” From
the very beginning of the film, the music does just this: it speaks. Together, director Minghella and
composer Gabriel Yared have created a score of both original and compiled music that serves as a
narrative tool just as important, if not more so, than the action transpiring on screen. Through the
thematic treatment of the genres of Jazz and Classical music themselves, melodic and orchestration
relationships between leitmotifs and imported pieces, the connotative meanings associated with them,
their calculated dispersal throughout the narrative, as well as the constant transitioning between
nondiegetic and diegetic scoring, the score masterfully foreshadows and heightens the suspense in this
psychological thriller by blurring the line between reality and fantasy, sanity and insanity, and between
the characters’ identities themselves, thus offering a glimpse into the twisted mind of the talented Mr.
Ripley.
From the very beginning of the film, music’s role as foreshadower is revealed in conjunction
with the narrative, which begins at the end and flashes back. As the opening credits roll and Tom
Ripley narrates “I wish I could take it all back, starting with borrowing a jacket,” Sinead O’Connor
sings a haunting original song composed by Minghella and Yared, “Lullaby for a Cain,” the lyrics of
which immediately disclose Tom’s ultimate ruin, set the eerie tone of the film, and with lines such as
“Envy stole your brother’s life,” “Come home murdered piece of mind,” and “From a garden of God’s
light, to a wilderness of night,” foretell Dickie’s murder and Tom’s subsequent torment. Here also, the
appropriation of the Classical genre to Tom’s character is established, as the piece is features piano,
string and woodwind accompaniment, and plays while we look at and listen to Tom. A sound advance
then brings about the first transition from nondiegetic to diegetic scoring, and it is revealed that Tom is
in fact playing the very same accompaniment of the lullaby for an opera aria sung by a mezzo-soprano,
who even sings the same lyrics. This transformation is so smooth and subtle, yet the two versions of the
piece are so contrasting, that already the viewer’s expectations are thrown askew and a vague sense of
unease from the insidiousness of the switch is set. Following shortly thereafter, the Jazz genre is
respectively appropriated to Dickie’s character upon the first appearance of the sultry “Mischief”
theme, whose primary melody is presented in the vibraphone with a brief continuation in the
saxophone, and features low brass and bongo accompaniment, which casts an exotic and seductive
quality onto the theme. To illustrate that the theme is still very much still tied to Tom however, Yared
also adds sustained string swells to the accompaniment, illustrating the simultaneously distinct and yet
somewhat blurred identities of the two characters. Thus, given the intrinsic ties between the music and
the characters in both the narrative and score, music itself becomes a theme within the film.
To add even more importance onto this opening sequence, “Lullaby for a Cain” also holds the
original material from which Yared draws the three main musical leitmotifs of the film: “Crazy
Tom/Ripley,” “Mischief,” and “Proust/Dickie,” all of which contain similarities to the melody’s
descending semitone – major-third contour, which is presented in a descending-by-semitone sequence,
and with an at-first syncopated then oscillating alberti-bass-like accompaniment, (see Appendix). A
high vocal wailing, which is superimposed onto the “Proust/Dickie” theme and later added as an
inflection onto the other two leitmotifs in the later half of the film, reflecting Tom’s darker character
and guilt subsequent to Dickie’s death, is also derived from breathy quality of Sinead O’Connor’s voice
in its high register, as well as from the descending-by-semitone melodic movement of the lullaby.
From a musical standpoint, The Talented Mr. Ripley is formally divided into three main sections
in which certain leitmotifs dominate, thus serving as a guide to aid the viewer in following Tom’s state
of mind and deciphering whether he is being honest or deceitful, being himself or playing the role of
Dickie Greenleaf. In the first section, it is the “Mischief” motif that governs the musical texture, as
Tom begins planning his deception of Dickie. The leitmotif makes its first appearance in the very first
scene of the film when Dickie’s father, Herbert, says to Tom: “I couldn’t help noticing your jacket,”
and we discover that Tom has in fact borrowed the jacket and is impersonating someone else. Stressing
the theme’s association with Jazz and with Dickie, Mr. Greenleaf then says: “Of course, Dickie’s idea
of good music is Jazz – he has a saxophone,” making it the first example of one of many spoken cues
that draw attention to the music and highlight its narrative role. From here, the music undergoes
another sound advance to the second movement of Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, op. 16,
which also begins as nondiegetic but becomes diegetic when the performers are subsequently shown on
stage. One form of source music is then abruptly exchanged for another, as Tom is shown playing the
first movement of Bach’s Italian Concerto on the same stage following the concert, the choice of music
cleverly foretelling Tom’s trip to Italy. Just as Herbert Greenleaf reinforced Dickie’s association with
Jazz, here Classical music’s affiliation with Tom’s character is also made explicit.
