Production
Wenders was a fan of Patricia Highsmith and had wanted to adapt one of her novels to film. He initially wanted to film either The Tremor of Forgery or The Cry of the Owl but found that not only were the rights to these novels unavailable, the rights to all of Highsmith's novels had already been sold. Highsmith learned of his desire to film one of her novels and they met, where she offered him the unpublished manuscript of Ripley's Game.
Wenders wanted to cast John Cassavetes as Ripley, but he turned it down and suggested Dennis Hopper for the part. After casting Hopper, an experienced director, Wenders decided to cast directors in all of the gangster roles, including Gérard Blain, Nicholas Ray, and Samuel Fuller. Wenders disliked the title Ripley's Game and the film was shot under the title Framed, and he also considered the title Rule Without Exception. He credits Hopper with suggesting the title The American Friend.
Popular music plays a large part in the film. Ripley quotes from the song "Ballad of Easy Rider" from Easy Rider, a film that Hopper starred in and directed. He later quotes from Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee" and "I Pity the Poor Immigrant." Jonathan Zimmermann is evidently a fan of The Kinks, playing or singing their songs "Too Much on My Mind" and "Nothin' in the World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl" in his shop. Summer in the City, the first full-length feature film from Wenders, was dedicated to The Kinks. Ripley mentions to Jonathan that he's "bringing the Beatles back to Hamburg," and Jonathan quotes their song "Drive My Car" later in the film.
Read more about this topic: The American Friend
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally to be nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“The development of civilization and industry in general has always shown itself so active in the destruction of forests that everything that has been done for their conservation and production is completely insignificant in comparison.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The repossession by women of our bodies will bring far more essential change to human society than the seizing of the means of production by workers.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)