THE AMERICAN FRIEND

Details

• Release Year: 1977
• Genre: Crime, Mystery, Suspense/Thriller
• Plot: Wim Wenders pays loving homage to rough-and-tumble Hollywood film noir with The American Friend, a loose adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel Ripley's Game. Dennis Hopper oozes quirky menace as an amoral American art dealer who entangles a terminally ill German everyman, played by Bruno Ganz, in a seedy criminal underworld as revenge for a personal slight-but when the two become embroiled in an ever-deepening murder plot, they form an unlikely bond. Filmed on location in Hamburg and Paris, with some scenes shot in grimy, late-seventies New York City, Wenders's international breakout is a stripped-down crime story that mixes West German and American film flavors, and it features cameos by filmmakers Jean Eustache, Samuel Fuller, and Nicholas Ray.
• Cast: Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain, Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, Peter Lilienthal, Daniel Schmid, Sandy Whitelaw, Jean Eustache, Lou Castel, Andreas Dedecke, David Blue, Stefan Lennert, Rudolf Schündler, Gerty Molzen, Heinz Joachim Klein, Heinrich Marmann, Satya De La Manitou, Axel Schiessler, Adolf Hansen, Rosemarie Heinikel, Enzo Robutti, Wim Wenders, Patricia Highsmith
• Director: Wim Wenders
• Runtime: 2:06
• Company: The Criterion Collection
• Media Format: Movie