Cheap The American Friend (DVD) (Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz) (Wim Wenders) Price

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Customer Reviews of The American Friend

But that's what noir is all about. Based on one of the Ripley novels by American ex-patriate author Patricia Highsmith (no doubt her ex-pat status appealed to Wenders), the film follows Jonathan Zimmermann (Ganz) in his descent into Noirville via Tom Ripley (Hopper) and Ripley's "partner" Minot, a sinister French man. This time out, unlike in the 1960 film Purple Noon (THE best cinematic version of Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley--far better than the recent version with Matt Damon), Ripley is an edgy guy (what else could Hopper be?--especially in 1977 when he was coked to the gills) who deals in art forgeries.

Along the way we meet an artist who does the forgeries, and that's famed director Nicholas Ray in a great role. Ray is one of Wenders' heroes--maybe his biggest hero--and he's here in his glory--sad single eye partnered with his trademark eyepatch, gaunt face and all. Three years later, Ray died of cancer. We also meet a gangster played by another of Wenders' favorite directors, Samuel Fuller. But Fuller's part is smaller than Ray's, which says something...

This is a perfect exemplar of the road to Hell being paved with good intentions. Zimmermann's one desire to take care of his family results in his being coerced into dark deeds that ultimately leave Zimmermann emotionally destitute.

Wenders' focus is on the characters who make things happen, who bring about the downfall of both themselves and of others. While American neo-noirs can occasionally do a great job of focusing on action-driven plots--given a great writer/director team--in this film, Wenders chooses instead to have the story unfold based on personalities.

An unusual and strong neo-noir, The American Friend is a unique film that is a key work in the Wenders oeuvre. Great job (an American expression).

With friends like these. . . .
One of the best adaptations of a Patricia Highsmith novel (*Ripley's Game*) ever filmed, and one of Wim Wenders' best movies, too. But, according to the commentary on this DVD, Ms. Highsmith was originally aghast at Wenders' treatment of the story -- it's a very loose adaptation -- and of the character Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper in a cowboy hat, a figure radically different from the suave manipulator in the book). As the years passed, she apparently grew reconciled to the movie on its own terms, and why not? -- the themes of the seductiveness of evil and of the abyss yawning below any "normal" person's life are rigorously limned in *The American Friend*. And Wenders brings some ideas of his own to this material, most notably the distasteful spectacle of a dominant world power and culture (e.g., the United States) crassly pirating the leavings of an older civilization (e.g., European): a way of life and thought, even a fraudulent version of it, is available to the highest bidder only. Above and beyond the intellectual stuff, the movie also happens to have several suspenseful stretches. Best example: the scene where the modest picture-framer from Hamburg (a never-better Bruno Ganz), having been roped into being a hitman due to the machinations of an insulted Tom Ripley, ineptly tails an American gangster through the subterranean Paris metro. Ganz needs the money for his family, but he's in bad health (a heart condition), and can barely stay alert while fighting anxiety attacks and physical exhaustion. Great stuff! Also of note is a prolonged and quite humorous assassination attempt aboard a speeding bullet train. (Hopper and Ganz share swigs from a flask and giggle at each other while guarding the murder scene -- the lavatory -- from discovery.) Wenders and his brilliant DP, Robby Muller, add to the atmosphere of malaise with the judicious use of pulpy color, blinding carnival-esque neon, and garish camera filters (blood-red skies at sunset and such). As for the performances: Hopper's Ripley really doesn't come alive until the last stretch, when he's given more time to work through his performance. Part of the problem is that the character -- in this movie -- is more of an idea rather than a fleshed-out human being. This is Bruno Ganz' movie all the way, and he makes the most of it. It's an unforgettable performance. It's a pretty unforgettable movie, on the whole. [The DVD's commentary, by Wenders and Hopper, is almost worth the price of admission on its own. It's enjoyable to listen to two old pros whose careers are full of accomplishments . . . one of which, of course, is *The American Friend*.]

Win Wenders' masterpiece
It's in many ways not fair to entitle this film as just a film noir.
I state that because , first at all remember. we are talking about of Patricia Highsmith , one of the most gifted minds in the north american literatute. If you analyze all her literaries works, as Strangers on a train,(Hitchcock) or A plenn soleil(Rene Clement), you'll find all the characters are envolved in a cosmical trick. It's true that the hopeless who surrounds establishes an anticipated fate in all their actions. But what Highsmith adds in every work, including the american friend is the lack of any kind of feeling or ethical consideration carried to a level that they become in models. I mean, it's very hard for us to find by instance, with a character as Mr. Rippley in any street of any city in the world. These characters are not common.
That's the most remarkable virtue in Highsmith and Wenders so Clement and Hithcock understood and exploited this item like few.
Wenders,one of the three kings of the german filmography in the seventies, (together with Fassbinder, Herzog, and Hauff), knew how to deal with that and make a clever twist in an age where the key works of the neo film noir, a genre that slowly was left and replaced by thrillers with little trascendence.
This film , in my point of view, made grow up to Dennis Hopper, not only as actor, but as a filmmaker. (Remember his best work as director titled Colors).
This film is eternal. And that means just one thing: it's a masterpiece. And obviously, it will resist the years and far of getting old, it will enrich us, every time we watch it.