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American Friend, The (amerikanische Freund, Der)

Scene from "The American Friend" (photo © Reverse Angle Library GmbH)

At an auction, the art dealer Ripley meets Jonathan, a picture framer who is suffering from a rare blood disease, and targets him as a potential mob assassin. Jonathan will not be suspected because he has no motive. When Jonathan is led to believe that his illness is terminal, he agrees to the murder plot so that he can leave his wife and family financial security upon his death. Through the lonely streets of New York, Paris and Hamburg, the two men form an unlikely bond, as Ripley begins to regret his past and the once scrupulous Jonathan faces the exhilaration of cold-blooded murder.

Wim Wenders was born in Düsseldorf in 1945. He abandoned studies in Medicine and Philosophy to become a painter, but in Paris he discovered cinema instead. He attended film school in Munich from 1967-1970, and then started to direct and produce his own films. He has received numerous international awards, including the Golden Lion (1982), the Golden Palm (1984), the European Film Award (1988), and a Silver Bear (2000). He is a professor at the Hamburg Academy of Arts, and lives partly in America, partly in Berlin. A selection of his acclaimed films includes: THE GOALKEEPER'S FEAR OF THE PENALTY (1971), ALICE IN THE CITIES (1973), IN THE COURSE OF TIME (1976), THE AMERICAN FRIEND (1977), HAMMETT (1982), THE STATE OF THINGS (1982), PARIS, TEXAS (1984), WINGS OF DESIRE (1987), UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD (1991), FARAWAY, SO CLOSE! (1993), LISBON STORY (1994), THE END OF VIOLENCE (1997), BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1998), THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL (2000), THE SOUL OF A MAN (2003), LAND OF PLENTY (2004), DON'T COME KNOCKING (2005), PALERMO SHOOTING (2008), and PINA (2011), among others.

Genre Literature, Thriller, Drama
Category Feature
Year of Production 1977
Director Wim Wenders
Screenplay Wim Wenders
Director of Photography Robby Müller
Editor Peter Przygodda
Music by Juergen Knieper
Production Design Heidi Luedi, Toni Luedi
Cast Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain, Andreas Dedecke, David Blue, Stefan Lennert, Rudolf Schuendler, Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, Peter Lilienthal, Daniel Schmid, Sandy Whitelaw, Jean Eustache, Lou Castel
Producer Wim Wenders
Production Companies Road Movies Filmproduktion/Berlin, Wim Wenders Production/Munich & Berlin, Les Films du Losange/Paris, WDR/Cologne
Length 126 min
Format 35 mm, color
Dubbed Versions German
Original Version German/English/French
Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby SR
Festivals Mar del Plata 2010
Awards German Film Critics' Award 1977, 3 German Film Award 1978
German Distributor TOBIS Film/Berlin

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