The American Friend
Short description
Tom Ripley, an American who makes his living dealing in forged art, crosses paths with Jonathan Zimmermann, a Hamburg picture framer, at an auction. After the gangster Raoul Minot asks Ripley to carry out a killing, Ripley points him toward Zimmermann. Knowing that Zimmermann is terminally ill and worried about what will become of his wife and child, the two men pressure him into taking the job as a paid assassin, and he reluctantly accepts.
Wim Wenders directed and wrote the screenplay, and produced the film with Joachim von Mengershausen. It is the third of the twenty-two features he has directed, following Wrong Move from 1975 and preceding Hammett from 1982. Dennis Hopper plays Ripley and Bruno Ganz plays Zimmermann, with Lisa Kreuzer as Zimmermann's wife Marianne, Gérard Blain as Minot, and the directors Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller in supporting roles. The production was a German, American and French co-production involving WDR, Bavaria Film, Road Movies and the Wim Wenders Stiftung.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.1 out of 10 from 459 votes, while a critics' rating of 7.3 out of 10 is based on 25 reviews, placing the two roughly in line with each other.
What's left behind the scenes
- Patricia Highsmith disliked the production from the very beginning, as she felt it distorted the image of Ripley. Only after seeing the film in a cinema did she admit that "The American Friend" was magnificent.
- Wenders tried to acquire the rights to several of Highsmith's novels at once, but learned that all the rights already belonged to other directors. When the writer found out about this, she offered the director «Ripley's Game», which had not been published at that time.
- Wim Wenders initially really wanted John Cassavetes to play the role of the main character, Tom Ripley – rumors have it that the screenwriter was strongly impressed by his performance in Roman Polanski's «Rosemary's Baby».
- Dennis Hopper, who replaced John Cassavetes in the role of Tom Ripley, brought a number of new ideas to the filming process, in particular, he came up with the title "The American Friend" instead of the working title "Framed".
- Wim Wenders planned to give the roles of all the foreigners in the film to established directors. Directors such as Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, and Gérard Blain tried their hand at acting.
- The film is based on Patricia Highsmith's novel «Ripley's Game» (1974).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
