Lee Eisenberg During the 1970s, Wim Wenders became one of the directors most associated with the new German cinema. He had already directed a few movies when he released "Der amerikanische Freund" ("The American Friend" in English). This adaptation of one of Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley novels casts Dennis Hopper as the main character. In this outing, he's an art forger who recommends a dying friend (Bruno Ganz) to carry out a murder. The whole sequence on the train has to be seen to be believed, as does the sequence on the subway.I haven't seen very many of Wenders's movies, but I've liked every one that I've seen. His best is "Until the End of the World", but "The American Friend" is also an impressive piece of work. Along with the plot it's an insightful look at 1970s Hamburg. Specifically, it's a look at the city's grittier side. But more than anything, this movie makes me want to see more Wenders movies. Really good one.

Cristiano-A A very own adaptation of a novel by Patricia Highsmith, where Wim Wenders mixes the American thriller with a European existential universe. The film can even be considered a tribute to Hollywood cinema, though others see a veiled criticism of Americanization of Germany and Europe.The film shows us a very different Ripley and is more focused on the action antagonist, Jonathan. A strong feature of the film is the existence of rich characters and realistic human relationships and abrupt changes of the action energy.But the film is also an intelligent psychological study, cleverly presenting fear, envy, selfishness and friendship, which define the relationship between the two men, each of them, in a different manner, doomed by fate. And that is one more approach to film noir. The wonderful camera work of Robby Muller and the subtly pressuring soundtrack by Jurgen Knieper contribute to the atmosphere of suspense and paranoia that we feel throughout the movie. Finally, highlight for the wonderful sequence of Jonathan's escape from the subway, seen through the battery of televisions that broadcast images from the security cameras.

Eumenides_0 "What's wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg?" asks Dennis Hopper at the beginning of the movie, wearing a Stetson like he just entered the wrong picture. For viewers used to the suave, sophisticated Tom Ripley played by Matt Damon and John Malkovich, Dennis Hopper's version will look like an abomination - unapologetically American, full of American speech mannerisms, slightly crazy and more than once acting like he's hopped on drugs. But that's the beauty of the movie, a beauty unique to the '70s, when American actors collaborated with European filmmakers, when different influences merged to create something unique.Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, the movie follows Tom Ripley, bon vivant, art dealer and occasional murderer. Enjoying success selling fake pictures of a popular but dead artist, one day he meets a picture-framer, Jonathan (Bruno Ganz), who displeases him. His mistake? To say 'I've heard of you' in a disdainful manner and refusing to shake hands with Ripley.Jonathan is dying from a blood disease and has more on his mind than social niceties. He has medical bills to pay and he's worried about the future of his son and wife (Lisa Kreuzer) after he passes away. So he becomes the perfect person for Ripley to turn into a murderer when a criminal friend (Gérard Blain) asks him to find someone to kill a rival for money. Quickly the movie enters fertile territory that lets Wenders explore questions about personal responsibility, duplicity, and the nature of evil.Although Tom Ripley usually has the spotlight in his movies, here the main character is Jonathan. Bruno Ganz plays this everyman with compassion for his predicament and also with a feeling of being trapped between accepting his fate and enjoying the freedom to become a murder it grants him. Quite fascinating are the scenes with his family, which become increasingly darker, going from idyllic to nightmarish as his secret life distances him from his wife.Dennis Hopper gives a great performance too as Jonathan's amoral friend who plays with his life like a child with putty, manipulating it for no good reason other than personal gratification. Unconcerned with what he has done to him, he only intervenes to help him when Jonathan's problems become his own. That's Tom Ripley: elegant and nice on the outside, empty on the inside, collector of art but hardly a sensitive man, owner of a beautiful neoclassic mansion filled with objects wrapped in plastic. Once the movie ends the viewer is left wondering which of the two is the greatest fake.Although these two actors would make the movie worth watching just for their performances, Wenders nevertheless crafted a tense, suspenseful thriller that stands on its own. Mixing cinematography reminiscent of American noir cinema with the slow pacing of '70s thrillers, this is mostly a visual experience in which sequences go on for many minutes without words spoken, the action directed by the camera and acting alone.Sadly there aren't cowboys in Hamburg anymore. European and American cinema ignore each other, happily proud of their provincialism. But The American Friend stands as a reminder of a time when cinema knew no borders and when artists were more daring.

richard_sleboe Let's start with the good news: Bruno Ganz, in the part of a tragic hero tricked into felony, will make it worth your while. But pretty much everything else about "The American Friend" will please only the most dedicated followers of art-house director Wim Wenders. Although this is one of his earliest feature-length movies, it is already riddled with his trademark allusions to the history and theory of moving images, ranging from a Zoetrope toy and ubiquitous surveillance cameras to the lead character putting himself "in frame" by hanging a picture frame around his neck. Against the backdrop of Hamburg's grimy port, Wenders indulges his obsession with American culture in the guise of Dennis Hopper. Posing as a fake cowboy, he feeds fake American paintings back to the American market by way of a German auction house. The final third of the story, from the moment Zimmermann gets on the train, is completely incomprehensible without prior knowledge of the book it is based on, "Ripley's Game". What little action we see is awfully shot; most of the time, it's slow-moving people mumbling lines from Bob Dylan songs as they go about their somber business in a parallel universe heavy with misery and meaning. What we need is filmmakers who care less about movies and more about life.