The American Friend
Encyclopedia
The American Friend is a 1977 film by Wim Wenders
, loosely adapted from the novel Ripley's Game
by Patricia Highsmith
. The film is of the neo-noir
genre, and features Dennis Hopper
as career criminal Tom Ripley and Bruno Ganz
as Jonathan Zimmermann, a terminally ill
picture framer whom Ripley coerces
into becoming an assassin
.
Though primarily based on Ripley's Game
, the film also uses elements, uncredited, of Ripley Under Ground
, which was later adapted to film
in 2005.
The source novel Ripley's Game (1974) was cinematically adapted a second time as Ripley's Game
(2002).
or The Cry of the Owl
but found that not only were the rights to these novels unavailable, the rights to all of Highsmith's novels had already been sold. Highsmith learned of his desire to film one of her novels and they met, where she offered him the unpublished manuscript of Ripley's Game
.
Wenders wanted to cast John Cassavetes
as Ripley, but he turned it down and suggested Dennis Hopper for the part. After casting Hopper, an experienced director, Wenders decided to cast directors in all of the gangster roles, including Gérard Blain
, Nicholas Ray
, and Samuel Fuller
. Wenders disliked the title Ripley's Game and the film was shot under the title Framed, and he also considered the title Rule Without Exception. He credits Hopper with suggesting the title The American Friend.
Popular music plays a large part in the film. Ripley quotes from the song "Ballad of Easy Rider
" from Easy Rider
, a film that Hopper starred in and directed. He later quotes from Bob Dylan
's "One More Cup of Coffee" and "I Pity the Poor Immigrant
." Jonathan Zimmermann is evidently a fan of The Kinks
, playing or singing their songs "Too Much on My Mind" and "Nothin' in the World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl" in his shop. Summer in the City
, the first full-length feature film from Wenders, was dedicated to The Kinks. Ripley mentions to Jonathan that he's "bringing the Beatles
back to Hamburg," and Jonathan quotes their song "Drive My Car
" later in the film.
) is a wealthy American living comfortably in Hamburg, Germany. He is involved in an artwork forgery scheme, in which he appears at auctions to bid on forged paintings produced by an accomplice, artificially driving up the price. At one of these auctions, he is introduced to Jonathan Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz
), a picture framer who is dying of a rare and unspecified blood disease. Jonathan refuses to shake Tom's hand when introduced, coldly saying, "I've heard of you" before walking away.
Tom is approached by an associate, a French criminal named Raoul Minot (Gérard Blain
), who asks Tom if he can commit the murder of a rival gangster. Tom turns him down: "Listen. I know rock musicians. I know lawyers. I know art dealers, pimps, politicians. But murder? I don't want to be involved. Period." Minot presses Tom for an alternate solution, as he claims Tom owes him for something. Tom's idea is to spread rumors about Jonathan's illness taking a turn for the worse to make him think he has little to lose, and then for Minot to approach him with the offer to commit an assassination for a great deal of money that he can put away for his wife and son after he dies.
Jonathan initially turns Minot down, but becomes greatly distressed by the thought that he may not have long to live. He agrees to come to France to get a second medical opinion on his illness, arranged by Minot, and Minot arranges to have the results altered to make it look as if Jonathan is more ill than he actually is and hasn't long to live. The report upsets Jonathan even more, and in his grief, he agrees to commit the murder, a shooting in a train station. Tom visits Jonathan in his shop before and after the shooting to get a picture framed, without Jonathan knowing Tom's involvement in the scheme, and the two begin to form a bond.
Minot visits Tom again, telling of his satisfaction with Jonathan's performance. Tom, who has become somewhat attached to Jonathan, is appalled when Minot says he plans to use Jonathan for another murder of a rival gangster, this time on a moving train using a garrote
. Jonathan agrees to the second murder but is not convinced he'll survive the ordeal, telling Minot to make sure his wife gets the money regardless of what happens to him. Before he can go through with it, however, Tom appears on the train and executes the target himself, along with a bodyguard.
Back home, Tom and Jonathan meet and Tom confesses to getting Jonathan involved in the murder scheme for insulting him at the artwork auction, but he declines Jonathan's offer to keep the money for the second hit. When Jonathan asks Tom what he wants for helping on the train, Tom says he wants nothing from Jonathan and adds, "I would like to be your friend, but friendship isn't possible." Tom advises Jonathan to tell Minot that he did the job on the train alone.
