THE AMERICAN FRIEND

This 1977 film by German filmmaker Wim Wenders is an adaptation of ‘Ripley‘s Game’ the third novel by Patricia Highsmith featuring anti-hero Tom Ripley.

Ripley is the ‘American friend’, but only in an ironic sense given the malign way in which he intervenes in the life of Jonathan Zimmerman.

We are in Hamburg and Zimmerman is a talented maker of picture frames and restorer of artworks.  Ripley also moves in the art world but naturally enough in the less reputable areas (he deals in forgeries).  Zimmerman knows of him by reputation so that when their paths casually path at an auction he refuses to shake Ripley’s hand.

It’s a minor slight but when a member of the French criminal fraternity, Minot, puts pressure on Ripley to assassinate an American gangster Ripley hits upon the idea of Zimmerman being persuaded to take on the hit job.

It seems to be fairly common knowledge that Zimmerman is suffering from leukaemia and so Ripley and Ninot combine to make Zimmerman think that his condition has seriously deteriorated, thus making him open to the idea of earning a load of Deutschmarks so as to provide for his wife and son after his death.

Zimmerman (played very convincingly by Bruno Ganz) is neurotic enough to fall for this although it strained my credulity that he would be so trusting of the sinister Minot.

In fact Zimmerman may be a talented craftsman but in other respects he comes across as inept.  He makes a complete hash of the assassination of the gangster on the Paris metro, somehow succeeding despite his incompetence.   

When he is pressured to repeat the assignment, this time on a train from Munich, Ripley intervenes to help, perhaps feeling some remorse.

By this stage the film is starting to go off the rails. Up to that point Wenders had succeeded in pouring on enough atmosphere, aided by excellent cinematography and music, to distract from the weak plot.  But in the final half hour a lot of that good work is thrown away, involving as it does some unconvincing gangster shenanigans, Ripley going doolally and Zimmerman dying for no obvious reason.

The relationship between Ripley and Zimmerman should be at the heart of the film but it never gets going or convinces.  Ripley is not on screen that much and I’m surprised that he is not the one to accompany Zimmerman to Paris, which would have provided an opportunity for their friendship to evolve.

But perhaps the real problem is that Hopper’s take on Ripley is some distance from the self controlled and calculating character that I recall from the novels.  It’s a bold choice, which I didn’t particularly care for.

I’m going to leave the last word to Pauline Kael, who observes that notwithstanding the "neurotically beautiful visions of a disordered world" the film lacks the "nasty, pleasurable cleverness of a good thriller".