The American Friend

Name: The American Friend
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime
Released: September 24, 1977
Duration: 125 min
Rating: 79
Cast: Bruno Ganz, Daniel Schmid, Dennis Hopper, Gérard Blain, Jean Eustache

1977

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Ratings

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7.4

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7.4	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Madman Entertainment | Release Date: September 24, 1977 | Not Rated

Starring: Bruno Ganz, Daniel Schmid, Dennis Hopper, Gérard Blain, Jean Eustache, Lisa Kreuzer, Nicholas Ray, Peter Lilienthal, Samuel Fuller, Sandy Whitelaw

Summary: Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.

Director: Wim Wenders

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 125 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Michael Wilmington

This is a Wenders masterwork--a chilling tale of painting, crime and forgery. [19 Jan 2007, p.C5]

Staff (Not Credited)

Superb adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel Ripley's Game, with Hopper as her amiably cynical hero. Read full review

Dave Kehr

The film has a fine grasp of tenuous emotional connections in the midst of a crumbling moral universe. Wenders's films (Kings of the Road, Alice in the Cities) are about life on the edge; this is one of his edgiest. Read full review

Empire Kim Newman

Bruno Ganz is excellent as the victim deceived into committing murder. Read full review

Jordan Cronk

From its engagement with genre tropes (particularly film noir), to its tangibly grimy urban backdrops, to its archetypal hero/villain dramatic dichotomy, there’s no mistaking the film’s American influence. Read full review

Keith Phipps

Adapting Ripley's Game, the third of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels, 1977's The American Friend knits Wenders' ongoing concerns into a thriller in the Hitchcock mold. Read full review

Pauline Kael

Wenders' unsettling compositions are neurotically beautiful visions of a disordered world, but the film doesn't have the nasty, pleasurable cleverness of a good thriller; dramatically, it's stagnant -- inverted Wagnerism.

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User Reviews

JLuis_001

Jul 11, 2021

Although at first it hardly seems to be the thriller and drama it ends up becoming. The American Friend was a total revelation, and above all, an excellent film.

If you tell someone about the plot you might confuse them, in fact, even though I'd heard about the film for being one of theAlthough at first it hardly seems to be the thriller and drama it ends up becoming. The American Friend was a total revelation, and above all, an excellent film.

If you tell someone about the plot you might confuse them, in fact, even though I'd heard about the film for being one of the legendary Wim Wenders, it also intrigued me quite a bit.

This is the story of a criminal and personal triangle involving an American who's involved in an artwork forgery scheme, who becomes an intermediary between a French gangster a German picture framer -who's dying of leukemia- to commit assassinations.
That sounded pretty complicated, but that's the beauty of it, because it's also really good.

Even though Wenders is not a direct narrator, the story does not let you escape, and that personally for me is very important.
Because even when The American Friend never stops being a thriller, the title itself reveals to you what's the most important plot element that ends up deepening, and that's the friendship relationship that the American character (Dennis Hopper) and the German character (Bruno Ganz) end up forging.… Expand

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cafergy

Jan 7, 2020

Wonderful fun watching Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz, as directed by Wim Wenders, in an existential noir retelling of a Patricia Highsmith novel, where an expat Yank gets an innocent accomplice to murder a gangster over an art forgery scheme.

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DawdlingPoet

Nov 24, 2021

This is very much a European arty film - there is fairly little dialogue and it has some good cinematography. I liked the shots of the train with sunrise/sunset reflected on the outside carriages. There is a thoughtful side to it too and it'd be fair to say its a somewhat quirky film. ItThis is very much a European arty film - there is fairly little dialogue and it has some good cinematography. I liked the shots of the train with sunrise/sunset reflected on the outside carriages. There is a thoughtful side to it too and it'd be fair to say its a somewhat quirky film. It isn't tense or gripping but its watchable certainly. I'd say if your a fan of the directors work then its worth a watch yes - the final scene had a certain poignancy to it, I felt, though its not the kind of film likely to particularly appeal to everyone.… Expand

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