Tom is later contacted by Jonathan, who is distressed by a couple of problems. First, his wife is becoming increasingly suspicious – she does not believe the cover stories he has been telling her about his trips and the money he has been receiving, and she believes Tom is somehow involved and corrupting him. Second, he has been receiving mysterious phone calls and believes the Mafia is trying to find them. Minot visits Jonathan with news that his flat was recently bombed. Tom picks up Jonathan and they drive to his mansion, where they wait for assassins to appear.
The gunmen are ambushed and killed by Tom and Jonathan. Tom piles their bodies into the ambulance in which they arrived, and plans for he and Jonathan to drive a great distance before disposing of the bodies. Jonathan's wife appears as they are making their plans – she confronts Jonathan and tells him that he was deceived by the altered medical reports. Tom approaches her and explains that she and her husband can settle matters later, but for now, they need to dispose of the bodies.
They drive to the sea, Tom in the ambulance and Mrs. Zimmermann driving her husband in their car, and Tom douses the ambulance with gasoline and sets fire to it on the beach, yelling in triumph over his enemies as he does so. Watching him, Jonathan ushers his wife into the car and drives away, abandoning Tom on the beach. As he drives away, he tells his wife that one day she'll have to explain everything to their son. He loses consciousness and dies on the side of the road. Tom is seen sitting by the dock on the beach, smiling and saying, "We made it anyway, Jonathan. Be careful."
an accents of a couple of the major actors doesn't help — The American Friend is worth the effort. Few movies from any era or genre offer such rich characters, realistic human relationships, gripping action sequences, or sly humor." In Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir, Barry Gifford
writes, "Of all the 'homage' films made since the 1940s and '50s meant to evoke noir
, The American Friend succeeds more than most because of the spaces, the sputters, and sudden shifts of energy that allow the characters to achieve veracity."
The film was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival
. It currently holds an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
. Roger Ebert
gave the film three stars (out of four), writing: "[Wenders] challenges us to admit that we watch (and read) thrillers as much for atmosphere as for plot. And then he gives us so much atmosphere we're almost swimming in it." Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club
praised "the squirmy, desperate humanity that [makes the film] so hauntingly tragic." David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews had a more mixed reaction, calling the film "occasionally thrilling" and praising "Ganz's subtle, thoroughly compelling performance" but criticizing what he feels to be a "disastrous final half hour."
Highsmith initially disliked the film but later changed her mind. Joan Schenkar's biography The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith quotes Wenders: "I was really happy with the picture and couldn't wait to have Patricia see it. But then, to my great disappointment, she was quite disturbed by it, didn't conceal that either and didn't have anything good to say about it after the screening. I left utterly frustrated. Months later, I got a letter from her. She said she had seen the film a second time, this time in a public screening on the Champs-Élysées
during a visit in Paris. And she had much better feelings about it now. ... And she was full of praise for Dennis Hopper, too, whom she had flat-out rejected the first time. She now wrote that my film had captured the essence of that Ripley character better than any other films. You can guess how relieved I was!" A 1988 Highsmith interview with Gerald Peary
notes that she praised the film's "stylishness" and that "she thinks the scenes on the train are terrific."
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
, loosely adapted from the novel Ripley's Game
Ripley's Game
Ripley's Game is a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, the third in her "Ripliad" series.-Plot summary:In the third Ripley novel, Tom Ripley is a wealthy man in his early thirties. He lives in Villeperce, France, with his French wife, Heloise...
by Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951...
. The film is of the neo-noir
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
genre, and features Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
as career criminal Tom Ripley and Bruno Ganz
Bruno Ganz
Bruno Ganz is a Swiss actor, known for his roles as Damiel in Wings of Desire and Adolf Hitler in Downfall.- Early life :Bruno Ganz was born in Zürich to a Swiss mechanic father and a northern Italian mother. He had decided to pursue an acting career by the time he entered university...
as Jonathan Zimmermann, a terminally ill
Terminal illness
Terminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as...
picture framer whom Ripley coerces
Coercion
Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. In law, coercion is codified as the duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way...
into becoming an assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
.