To make the distinction between Tom and Dickie’s characters even more pronounced through
music, the following scene involves another transition from nondiegetic to diegetic scoring, as Tom
listens to Jazz records in order to familiarize himself with the standards of the genre so as to
successfully carry out his fraudulence. Three imported songs are used in this scene and contain multiple
levels of meaning and narrative foreshadowing, the first of which is Dizzy Gillespie’s “The Champ.”
Dizzy’s scat in this particular piece is not standard, but is rather onomatopoetic, imitating the fighting
and punching sounds of a boxing match, as the title of the song suggests, and therefore foretelling the
ultimate climactic fight between Tom and Dickie that precedes Dickie’s murder. The following song,
“My Funny Valentine,” performed by Chet Baker, holds perhaps even more prophetic significance. The
juxtaposition of the romantic nature of the piece with the obtrusive sounds of domestic violence
coming from the apartment above Tom’s, (which also provides a subtle connection to the previous
song,) foretells of the interplay between the narrative themes of unrequited love and destruction, and
also of homosexuality and gender-role ambiguity, Tom delivering yet another spoken cue which makes
the relation obvious: “I don’t even know if this is a man or a woman.” Later, these last two narrative
themes are reinforced when we learn from Marge’s character (Gwyneth Paltrow) that Dickie would
play “My Funny Valentine” for her in the early stages of their relationship, just as Tom sings it to
Dickie in a Jazz club while he plays the saxophone part, Matt Damon’s voice imitating the feminine
quality of Chet Baker’s. Before we actually see the two men in the Jazz club, however, Matt Damon’s
rendition of the song serves as nondiegetic scoring that lasts throughout Tom’s conversation with
Marge, Marge’s buying of groceries from Dickie’s Italian mistress, Silvana, and through shots of
Dickie and Tom’s ride on a scooter together, Dickie crying out playfully: “You’re breaking my ribs.”
This last line, as well as Silvana’s subsequent suicide, again draws a connection between the song and
the themes of unrequited love and destruction, but also reinforces the interplay of homo- and
heterosexuality, for here are three people who are in love Dickie: two women and a man. Finally, the
third Jazz piece that is used in this scene is then none other than Charlie Parker’s “Bird,” the name of
Dickie’s boat and the setting of his murder. This is followed by another transition to an imported
Classical piece as Tom packs up: the bass aria “Mach Dich, Mein Herz, Rein,” from Bach’s St.
Matthew’s Passion, which depicts a man’s love for Jesus, thus mirroring Tom’s adoration of Dickie,
and whose text foreshadows Tom’s murder of Dickie with lyrics such as “He shall have in me, for ever
and ever, his sweet rest.”
Upon his arrival in Italy, we are offered the first instance of the “Crazy Tom/Ripley” theme,
whose melody is presented in the oboe with Classical orchestration and inflected with mandolin, subtly
connecting Italy’s sway over Dickie to Dickie’s sway over Tom, as well as establishing the new setting.
Later, this theme is often interspersed with either the “Mischief” or “Proust/Dickie” themes, in order to
offer glimpses of the real Tom as he becomes increasingly overtaken by Dickie’s persona. This initial
statement of the motif, however, transitions to the singing of an Italian priest: the same sonority that is
present in the masses in the later powerful scene were Silvana’s body is discovered floating in the
water. Subsequently, though, the “Mischief” theme continues to dominate this portion of the film,
appearing at various key moments, such as when Tom introduces himself for the first time to Meredith
(Cate Blanchett) as Dickie Greenleaf, when he “accidentally” drops the Jazz records he is carrying in
front of Dickie, the topmost of which is astutely a Chet Baker record, and when he spies on Marge and
Dickie on the beach while he translates the phrases: “This is Dickie’s face,” and “This is my face” in
Italian. Here again, spoken cues reflect Tom’s increasing obsession with Dickie, just as the saturation
of the Jazzy “Mischief” theme does. Another imported piece of music, which again holds multiple
layers of meaning, is also used in this scene: Giuseppe Fanciulli’s “Guaglione,” which is the
Neapolitan word, (perhaps making reference to Tom and Dickie’s subsequent trip to Naples,) for
“boy,” and slang for “street urchin:” a boy without a home who is looking to be taken in by a rich
benefactor, thus clearly referencing Tom.1 On an even deeper level, however, the upbeat and jaunty
nature of the song imparts a rather innocent, benevolent, and yes, boyish nature onto Tom, which plays
with the viewer’s expectations in the scene and makes Tom’s transition to darkness and violence all the
more powerful and unexpected.
