Der amerikanische Freund (1977)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Wim Wenders

Writers:

Patricia Highsmith (novel) and
Wim Wenders (writer)

Release Date:

24 June 1977 (West Germany)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller | Drama

Plot:

Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.

Plot Keywords:

Leukemia | Forgery | Cult Favorite | Auction | Terminal Illness

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Dennis Hopper	...	Tom Ripley
Bruno Ganz	...	Jonathan Zimmermann
Lisa Kreuzer	...	Marianne Zimmermann
Gérard Blain	...	Raoul Minot
Nicholas Ray	...	Derwatt
Samuel Fuller	...	The American Mobster
Peter Lilienthal	...	Marcangelo
Daniel Schmid	...	Ingraham
Jean Eustache	...	Friendly Man
Rudolf Schündler	...	Gantner
Sandy Whitelaw	...	Doctor in Paris
Lou Castel	...	Rodolphe
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ismael Alonso	...	Ignatius
David Blue	...	Allan Winter
Andreas Dedecke	...	Daniel
Satya De La Manitou	...	Angie
Adolf Hansen	...	Schaffner
Rosemarie Heinikel	...	Mona
Heinz Joachim Klein	...	Dr. Gabriel
Stefan Lennert	...	Auctioneer
Heinrich Marmann	...	Man on Train
Gerty Molzen	...	Old Lady
Enzo Robutti	...	Falling man
Klaus Schichan
Axel Schiessler	...	Lippo
Wim Wenders	...	Figure Wrapped in Plaster Bandages in Ambulance

Also Known As:

L'ami américain (France)
The American Friend (USA)

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

West Germany | France

Language:

German | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | France:-12 | Brazil:14 | Argentina:18 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Alter Elbtunnel, St. Pauli, Hamburg, Germany

Company:

Filmverlag der Autoren

Trivia:

Patricia Highsmith initially disliked Wim Wenders' film because Ripley's character didn't match her intentions. Only after she saw the film at a regular screening did she admit that Wenders had captured the essence of Ripley.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Derwatt: Who is it?
Tom Ripley: It's Ripley.
Derwatt: The door is open.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Le fils de Gascogne (1995)

Soundtrack:

Too Much on My Mind

long defrost time

The AMERICAN FRIEND

The fine German director Wim Wenders is responsible for this film. (If you dont know Wenders, you should). The setting of the film is handled well: the seaminess of the port of Hamburg Germany, comes across as one of the great film noir-type cities. It looks like an environment that is constantly wet and misty.

The movie ostensibly stars Dennis Hopper, but although he is given top billing in the movie he plays nearly a minor, background figure throughout. Clearly the most interesting performance, it is frustratingly parceled out to us in a way that makes you crave a really long scene with just him in it. But instead, his characterization happens in brief, truncated insights.

Hopper is well-cast once again in one of those teetering-on-the-edge roles he excels in. He is a loose cannon in this film--you clearly see his character is unbalanced --and you just dont know what he is going to do at any given moment and that lends the film its tense aspect. But the film doesnt really focus on him. Thats the main problem with this film.

Bruno Ganz (a fine Swiss actor) is the figure that the camera spends the most time on. He and Hopper and several other figures are all part of the world of art forgery and art smuggling. But Ganz's character--a painting restoration expert--is suffering secretly from a terminal blood disease. (His performance is soooo subdued it can make you antsy and annoyed, especially when you know Hopper is around somewhere).

Anyway, when the other shady characters in the movie learn of Ganz's condition they play upon his weakness to manipulate him into taking risks with the gangsters they deal with. His goal is simply to provide more money for his family after he is gone. (There is a nice moral dilemma in this film: if you knew you were dying, would your moral code alter?)

My emotional response to the plot: basically it evoked a sense of dread; a queasiness at the entanglements the main character is drawn into and the things he has to do--which are clearly against his better judgement. He is pushed to the limits of his moral and physical endurance. Its a tightly-focused story.

That being said, one immediately notices that the film's storyline is delivered in tiny, tattered snippets. These 'fragments' are in themselves intriguing. They are well photographed; they are sometimes laden with tension and atmosphere; and they often have taut, fused moments of acting.

There is also a poetic sweetness that occurs when two seemingly unrelated elements finally merge and make sense. Therefore, you know that the director isnt just fluffing it; because tiny motifs that are broken off in the beginning of the film reappear later and complete their meaning. Its great.

But overall, these slowly-delivered fragments can make one restless at times. There is too much that is unexplained; too much that we have to infer or dismiss because it simply isnt made clear. None of the characters, nor their subtle relationships to each other, are 'handed to us' outright. They are revealed in the same tiny flashes that forms the constructive style used throughout the whole movie.

Bottom line: a lot of the dialogue is frustratingly cryptic. I think you *could* figure out the weight behind each exchange if you went back carefully over the movie, but after a point--when the action takes over--youre left feeling that it just doesnt matter. Its as if Wenders shot long, fully drawn-out and rich scenes of dialogue but then went back and sliced it all up into little bits and pieces.

Its a movie that gives one mixed reactions. Kind of hard to characterize what the sum total of this film really is. Its basically a thriller, but done in such a low, deliberately dead-pan manner; that youre left with no sense of tension. Or climax. The Hopper character's weird relationship to the main protagonist, is what really leaves an aftertaste in your mouth. Perhaps that was the intent all along.

There is a sense of calm and satisfaction at the close of the movie, but more because the chaos is over and things have settled into a peaceful arrangement. Still, I enjoyed the movie and recommend it as worth seeing.

One reason that any film fan should really watch this film is the wonderful cameos by two of America's classic Hollywood directors from the 1950s: Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller. This is really a treat! Fuller plays a gangster and Ray plays a forger. Its the main reason I wanted to see this movie, and I am glad I did.