Though primarily based on Ripley's Game
Ripley's Game
Ripley's Game is a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, the third in her "Ripliad" series.-Plot summary:In the third Ripley novel, Tom Ripley is a wealthy man in his early thirties. He lives in Villeperce, France, with his French wife, Heloise...
, the film also uses elements, uncredited, of Ripley Under Ground
Ripley Under Ground
Ripley Under Ground is a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, the second novel in her Ripliad series.- Plot summary :Six years after the events of The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tom Ripley is now in his early 30s, living a comfortable life in France with his heiress wife, Heloise Plisson...
, which was later adapted to film
Ripley Under Ground (film)
Ripley Under Ground is a 2005 film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and based on the second novel in Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley series. The film stars Barry Pepper as Ripley and features Willem Dafoe, Alan Cumming and Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles....
in 2005.
The source novel Ripley's Game (1974) was cinematically adapted a second time as Ripley's Game
Ripley's Game (film)
Ripley's Game is a feature film based on the 1974 novel of the same name, the third in Patricia Highsmith's "Ripliad," a series of books chronicling the murderous adventures of con artist Tom Ripley...
(2002).
Production
Wenders was a fan of Patricia Highsmith and had wanted to adapt one of her novels to film. He initially wanted to film either The Tremor of ForgeryThe Tremor of Forgery
The Tremor of Forgery is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith.-Synopsis:American author Howard Ingham arrives in the sweltering heat of Tunisia, so he can draw inspiration for a new movie script he's been commissioned to write. However, when the director he's working with doesn't...
or The Cry of the Owl
The Cry of the Owl
The Cry of the Owl is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith.- Plot summary:Following a messy divorce from his vindictive wife Nickie, Robert Forrester leaves New York and moves to a small Pennsylvania town, where he develops an obsession with the seemingly happy, 23-year old Jenny...
but found that not only were the rights to these novels unavailable, the rights to all of Highsmith's novels had already been sold. Highsmith learned of his desire to film one of her novels and they met, where she offered him the unpublished manuscript of Ripley's Game
Ripley's Game
Ripley's Game is a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, the third in her "Ripliad" series.-Plot summary:In the third Ripley novel, Tom Ripley is a wealthy man in his early thirties. He lives in Villeperce, France, with his French wife, Heloise...
.
Wenders wanted to cast John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
as Ripley, but he turned it down and suggested Dennis Hopper for the part. After casting Hopper, an experienced director, Wenders decided to cast directors in all of the gangster roles, including Gérard Blain
Gérard Blain
Gérard Blain was a French actor and film director. He appeared in 60 films between 1944 and 2000. He also directed nine films between 1971 and 2000.-Selected filmography:* Les Mistons...
, Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....
, and Samuel Fuller
Samuel Fuller
Samuel Michael Fuller was an American screenwriter, novelist, and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes.-Personal life:...
. Wenders disliked the title Ripley's Game and the film was shot under the title Framed, and he also considered the title Rule Without Exception. He credits Hopper with suggesting the title The American Friend.
Popular music plays a large part in the film. Ripley quotes from the song "Ballad of Easy Rider
Ballad of Easy Rider
Ballad of Easy Rider is the eighth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in November 1969 on Columbia Records . The album was named after the song "Ballad of Easy Rider", which had been penned by The Byrds' guitarist and singer, Roger McGuinn , as the theme song for the 1969...
" from Easy Rider
Easy Rider
Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South with the aim of achieving freedom...
, a film that Hopper starred in and directed. He later quotes from Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "One More Cup of Coffee" and "I Pity the Poor Immigrant
John Wesley Harding (album)
John Wesley Harding is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's eighth studio album, released by Columbia Records in December 1967.Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan's return to acoustic music and traditional roots, after three albums of electric rock music...
." Jonathan Zimmermann is evidently a fan of The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
, playing or singing their songs "Too Much on My Mind" and "Nothin' in the World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl" in his shop. Summer in the City
Summer in the City (film)
Summer in the City is the first full-length feature film by director Wim Wenders, released in 1970 and starring Hanns Zischler.Wenders' first full-length film was produced as his graduation project at the Academy of Film and Television in Munich which he attended from 1967 to 1970...
, the first full-length feature film from Wenders, was dedicated to The Kinks. Ripley mentions to Jonathan that he's "bringing the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
back to Hamburg," and Jonathan quotes their song "Drive My Car
Drive My Car
"Drive My Car" is a song primarily written by Paul McCartney, with lyrical contributions from John Lennon, and first released by The Beatles on the British version of the 1965 album Rubber Soul; it also appeared in North America on the Yesterday and Today collection...
