It is impossible to see Dennis Hopper (who sports a cowboy hat in most of the film) as a continuation of the Tom Ripley character as created on film by either Alain Delon (Le plen soleil/Purple Noon) or Matt Damon (The Talented Mr. Ripley). Hopper's Ripley does not have the charm, intelligence, or the talents that first established Tom Ripley as "The Talented Mr. Ripley," nor does he display the refined tastes or the aspirations for comfort that drove Delon's and Damon's (and John Malovich's) Ripleys. Hopper is a detached, alienated American—and from another America than the predominantly gay New York music milieu that was Ripley's launching pad in Patricia Highsmith's first Ripley book.

Rather than a continuation of the character in "The Talented Mr. Ripley," it is better to take Dennis Hopper as a sort of (darkish) angel. First he is a bad — or at least perverse — angel luring frame-maker Jonathan Zimmerman (Ganz) into a contract killing (in part by conniving to convince him that he is going to die soon and needs to provide for his family). Then he gets involved helping Ganz, transforming into a sort of guardian (good) angel — only sort of, in that he is helping to kill a gangster and bodyguard.

Providing motivation is not something that interested the "new German cinema" film-makers (I have written epinions about a number of Percy Adlon, Volker Schlondörff, Werner Herzog and Raiber Fassbinder films; my own private video festival of "the new German cinema" in preparation for making a list of the best ones at the suggestion of Metalluk). Why Ganz agrees so readily to something that is very alien to him should be the focus of the first half of the film, but is not. Also, there is no indication of what the relationship between Ripley and Minot, the gangster played by Gérard Blain, is.

The first hour is paced rather leisurely, even though there is little character development occurring. The pace quickens on the subway, and becomes that of a thriller on the train. Indeed, I realized watching that part, that the Patricia Highsmith novel (filmed by Alfred Hitchcock) that is closest to Ripley's Game (the source of "The American Friend") is not The Talented Mr. Ripley, but, rather, is Strangers on a Train. The latter has the same plan, i.e., get someone with no motive to commit the murder. Dennis Hopper has some of the mad gleam of a willful adolescent who never grew up that Robert Walker had in "Strangers" (Bruno Ganz has none of the glamour Farley Granger exuded, but has some of the same reluctance to be caught up in the homicidal "game." Gérard Blain has more the Granger look. And the homoeroticism from this other Highsmith novel has been occluded.)

Becoming a murderer changes Jonathan. He becomes as alienated as Hopper's Ripley is, except that Jonathan has a wife and son. Tom Ripley is a stranger in a foreign land, but Jonathan becomes a stranger in his own land, and, in particular, to his own wife (Lisa Kreuzer).

The saturation of garish primary colors in underlit urban night is a trademark of the German art films of the 70s. It seems affected, but the looming shadows that were so defining a part of classic cinema noir are also highly artificial. As were the Godard classics (Alphaville and Breathless) that seem to have inspired Wenders, among other German directors. The music of looming menace underlies the neo-noirs (that is, those filmed in color), just as it did the black-and-white classics of the 1940s and 50s.

There seems to be as much dialogue in English as in German, though this impression may because Hopper speaks so slowly. (Indeed, Ganz's English is more fluent and if I didn't know better, I'd think that English was not Hopper's first language.) Why the film ends by returning to Nicholas Ray on his ledge is a mystery to me, and I wonder whether Wenders could answer the question, or my other question of what Ray's character is supposed to offer as an alternative to urban alienation. . . or how he can admire the films of American director Samuel Fuller (who plays an unnamed Mafioso here) while being so inept at telling stories. It is hard to be sure whether the directors of "the new German cinema" were unwilling to do anything so vulgar as move stories along or were unable to do so. The films have a look, but frequent torpor, as in the first hour of "The American Friend." Striking images alone cannot carry a thriller, alas.

Wenders generally seems to me incompetent at story-telling (in contrast, Fassbinder was competent but frequently chose not to move narratives along) even when filming something like Ripley's Game that had a strong storyline (or two or three). The look and Bruno Ganz's performance make "The American Friend" my favorite of the movies in German directed by Wenders that I have seen. 4 stars is rounding up. I think the (entirely German-language) "The Goalie's Anxiety Before the Penalty Kick" is probably his best German movie, however.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Background Material

Since I first saw "The American Friend" 20 years ago, I have read all the Ripley novels as well as seeing the two films of the first one, The Talented Mr. Ripley (and also the always depressed Bruno Ganz in Wenders's 1988 "Wings of Desire") and the English-language Italian movie Ripley's Game with John Malkovich as a more plausible Tom Ripley. This additional background is a great help in understanding the marketing of paintings by an officially dead painter forging his old style (played with a gleam in "The American Friend" by director Nicholas Ray, who directed Hopper in "Rebel Without a Cause" two-plus decades earlier), but this is a strand of the story that should have been excised in adapting the novel for the screen, because what is on the screen of this plotline is opaque. Knowing more of Ripley's background makes Hopper's incarnation more confusing than it helps to understand Wenders's film.


Recommended:
Yes