- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
- Messages
- 66,852
- Real Name
- Ronald Epstein
The American Friend
Studio: Anchor Bay
Year: 1977
Rated: NR
Film Length: 125 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (1.77:1)
Subtitles: None (except for German translation)
Wim Wenders is perhaps Germany's most renowned
director of the New German Cinema, using heavy
American influence in his films. Perhaps no film
of his has received more international attention
than The American Friend, a film that
continues to show Wender's insatiable appetite for
American movies. It was the success of this film
that brought him to the attention of Francis Ford
Coppola who invited him to come to the states a
year later to make his first film for Zoetrope,
Lightning over Water. His most highly
acclaimed film, Wings of Desire was released
in 1987.
Originally released as Der Amerikanische Freund,
this is a story of a Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno
Ganz) a picture framer and art restorationist
who lives in Hamburg with his wife and son. Jonathan
has been diagnosed with leukemia and doesn't expect
that he will be living much longer.
Enter Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper), an American art
dealer who knows of Jonathan's illness and sets him
up as a hit man. The only reason Jonathan considers
such a job is to ensure his family's financial future.
Soon, Jonathan finds himself in a Paris train station
pursuing a man he is destined to kill.
I found the The American Friend to be a
nice surprise on several levels. First, I found
this to be a pretty damn good film -- nicely paced,
beautifully photographed in the city of Paris, and
embodied with a captivating atmosphere. It's
interesting to watch this ordinary man slowly get
tangled into a web of deceit and murder.
How is the transfer?
When one considers that this film was a low-budget
European film from 1977, you would expect there to
be skepticism about how good this film would look
on DVD some 25 years later. I had the same doubts,
and actually from the opening moments of the film
that features the Twin Towers in the distance, I
was somewhat concerned. You'll be happy to hear
that the film's gritty title images are the only
sore point of this transfer. From hereon in, this
film looks pretty darn amazing.
Transfer is surprisingly clean and sharp. There
is hardly a trace of underlying film grain or noise.
The film doesn't have that overly dated look to it,
resulting in colors that look extremely vivid. Flesh
tones run slightly red, though look generally good.
I was even amazed at how clean whites look here which
is unusual for a film of this type. I had expected
far worse from this transfer and instead was blown
away at how good it looks after 25 years.
Another big surprise is the 5.1 Digital surround
mix that is extremely active. Not only is audio
clean and bright across the front channels, but
there always seems to be some sort of activity
going on in the rear channels -- the seagulls and
foghorns of the Hamburg harbor, the city traffic
of Paris or rumbles of a train speeding inside a
Metro tunnel -- all nicely reproduced here. Jürgen
Knieper's score manages to extend itself to the rear
channels as well. Even the LFE channel produced
some supportive rumbling sound throughout the film.
Special Features
I must mention that while this is yet another
Anchor Bay release that comes without standard
subtitling, this film does offer text translation
for the German dialogue spoken throughout.
This is actually the first film I have ever seen
that features an equal amount of German and English
dialogue depending on the actors used in the scene.
A full-length Commentary features the low-key
raspy voice of director Wem Wenders and the unmistakable
presence of actor Dennis Hopper. Wenders talks about
wanting to make this film because of his fascination
with Patricia Highsmith's novels. He never was able
to secure the rights to the novels he wanted.
It wasn't until he met with Patricia that she offered
him the rights to Ripley's Game, which became
The American Friend. Hopper talks about the
section of Hamburg where the frame shop existed and
the fact that it was about to be torn down. Before
that could happen, the film was made there, making
it the last known record of an area that no longer
exists. The film was shot almost entirely on
location and its sound is 99% true to its original
source. Hopper tells a story about his New York
shoot where he admits to sort of being out of it.
In Hamburg, however, he felt he was able to be more
creative with his character. It was cool to hear
Wenders talk about how he shot the train sequences --
all of it was shot in a studio with rear projection
as blue screen was not available at the time. The
results are surprisingly authentic. This commentary
truly belongs to Wenders, and he's a pleasure to
listen to here.
There are 36 minutes of deleted scenes here
that are a mish-mosh of goofs, behind-the-camera
shots and extensions of scenes already included.
Some of the extra scenes are interesting for the
fact that they look at how Jonathan's wife dealt
with her kids and stage career while he was in
Paris. Not only can you watch these scenes with
a 5.1 surround mix, but you have the option of
viewing them with commentary from Wim Wenders.
Also included is the film's original trailer
and a nice set of Talent Bios that you give
you interesting text background on Wenders, Ganz
and Hopper.
Final Thoughts
While it is always difficult to sell this type
of film to American audiences, I think The
American Friend will be a nice surprise to
anyone unfamiliar with the work of Wim Wenders.
It's not only a gripping action yarn, but a fine
piece of cinema that should not be missed.
Release Date: January 7, 2003
All screen captures have been further compressed.
They are for illustrative purposes only and do not
represent actual picture quality
