Product: The American Friend [VHS] (1977)
Rating: 4.0
Dark Thriller and Character Study from New German Cinema.
"The American Friend" was the first cinematic adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel "Ripley's Game", the third book in her Ripley series, written for the screen and directed by Wim Wenders. The film can be viewed simply as neo-noir or as an allegory of the American economic conquest of Europe, which was held in distaste by many authors of New German Cinema. It imparts an unmistakable sense of time -the 1970s- and of its artistic philosophy, but Wenders blurs the distinctions between Hamburg, Paris, and New York by focusing on their industrialism. "The American Friend" may be more interesting as political cinema than as a thriller, but it is also more dated. Wenders wittily cast seven directors to play his villains, starting with Dennis Hopper as sociopath Tom Ripley.Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper) is an American dealer in counterfeit artwork living in Hamburg, West Germany. His fateful introduction to art restorer Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz) at an auction for a forged painting sets a bizarre series of events in motion. Raoul Minot (Gerard Blain), an associate of Ripley's, asks Ripley to settle an old debt by killing a man for him. Ripley is reluctant to do the job himself, so he suggests Zimmerman, who is suffering from a serious blood disease. Minot promises Jonathan 250,000 deutschmarks to kill a man in the Paris subway, insisting that Jonathan has little time to live anyway, and this would allow him to leave his family well cared-for. Jonathan is shocked by the proposition but somehow seduced by it into a violent and chaotic world."Ripley's Game" retained its name in a second movie adaptation in 2002 that aspired only to be a psychological thriller. "The American Friend" is more successful than "Ripley's Game", but the two films have completely different narrative focus. "The American Friend" tends toward character study. It's about Jonathan, portrayed by the superb and meticulous Bruno Ganz as a regular guy whose introversion conceals a morbid angst. Why does Jonathan want to believe that he is dying? Why does he trust a murderous stranger with obvious ulterior motives? Why does he willingly plunge his life into chaos and terror? Those are the questions at the heart of "The American Friend". The later film "Ripley's Game" marginalized the wiling victim in favor of the more forceful and colorful characters of Tom Ripley and his nefarious acquaintance.In "Ripley's Game", Tom Ripley is an outright sophisticate, played seductively by John Malkovich. Tom Ripley of "The American Friend" vacillates strangely and inexplicably between sophisticate and coarse, ugly American. Where "Ripley's Game" has sharp, articulate dialogue, "The American Friend" has improvisation and eccentric behavior. Though some of his antics are undoubtedly intended as metaphor, Ripley's character is incoherent, making him the weak link in this film. But "The American Friend" is much stronger film noir than "Ripley's Game", in spite of its freestyle dialogue, because Jonathan Zimmerman is a true noir protagonist, and his plight is this film's focus. In English and German with English subtitles.The DVD (Anchor Bay 2003): There are 36 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Wim Wenders, a theatrical trailer (3 min), and text bios with selective filmographies for Wim Wenders, Bruno Ganz, and Dennis Hopper. There is a feature commentary by writer/director Wim Wenders and actor Dennis Hopper. Wenders talks about actors, lighting, the cinematography of Robby Muller, locations, some technical details, and the film's reception. Hopper comments on Wender's directing style, and both men recall the spontaneity of the performances and rewrites. They do not discuss characters, story, or themes. I had trouble accessing the audio commentary. After selecting the commentary, I could only get it to play with the film by going to the scene selection menu and starting at scene 2. I may have a defective disc, but if you have trouble, try using the scene selection menu.