" later in the film.
Plot summary
Tom Ripley (Dennis HopperDennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
) is a wealthy American living comfortably in Hamburg, Germany. He is involved in an artwork forgery scheme, in which he appears at auctions to bid on forged paintings produced by an accomplice, artificially driving up the price. At one of these auctions, he is introduced to Jonathan Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz
Bruno Ganz
Bruno Ganz is a Swiss actor, known for his roles as Damiel in Wings of Desire and Adolf Hitler in Downfall.- Early life :Bruno Ganz was born in Zürich to a Swiss mechanic father and a northern Italian mother. He had decided to pursue an acting career by the time he entered university...
), a picture framer who is dying of a rare and unspecified blood disease. Jonathan refuses to shake Tom's hand when introduced, coldly saying, "I've heard of you" before walking away.
Tom is approached by an associate, a French criminal named Raoul Minot (Gérard Blain
Gérard Blain
Gérard Blain was a French actor and film director. He appeared in 60 films between 1944 and 2000. He also directed nine films between 1971 and 2000.-Selected filmography:* Les Mistons...
), who asks Tom if he can commit the murder of a rival gangster. Tom turns him down: "Listen. I know rock musicians. I know lawyers. I know art dealers, pimps, politicians. But murder? I don't want to be involved. Period." Minot presses Tom for an alternate solution, as he claims Tom owes him for something. Tom's idea is to spread rumors about Jonathan's illness taking a turn for the worse to make him think he has little to lose, and then for Minot to approach him with the offer to commit an assassination for a great deal of money that he can put away for his wife and son after he dies.
Jonathan initially turns Minot down, but becomes greatly distressed by the thought that he may not have long to live. He agrees to come to France to get a second medical opinion on his illness, arranged by Minot, and Minot arranges to have the results altered to make it look as if Jonathan is more ill than he actually is and hasn't long to live. The report upsets Jonathan even more, and in his grief, he agrees to commit the murder, a shooting in a train station. Tom visits Jonathan in his shop before and after the shooting to get a picture framed, without Jonathan knowing Tom's involvement in the scheme, and the two begin to form a bond.
Minot visits Tom again, telling of his satisfaction with Jonathan's performance. Tom, who has become somewhat attached to Jonathan, is appalled when Minot says he plans to use Jonathan for another murder of a rival gangster, this time on a moving train using a garrote
Garrote
A garrote or garrote vil is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, scarf, wire or fishing line used to strangle someone....
. Jonathan agrees to the second murder but is not convinced he'll survive the ordeal, telling Minot to make sure his wife gets the money regardless of what happens to him. Before he can go through with it, however, Tom appears on the train and executes the target himself, along with a bodyguard.
Back home, Tom and Jonathan meet and Tom confesses to getting Jonathan involved in the murder scheme for insulting him at the artwork auction, but he declines Jonathan's offer to keep the money for the second hit. When Jonathan asks Tom what he wants for helping on the train, Tom says he wants nothing from Jonathan and adds, "I would like to be your friend, but friendship isn't possible." Tom advises Jonathan to tell Minot that he did the job on the train alone.
Tom is later contacted by Jonathan, who is distressed by a couple of problems. First, his wife is becoming increasingly suspicious – she does not believe the cover stories he has been telling her about his trips and the money he has been receiving, and she believes Tom is somehow involved and corrupting him. Second, he has been receiving mysterious phone calls and believes the Mafia is trying to find them. Minot visits Jonathan with news that his flat was recently bombed. Tom picks up Jonathan and they drive to his mansion, where they wait for assassins to appear.
The gunmen are ambushed and killed by Tom and Jonathan. Tom piles their bodies into the ambulance in which they arrived, and plans for he and Jonathan to drive a great distance before disposing of the bodies. Jonathan's wife appears as they are making their plans – she confronts Jonathan and tells him that he was deceived by the altered medical reports. Tom approaches her and explains that she and her husband can settle matters later, but for now, they need to dispose of the bodies.
