X
- 1977
- Not Rated
- New Yorker Films
- 2 h 8 m
- 1977
- Not Rated
- New Yorker Films
- 2 h 8 m
Summary Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
Directed By: Wim Wenders
Written By: Patricia Highsmith, Wim Wenders
- 1977
- Not Rated
- New Yorker Films
- 2 h 8 m
- 1977
- Not Rated
- New Yorker Films
- 2 h 8 m
The American Friend
79
7.1
Where to Watch
Summary Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
Directed By: Wim Wenders
Written By: Patricia Highsmith, Wim Wenders
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
79
91% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
9% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
79
91% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
9% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
This is a Wenders masterwork--a chilling tale of painting, crime and forgery. [19 Jan 2007, p.C5]
Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz are superb in Wim Wenders's The American Friend, a gripping Hitchockian thriller based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 7 User Ratings
7.1
71% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
29% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 7 User Ratings
7.1
71% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
29% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Like Taxi Driver, The American Friend was a new sort of movie-movie — sleekly brooding, voluptuously alienated and saturated with cinephilia.
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.
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.
An absorbing but rarefied, introspective variation on traditional thriller motifs, it's probably not the synthesis between the personal and traditional that Wenders needs but it's a fascinating compulsively watchable experiment.
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.
Production Company
Bavaria Film,
Filmverlag der Autoren,
Les Films du Losange,
Road Movies Filmproduktion,
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR),
Wim Wenders Productions,
Wim Wenders Stiftung
Release Date Sep 24, 1977
Duration 2 h 8 m
Rating Not Rated
Tagline ...transforms Patricia Highsmith's Ripley's Game into a gripping European noir.
Awards
German Film Awards
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations
Sant Jordi Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
National Board of Review, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