1 “Guaglione translation on other language: English,” Babylon, accessed 18th November 2014, <http://translation.babylon.com/english/guaglione/>. At the very moment when Tom overhears Dickie telling Marge that Tom will be moving in with
him for a short while and Tom proceeds to try on Dickie’s watch, foreshadowing the later symbolic
importance that is placed on Dickie’s rings as being essential to Tom’s absorption of his character and
of Marge’s conviction that Tom is Dickie’s true murderer, (indeed, the shot immediately following this
scene is a close-up of Dickie’s ring,) we hear the first instance of the “Proust/Dickie” theme, thus
marking the beginning of the next formal section. This leitmotif is clearly related to Dickie, its
instrumentation comprising predominantly of vibraphone, but also to the foreboding “Lullaby for a
Cain” through its descending melodic contour, movement by semitone, syncopation, and oscillation.
The theme therefore takes on a sinister foreshadowing significance, its first appearance occurring when
Dickie walks in on Tom dancing to Mack Gordon and Harry Revel’s “May I?” in Dickie’s clothing: the
moment where Dickie begins to become disenchanted with Tom. Subsequently, the theme is also heard
in the scene on Dickie’s boat where Marge commiserates with Tom’s feelings of being abandoned. In
this scene, a spoken cue mirrors the music’s ominous implications when Marge says: “Why is it that
when men play they play at killing each other?” and Dickie cries out jokingly: “He’s drowning me!”
Later, the theme continues when Marge and Dickie go below deck, which contributes to Tom’s
mounting sense of jealousy and rage.
The following scene in which Tom plays a game of chess with Dickie as he takes a bath, thus
drawing attention again to the thread of homosexuality between them, brings about another instance of
a imported pre-existing song: an instrumental version of Nat King Cole’s “Nature Boy.” Given its lack
of lyrics, its associations are sly and subtle, in keeping with the tone of the film, but given its fame as a
Jazz standard, many audience members are still able to draw connections between the Tom’s character
and the known text of the song: “A very strange enchanted boy, they say he wandered very far… over
land and sea… And while we talked of many things, of fools and kings, this he said to me: The greatest
thing you will ever learn is just to love, and be loved,” thus stressing Tom’s longing to have his love for
Dickie reciprocated. Ingeniously, the melody of “Nature Boy” also features semitones, tones, minor
thirds, as well as descending melodic motion and vibraphone inflections, all of which are also present
in the “Proust/Dickie” theme, (see Appendix.) Its prominent sensual saxophone melody also relates it
strongly, however, to “My Funny Valentine,” which, as aforementioned, holds strong homosexual
significance within the film.
The scene subsequent to this, in which Tom and Dickie meet Freddie Miles in Rome, brings
about yet another imported song: “Miles and Bird,” by Charlie Parker. This refers of course, to
Freddie’s last name and to the name of Dickie’s boat, therefore referencing the characters’ close
relationship and foreshadowing Tom’s ensuing envy and resentment. Following this, Miles Davis’
“Four” is played diegetically when Tom and Dickie visit San Remo, the title of the song once more
suggestive of the love quadrangle between Tom, Marge, Freddie, and Dickie. Given the fact that this
scene also precedes that in which Dickie is murdered, however, the prominence of drums in the piece,
(a more violent, percussive instrument,) complimented by Dickie’s statement: “I’m thinking about
giving up the sax – what do you think about the drums?” can be seen as foreshadowing Dickie’s own
death, which occurs from blunt trauma. Leading up to the murder itself, it is the “Proust/Dickie” theme
again that comes very much to the forefront of the scene, the high wailing inflections becoming much
more present. Oddly though, the music abruptly ceases when Tom actually strikes Dickie dead, perhaps
reflecting Tom’s complete crossover into insanity. When the music begins again, however, we hear a
compressed version of the “Proust/Dickie” theme that was previously used to foreshadow Silvana’s
death, (see Appendix.)
Following Dickie’s murder, Tom’s move to Dickie’s residence in Rome brings about a return to
the “Mischief” theme, thus commencing the third formal section of the film, as Tom proceeds to carry
out the final stages of his plot. This final section, however, focuses almost equally on both the
“Mischief” and “Proust/Dickie” leitmotifs, as well as on compiled Classical music. Three quotations of
pre-existing Classical pieces are presented in correspondence with Tom’s increasingly romantic
affiliation with the character of Peter, a Classical music conductor. The first of these pieces is the same
Italian Concerto that Tom plays in the beginning of the film, which begins nondiegetically and
becomes superimposed with a boys’ choir as Tom unwraps a bust of the Roman emperor Hadrian, a
homosexual whose lover was murdered.2 The angelic nature of the music is thus another example in
which the score plays with our expectations, as later the morbid significance of the statue is further
reinforced by Freddie’s murder. Subsequently though, the Concerto become diegetic as Tom is shown
practicing, his re-immersion into Classical music corresponding with his meeting of Peter just as his
study of Jazz did with Dickie.
