049 - The American Friend, 1977, Germany. Dir. Wim Wenders.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

049 - The American Friend, 1977, Germany. Dir. Wim Wenders.

The title The Talented Mr. Ripley refers to the fictional character Tom Ripley.

Here is a quiz for you.  See if you can get it right.

Who played Tom Ripley?

a) Matt Damon
b) John Malkovich
c) Dennis Hopper
d) Alain Delon
e) Barry Pepper

What is your answer?  Write it down or shout it out loud.  We will review it in a moment.

Patricia Highsmith wrote five novels featuring the protagonist Tom Ripley.  She wrote them over the course of 36 years, from 1955 to 1991.  The Ripley character was popular.  He was a man of taste and culture, but a con man.  He used his wiles to get money and to associate with rich and privileged people.  He was clever.

The first three novels were made into movies.  Our movie was made from the third novel.

How did you do on the quiz?

Did you say a) Matt Damon?

If you did, then you are partially correct.

The correct answer to the quiz is ALL OF THE ABOVE.

Today's talented Mr. Ripley is Dennis Hopper.  Yes, that Dennis Hopper.

The one who seems like Owen Wilson's secret father.

The one who seems to play all his parts high or hung over.  Always a mixture of ultimate relaxation and imminent combustion.

The one who forms words in the back of his throat and pushes them up across his upper palate and through his nose, never letting a sound come down to the bottom of his mouth.

The one who is willing to get his hands dirty.  Who may, in fact, never wash his hands.

Our film begins with our con man Tom Ripley asking that all-important question--

"What's wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg?"

I know you have been wondering that yourself, so now you may be relieved that someone would come out and ask the question for you.  Thank you, Dennis Hopper for asking it for us.

Ripley has come to the studio of a painter, an art forgerer, to pay him for his last painting, which sold at auction, successfully, under the guise of the work of a great painter.  He needs more paintings.  The painter, a German, teases him, an American, about his cowboy hat.  He asks our question.

At the next auction, in Hamburg, he bids up one of the fogerer's forgeries until some uninformed sap pays handsomely for it.  He meets a framer.  The framer is rude to him.  He refuses to shake his hand.  He has heard of Ripley, and believes Ripley does not have a healthy appreciation for art.

After the framer leaves, Ripley learns that the framer is sick, potentially terminally.

Ah, just the man for Ripley's next scheme.

Assassin for hire.  Must be a novice.  Must have no experience.  Must be on the verge of death.

When we watched John Cassavetes' film The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (34, February 3), we saw a man get suckered by some gangsters into conducting a killing for them.  He was a decent man.  He owned a strip club, but he left others alone.  He would never hurt someone like that, let alone kill anyone.  But they got him over a barrel with gambling debts and forced him into acquiescence through subservience.

Here in Wim Wenders' film The American Friend, Jonathan Zimmermann, played by Bruno Ganz, will also be conscripted into service as an assassin through the manipulations of others.  In this case, his doctor has informed him that he has a blood disease.  Ripley overhears that he is sick, so Ripley spreads the rumor that he is dying.  Then Ripley comes to him to order an engraving to be framed.  In the process, he becomes his American friend.

Ripley compliments Zimmermann.  He says that he has heard that he is a great craftsmen.  Have you ever thought of a picture framer as being a fine artist?  Is it more than a teenager's summer job at Hobby Lobby?  Remember when we discovered Jacques Tati, we learned that his father was a picture framer, and that Tati grew up with Vincent Van Gogh and Toulouse Lautrec as family friends.  This is high-end stuff we are talking about.

Ripley's men have successfully created in Zimmermann a sense of fear and desperation that he is about to die.  He pesters his own doctor with pleas for more information.  His doctor does not share his sense of urgency.  So Ripley's men call Zimmermann from Paris and have him fly to Paris to get a second opinion at a local hospital--on a Sunday!  There he is given the (false) information that yes, indeed, you are about to die.  Very soon.  Now that you know this, you can take care of your wife and son by committing this murder for us.  If you do, we will pay you handsomely for it.  You can provide for your wife and son.  They will live a good life after you're gone.  And it will no matter if you get caught, because you are going to die anyway.

What a set-up.

Get an amateur to do your killing for you, so that you are not responsible.

Get a terminally ill man to do it, because it will not longer matter to him, and he will be motivated to care for his family.

If only Zimmermann knew that his death was not that imminent.

The downside of using an amateur is that an amateur is an amateur and will behave like an amateur.

They give him strict instructions to shoot the man and then behave as though nothing had happened.  Keep the gun hidden under your overcoat.  Walk through the terminal as one of the crowd.  Do nothing to draw attention to yourself.  Quietly get on the train with the masses and be carried away.  No one will ever suspect you.

So what do you think the amateur will do?

He shoots him on an UP escalator.  Then he starts running DOWN the UP escalator in a panic!  He runs through the terminal, stopping and turning and looking around.  We watch him on the security monitors!  One after the next after the next.  Recording his every move.

Consider the apparition of Zimmermann's face in the crowd.  He may have killed the man in a station of the Metro, but he is definitely more than a petal on a wet, black bough.  He is freaking out.

Maybe there are other ways to provide for your family.

Zimmermann's wife will not appreciate that her husband is now sneaking around, using his disease to lie to her, or that all this money is now rolling in for no understandable reason.

The plot will only thicken.  Zimmerman is now in over his head.  Ripley will continue to play him.  Ripley may even be playing his own people.

Where will it all end?

The movie is filmed in warm colors and shows us the streets of Hamburg as well as shots of Paris on the Seine during a time when a lot of high-rise construction was going on.  Both of these cityscapes are inviting.

Time to plan a vacation.

How many movies have you seen set in Hamburg?  I can think of one other: Anton Corbijn's 2014 crime thriller A Most Wanted Man, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, and Willem Dafoe.  Now there is a cast for you.  And those are just the Americans.  The locals are outstanding.

So what will happen to Zimmermann?  What will happen to Ripley?

Something about a white ambulance and a red Volkswagen Beetle.

In a climax by the sea.


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Here is a list of the Ripley novels and the movies made from them.

The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1955
          Studio One, "The Talented Mr. Ripley," 1956 - TV program
          Purple Noon, 1960 - Alain Delon
          The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1999 - Matt Damon
Ripley Under Ground, 1970
          Ripley Under Ground, 2005 - Barry Pepper
Ripley's Game, 1974
          The American Friend, 1977 - Dennis Hopper
          Ripley's Game, 2002 - John Malkovich
The Boy Who Followed Ripley, 1980
Ripley Under Water, 1991