The American Friend (1977)

Film: The American Friend (1977)

Stars: Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gerard Blain

Director: Wim Wenders

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Throughout the month of June (and apparently a little bit of July), in honor of the 10th Anniversary of The Many Rantings of John, we will be doing a Film Noir Movie Marathon, featuring fifteen film noir classics that I'll be seeing for the first time.  Reviews of other film noir classics are at the bottom of this article.

We bled a little bit into July with our film noir series, but it is now coming to an end for 2022 with our June Film Noir celebration.  It's possible we bring this back next year (I love doing it, but it's a lot of work & we're getting deeper and deeper cuts each season), but if we don't, I think ending in 1977 feels right for what we've covered this past month.  While neo-noir became a mainstay in the 1980's, really Body Heat and Blade Runner (both of which we've already covered, links are at the bottom of the article) kind of ushered in a new era of neo-noir, and while the genre would dominate the 1980's, it would be more something you'd catch in independent or emerging cinemas than in major blockbusters like Chinatown.  It seems fitting, then, that we finish with one of the great experimental filmmakers of the 1970's & 80's, Wim Wenders, and one of his most noted films, The American Friend.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is based off of the novel Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith, one of the novels Highsmith wrote about Tom Ripley (who modern audiences know as a character played by Matt Damon & John Malkovich).  Here he's played by Dennis Hopper, perhaps the most typecast actor for playing a boiled sociopath (given Hopper's on and offscreen choices through the years).  After he is mildly snubbed at an auction by a man named Jonathan Zimmermann (Ganz), who dislikes Ripley based on reputation (he is a criminal), Ripley decides to ruin Jonathan's life by tricking him into thinking his leukemia has worsened, and that he is soon going to die.  Worried about his wife and son, and what will be left for them, Jonathan takes on Ripley's assignment of becoming an assassin for hire, getting a lot of money but in the process giving up his humanity.  The two become friendly toward the end of the movie, with Ripley now seeing Jonathan as something of a vain extension of himself, but in the final moments, despite the fact that he will soon die, Jonathan gets his revenge on Ripley, abandoning him at a beach with a burning car & no way home.

The movie's plot involves some twists and you need to pick up on certain moods, but it's not as complicated as one might expect in the moment considering Wenders, who is not afraid of abstract cinema, is at the helm.  It helps that the film is acted by two performers at the top of their game.  Hopper, at this point in his "wilderness" phase between Easy Rider and Apocalypse Now!, where he was making some of the most fascinating independent cinema of the 1970's.  His acting here is perfect for Ripley, playing him as a charming, demented man who is willing to destroy another human being over a handshake.  Ganz is excellent too.  Though he is widely-regarded as one of the greatest actors in his adopted country of Germany (he was born in Switzerland), he rarely made high-profile English-language films, so if you're unfamiliar check him out here, in Wings of Desire and Downfall (the latter of which he should've gotten him the Oscar on a silver platter).  He plays Jonathan as someone who has never really contemplated what will happen once he's gone, and as someone who slowly realizes how foolish his impetuousness was.

Everything about The American Friend works-the writing, the directing, the acting, but nothing works quite as well as the cinematography.  I watched this on the BluRay edition of the Criterion disc (word-to-the-wise-it is currently July, which means Barnes & Noble is doing its half off sale, and I suggest not just shopping for a new disc there, but buying one you've never seen as cold-buying and watching a Criterion disc is one of the great joys, and it rarely doesn't pay off), and so I saw a high-quality print of the movie that might not have worked to the same degree on streaming...and I was stunned.  Every scene was a painting, mixing moody & bright lighting, oftentimes in the same shot, and using bright blues & reds in ways that just sing off the screen.  I found myself taking photos of Dennis Hopper in a Marlboro Man silhouette or two chasing cars, their reflections mirrored in a shallow pool of water they're cascading through, as I was watching, almost as if I was on a vacation and was struck by the beauty of my surroundings.  It's something to behold, and even if you're not a huge noir fan, I suggest checking it out for the cinematography alone.

1940's: The Big Sleep, The Blue Dahlia, Blues in the Night, Brighton Rock, Criss Cross, Crossfire, Daisy Kenyon, Dead Reckoning, Detour, Fallen Angel, Gilda, High Sierra, I Walk Alone, I Wake Up Screaming, The Killers, The Lady from Shanghai, Leave Her to Heaven, Moonrise, Murder My Sweet, Nightmare Alley, Out of the Past, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Ride the Pink Horse, Scarlet Street, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, They Won't Believe Me, Too Late for Tears, The Woman in the Window, The Woman on the Beach

1950's: Affair in Trinidad, The Asphalt Jungle, Beat the Devil, The Big Combo, The Big Heat, The Blue Gardenia, The Burglar, Cast a Dark Shadow, The Crimson Kimono, Gun Crazy, The Hitch-Hiker, House of Bamboo, In a Lonely Place, The Killing, Kiss Me Deadly, Murder by Contract, Night and the City, On Dangerous Ground, Pickup on South Street, Slightly Scarlet, Sudden Fear, Sweet Smell of Success, They Live By Night, While the City Sleeps

Neo-Noir: Blade Runner, Body Heat, Farewell My Lovely, Fargo, From Afar, The Long Goodbye, Night Moves, Nightcrawler