The second piece is also presented diegetically when Tom and Meredith watch “Lenski’s Aria”
from Tachaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, whose text reflects Tom’s descent into depression and regret
over his committed murder of Dickie: “Where have you gone, o golden days of my spring? …Will I
descend into the mysterious darkness of my fatal tomb? …I did love you. To you alone I devoted the
gloomy dawn of my life.” The melody of the aria, presented in by the French horn, also comprises of
the same descending intervals, in the same order, as the “Crazy Tom/Ripley” theme, (see Appendix.)
Finally, the third imported Classical piece in this section of the film is Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater,
which Tom plays on the piano in his apartment with Peter. The sorrowful key of f-minor, slow and
steady rhythm, and harmonic progression that does not seem to go anywhere but rather keeps returning
to the tonic, reflects Tom’s acknowledgment of the fact that he will never be able to love someone, and
2 “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” screenplay, 1st November 1999, accessed 18th November 2014, < http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/splaylib/Screenplay-­‐Talented_Mr_Ripley.HTM>. be loved by that someone, as he yearns to be, saying to Peter that all he wants is to do is “toss [him] the
key” to his buried secrets, but that he cannot. The music is then picked up in the orchestra, briefly
becoming nondiegetic, until we realize that it is in fact Peter who is conducting the Stabat Mater, and a
young boy sings the slowly descending sequential melody in a pure and androgynous voice, relating it
to the original musical themes of the film and reflecting the innocence of Tom’s desire to be loved as
much as he loves.
The “Mischief” theme in this final section of the film is presented primarily in association with
the character of Meredith, a pawn in Tom’s web of deceit, such as when he spies on her with Marge
and Peter at his orchestrated meeting at Café Dinelli. The “Proust/Dickie” theme, on the other hand, is
associated with Freddie, who meets the same fate as Dickie, and is used to convey the spinning out of
control of Tom’s mind as he becomes haunted by Dickie’s murder and fearful of being caught. The
theme can be heard, for example, when Tom hallucinates as he rides his scooter through Rome, when
the chief of police tells him that Marge is at his door, and later when Marge confronts him about
finding Dickie’s rings. The high wailing inflections from the theme, as well as the distorted piano
sounds that first appear in Freddie’s murder scene as nondiegetic echoes of his plunking of the piano
keys, also begin as the American detective begins to speak with Tom, and it sounds as if he will be
found guilty of both his murders. When it becomes apparent, though, that this is not the case and that
Tom will instead receive the money from Dickie’s trust fund, the “Mischief” theme picks up
correspondingly once more, and continues through to the penultimate scene of Tom and Peter on a boat
together. The unchanged Jazz instrumentation, however, suggests that although Tom has escaped
persecution, he is still haunted by the thought of Dickie. Correspondingly, when Meredith asks Tom if
he is with Peter on the boat, the death-associated version of the “Proust/Dickie” theme begins,
foreshadowing Peter’s soon-to-follow murder as well. In the final scene, Yared finally scores the
“Proust/Dickie” theme in Classical strings, piano and woodwinds, which corresponds with Tom saying
“Tell me some good things about Tom Ripley.” Just as Peter says, “Tom is talented,” however,
referencing to the title of the film and to Ripley’s art of lying, it is taken up once more in the
vibraphone, before transitioning once more to the death-signifying version of the theme, as the camera
pans out and we hear Peter’s suffocated struggles.
There is not a single moment in Anthony Mighella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley in which Gabriel
Yared’s score, in conjunction with the narrative, does not hold multiple layers of meaning and make
reference to various other scenes throughout the film. The juxtaposition of the seemingly opposed
musical genres of Classical and Jazz and their respective treatment as themes within the film, as well as
the similarities between musical motifs and the blurring of lines between background and source
scoring, coalesce to create a musical fabric that mirrors Thomas Ripley’s confused and duplicitous
nature. Yared’s score thus defies any existing stereotype that categorizes Hollywood film music as
unimaginative and of a lesser quality of art, or that music in film must be subservient to narrative and
image. The Talented Mr. Ripley is a film that truly captivates, and is simply one of the masterpieces of
filmmaking and scoring of the twentieth century.
Bibliography:
“Guaglione translation on other language: English,” Babylon, accessed 18th November 2014,
<http://translation.babylon.com/english/guaglione/>.
“The Talented Mr. Ripley,” screenplay, 1st November 1999, accessed 18th November 2014, <
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/splaylib/Screenplay-Talented_Mr_Ripley.HTM>