They drive to the sea, Tom in the ambulance and Mrs. Zimmermann driving her husband in their car, and Tom douses the ambulance with gasoline and sets fire to it on the beach, yelling in triumph over his enemies as he does so. Watching him, Jonathan ushers his wife into the car and drives away, abandoning Tom on the beach. As he drives away, he tells his wife that one day she'll have to explain everything to their son. He loses consciousness and dies on the side of the road. Tom is seen sitting by the dock on the beach, smiling and saying, "We made it anyway, Jonathan. Be careful."
Critical reaction
In A Girl and a Gun: The Complete Guide to Film Noir, David N. Meyer says: "Though the plot may not make a whole lot of sense the first time around — and the thick EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an accents of a couple of the major actors doesn't help — The American Friend is worth the effort. Few movies from any era or genre offer such rich characters, realistic human relationships, gripping action sequences, or sly humor." In Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir, Barry Gifford
Barry Gifford
Barry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness....
writes, "Of all the 'homage' films made since the 1940s and '50s meant to evoke noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, The American Friend succeeds more than most because of the spaces, the sputters, and sudden shifts of energy that allow the characters to achieve veracity."
The film was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival
1977 Cannes Film Festival
The 30th Cannes Film Festival was held on May 13-27. A new non-competitive section, 'Le Passé composé', is held at this festival only and focuses on compilations.- Jury :*Roberto Rossellini *N'Sougan Agblemagnon...
. It currently holds an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film three stars (out of four), writing: "[Wenders] challenges us to admit that we watch (and read) thrillers as much for atmosphere as for plot. And then he gives us so much atmosphere we're almost swimming in it." Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
praised "the squirmy, desperate humanity that [makes the film] so hauntingly tragic." David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews had a more mixed reaction, calling the film "occasionally thrilling" and praising "Ganz's subtle, thoroughly compelling performance" but criticizing what he feels to be a "disastrous final half hour."
Highsmith initially disliked the film but later changed her mind. Joan Schenkar's biography The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith quotes Wenders: "I was really happy with the picture and couldn't wait to have Patricia see it. But then, to my great disappointment, she was quite disturbed by it, didn't conceal that either and didn't have anything good to say about it after the screening. I left utterly frustrated. Months later, I got a letter from her. She said she had seen the film a second time, this time in a public screening on the Champs-Élysées
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets and one of the most expensive strip of real estate in the world. The name is...
during a visit in Paris. And she had much better feelings about it now. ... And she was full of praise for Dennis Hopper, too, whom she had flat-out rejected the first time. She now wrote that my film had captured the essence of that Ripley character better than any other films. You can guess how relieved I was!" A 1988 Highsmith interview with Gerald Peary
Gerald Peary
Gerald Peary is an American film critic, who has been a reviewer and columnist for the Boston Phoenix since 1996. He was formerly the Acting Curator of the Harvard Film Archive and is currently the General Editor of the University Press of Mississippi Conversations with Filmmakers Series...
notes that she praised the film's "stylishness" and that "she thinks the scenes on the train are terrific."
Featured cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Dennis Hopper Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant... |
Tom Ripley |
| Bruno Ganz Bruno Ganz Bruno Ganz is a Swiss actor, known for his roles as Damiel in Wings of Desire and Adolf Hitler in Downfall.- Early life :Bruno Ganz was born in Zürich to a Swiss mechanic father and a northern Italian mother. He had decided to pursue an acting career by the time he entered university... |
Jonathan Zimmermann |
| Lisa Kreuzer Lisa Kreuzer Lisa Kreuzer is a German television and film actress.Co-Star with Dennis Hopper in 1975 film My American Friend, German French co-production.... |
Marianne Zimmermann |
| Gérard Blain Gérard Blain Gérard Blain was a French actor and film director. He appeared in 60 films between 1944 and 2000. He also directed nine films between 1971 and 2000.-Selected filmography:* Les Mistons... |
Raoul Minot |
| Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause.... |
Derwatt |
| Samuel Fuller Samuel Fuller Samuel Michael Fuller was an American screenwriter, novelist, and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes.-Personal life:... |
The American Mobster |
| David Blue | Allan Winter |
External links
- Two Faces of Ripley, filmbrain.com comparison of The American Friend and Ripley's GameRipley's Game (film)Ripley's Game is a feature film based on the 1974 novel of the same name, the third in Patricia Highsmith's "Ripliad," a series of books chronicling the murderous adventures of con artist Tom Ripley...