American Friend (The)
Original Title
Der Amerikanische Freund- Director: Wim Wenders
- Writer: Patricia Highsmith; Wim Wenders
- Producer: Renée Gundelach; Margaret Ménégoz
CGiii Comment
Hopper plays Ripley - so far removed from the suave sophisticate of other incarnations.
Wenders directs grittily and totally ignores Ripley's sexuality - a strange way of doing it.
It's watchable - but, lacks the necessary sophistication.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Tom Ripley has a sweet deal with an art forger. The forger creates the paintings; Tom sells them. But another criminal business associate wants Tom to go in for an even riskier enterprise: murder. Tom suggests his associate ask a local picture framer instead. That man has a fatal disease, or so it's rumored. More, he has a wife and kid that surely he wouldn't want to leave penniless. Let this picture framer be a hit man, and no one will suspect. The terminally ill craftsman may agree to the misdeed, and several more, but he'll end up needing Tom Ripley in a pinch.
Cast & Characters
Dennis Hopper as Tom Ripley;
Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Zimmermann;
Lisa Kreuzer as Marianne Zimmermann;
Gerard Blain as Raoul Minot;
Nicholas Ray as Derwatt;
Samuel Fuller as The American Mobster;
Peter Lilienthal as Marcangelo;
Daniel Schmid as Ingraham;
Jean Eustache as Friendly Man;
Rudolf Schundler as Gantner;
Sandy Whitelaw as Doctor in Paris;
Lou Castel as Rodolphe;
Ismael Alonso as Ignatius;
David Blue as Allan Winter;
Andreas Dedecke as Daniel