The American Friend

Patricia Highsmith’s perennial sociopath Tom Ripley is given the Wenders treatment in this offbeat buddy movie with a body count.

Mild‑mannered picture framer Jonathan Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz) is living a placid life in Hamburg with his wife and young son. Into his life enters Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper), a rich American involved in numerous nefarious schemes, including forgery and contract killing. When Jonathan slights Tom at an art auction, Ripley takes petty revenge by manipulating information he uncovers about Jonathan’s health. Convincing the cash‑strapped Jonathan he has only months left to live, Ripley orchestrates a deadly lifeline, turning him into a contract killer for the mob.

Curator’s note
Patricia Highsmith’s novel Ripley’s Game is adapted freely here by Wenders, who is less interested in the perverse lease of life that ‘Ripley’s Game’ affords the desperate Jonathan. Instead, Wenders focuses on the budding friendship that develops between these two very different men. Although Highsmith was unhappy with the film (and particularly Hopper’s casting), she begrudgingly came around to admiring the film. Wenders has constructed one of the most original takes on amoral Tom Ripley and the source material. Personified here by Dennis Hopper, whose manic, loose‑cannon energy gives the character a sense of danger and unpredictability. In Wenders’ hands, The American Friend becomes a melancholy homage to the American noir film and even includes small roles from American directors Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller. Wenders’ regular cinematographer Robby Müller lenses the film, whose penchant for natural light is undercut by striking splashes of vivid red.