The American Friend (German: Der amerikanische Freund) is a 1977 film by Wim Wenders, loosely adapted from the novel Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith. The film is of the neo-noir genre, and features Dennis Hopper as career criminal Tom Ripley and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Zimmermann, a terminally ill picture framer whom Ripley coerces into becoming an assassin.
Though primarily based on Ripley's Game, the film also uses elements, uncredited, of Ripley Under Ground, which was later adapted to film in 2005.
The source novel Ripley's Game (1974) was cinematically adapted a second time as Ripley's Game (2002).
Read more about The American Friend: Production, Plot, Critical Reaction, Featured Cast
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—Edmund White (b. 1940)