The American Friend

press release:

THE AMERICAN FRIEND (DER AMERIKANISCH FREUND): West Germany, USA, France | 1977 | DCP | 126 min. | English and German with English subtitles

Director: Wim Wenders; Cast: Bruno Ganz, Dennis Hopper, Nicholas Ray

Believing his leukemia to be out of remission and anxious to provide for his family, the once upstanding frame-maker Jonathan (Ganz) accepts an offer from slick and  shady American Tom Ripley (Hopper) to become a paid assassin. Eventually, these two opposite types become friends in Wenders’ adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley’s Game. “It’s just as exciting, enjoyable, and thought-provoking as her novel” (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic).

Along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders completes the triumvirate of internationally acclaimed filmmakers that emerged in the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s. The titles selected for this retrospective series represent Wenders’ very best movies from the 70s and 80s. Many of the selections reveal Wenders’ particular talent in finding new kinds of “road movies” that feature his protagonists traveling through multiple cities and sometimes across continents.