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From the homicide swaps of Bruno & Guy in Strangers on a Train to the identity swaps throughout the Tom Ripley novels, Patricia Highsmith was a master of the pulpy yet literary mid-century thriller. Her worlds were replete with morally ambiguous but undeniably attractive characters, and her stories have been catnip for filmmakers ever since. Highsmith’s treacherous thrillers have drawn some of film’s most accomplished storytellers and cinematic stylists, from Alfred Hitchcock (Strangers on a Train), Wim Wenders (The American Friend), Todd Haynes (Carol), and now, with his new twist on Highsmith’s most iconic creation, Steven Zaillian (the upcoming Ripley).
Steven Zaillian has been one of Hollywood’s most accomplished and respected filmmakers for decades, winning an Academy Award for his screenplay for Schindler’s List in 1993, as well as writing and directing the Oscar-nominated Searching for Bobby Fischer, in the same year. Ever since, Zaillian has proven himself a master of adaptation, writing screenplays for The Irishman, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, American Gangster, and many others, and garnering four additional Oscar nominations for screenwriting.
Now Zaillian has turned his focus to Highsmith’s singular anti-hero, Tom Ripley, in a new adaptation of Highsmith’s best-known work. To celebrate the occasion of Ripley (a new limited series premiering on Netflix on April 4), the Paris Theater is proud to present CRISS CROSS, seven classics from two of our favorite storytellers, numbering troubled doubles, unreliable narrators, and unimagined betrayals among them.