The American Friend 1977

     This film is based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith.  Tom Ripley makes a living selling forged art works.  He has a painter recreate and frame the paintings.  He sells them at auction for a very good price.  Tom has another criminal business associate who wants him to become involved in an even riskier enterprise, murder.  There is a local picture framer, Jonathan Zimmermann and he has a blood disease that is fatal.  Since Jonathan has a wife and a son, he could want extra money for his family before he dies?  Tom believes the crimes can’t be traced back to him or his forger.

     This DVD is newly released with widescreen enhancement.  The films Purple Noon and The Talented Mr. Ripley are adaptations of the same novel used for this film.  There are also four other Tom Ripley novels.  I thought it was interesting to see a younger Dennis Hopper at the age of 41.  I also could not picture Bruno Ganz as any other character than Adolph Hitler!!  He is younger but still has the same facial structure at 36 years old.  3* (This movie is OK)

125 min, Crime directed by Wim Wenders with Dennis Hopper Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gerard Blain, Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, Peter Lilienthal, Daniel Schmid, Sandy Whitelaw, Jean Eustache, Lou Castel, David Blue.

Note:  Imdb 7.4 out of 10, 90% critic 81% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 49 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Hamburg, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; Hauts-de-Seine and Paris, France; New York City.  Bruno Ganz carried a real gun in the first murder because the filmmakers couldn’t afford a fake gun?  Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz got into a fistfight on the set.  They went out together for a night of drinking that settled their differences?  There are seven movie directors in the cast of this film and they all play criminals.  Wim Wenders and cinematographer Robby Muller fought with the film-developing laboratory because they wanted to color correct the lighting?  Director Wim Wenders picked Dennis Hopper up at the airport, he had long hair, unshaven, dressed in military fatigues and he had jungle sores.  He had flown directly from the Philippine locations for Apocalypse Now of 1979.  John Cassavetes was originally considered for the role of Tom Ripley.  Bruno Ganz played the role of Adolf Hitler in the 2004 film Downfall.  There are many comical videos online of him in a scene from Downfall but with different dialog.  There is another film with the same title from 1991.