The American Friend-1977

(Aka Der Amerikanische Freund)
It was Mark Twain who wrote Innocents Abroad. In that 1869 book he referred to his fellow trvellers as innocents. His fellow pilgrims while visiting the Holy Land were not for freeing their minds but trivializing the past and to be convinced of their set opinions as true. Alas it was then. The American in this film is entirely a mutant of naïve Americans of his age of which Tom Ripley is one. He is the new pilgrim and he is a criminal. He is more of the Harry Lime mold than of Mark Twain’s fellow Americans.
The American Friend is of the neo-noir genre. The film is based on Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley series. The Third book Ripley's Game (of five) is directed by Wim Wenders who also gave us Wings of Desire. (The Talented Mr. Ripley and Purple Noon are both based on the first book.)
Wim Wenders mines Dennis Hopper's real-life experience as a painter and collector in this existential take on the American gangster film. Unlike Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley Dennis Hopper’s role is subservient to that of Zimmermann.

Dennis Hopper stars as the eponymous American, currently a middleman selling the work of American painter Derwatt (Nicholas Ray), who has feigned his own death to increase the value of his paintings. While auctioning this work in Berlin, he meets art restorer Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz), who he learns is suffering from an incurable blood disease. When a shady friend (Gerard Blain) requires Ripley to find a "clean" non-professional to do a contract hit in order to pay off a debt, even he is reluctant. But he quickly realizes that the physically vulnerable Jonathan would be perfect for the job, and tries to get him to accept by employing various subterfuges to persuade him that his condition is even worse than it is. For his part, Blain guarantees the restorer that his family will be financially secure for life, and a deal is struck.
Naturally, complications arise.

In case of Wenders his characteristic ambiguity blurs the difference between Ripley and his victim. A sense of contingency and randomness permeate his work. For the same reason he stops himself from developing the desperation Zimmermann needs to make this story work. The result is a kind of watching the proceedings take their own course than being involved.
The doppelgänger motif, which threads through Highsmith's work is the dominant metaphor of Wenders' film. The cinematography is both bleak and pretty -- bouncing between Paris and postwar Germany. There are cameo roles for directors Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) and Samuel Fuller (Shock Corridor).
Cast

* Dennis Hopper - Tom Ripley
* Bruno Ganz - Jonathan Zimmermann
* Lisa Kreuzer - Marianne Zimmermann
* Gérard Blain - Raoul Minot
* Nicholas Ray - Derwatt
Run Time: 127 minutes
In A Girl and a Gun: The Complete Guide to Film Noir, David N. Meyer says, "— The American Friend is worth the effort. Few movies from any era or genre offer such rich characters, realistic human relationships, gripping action sequences, or sly humor."


Similar Movies
Chinese Boxes; The Passenger; Öszi Almanach; Purple Noon; Il Faut Tuer Birgitt Haas; With a Friend Like Harry...; Mafioso
(Ack: wikipedia, Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com)
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