Directed by Wim Wenders The American Friend is as deliberate as The Talented Mr. Ripley is frenetic. It’s a much different pace than you’d expect from this kind of material but which Wenders knows all too well. The film ends up as a set piece for Ganz, with Hopper playing a considerably smaller role than you’d expect. Wenders just never generates the desperation Zimmermann needs to make this story work. The result is a slow burn that slowly peters out instead of grows into a bonfire.
The cinematography is both bleak and pretty bouncing between Paris and postwar Germany. The editing is appropriate, though it lets the scenes drag on too long. Watch for directors Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) and Samuel Fuller (Shock Corridor) in small roles.
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