The American Friend (Wim Wenders, West Germany, 1977)

Wenders’s first “commercial” film merges his usual steadily presented musings on European identity, American culture, and cinema with some surprising new ingredients, from pulp-thriller source material—Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley’s Game—to a star turn from the manic, ever-destabilizing Dennis Hopper. A dying clockmaker (Bruno Ganz) meets a seedy American (Hopper, of course) who promises to take care of the man’s family after he dies, provided that Ganz “take care” of a mob hit. Neo-noir by way of European arthouse, The American Friend shows its inspirations through its wide-ranging cameos, from Nicholas Ray to Samuel Fuller, Jean Eustache to Daniel Schmid.

Part of the Wim Wenders: Portraits Along the Road series at BAMPFA.

Free gallery admission with same-day film ticket!