Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £4.99 a month
The American Friend
Acclaimed director Wim Wenders, with the help of Dennis Hopper, transforms Patricia Highsmith's novel 'Ripley's Game' into a gripping European noir.
Film noir 1978 121 mins
Director: Wim Wenders
Overview
Bruno Ganz plays professional frame maker Jonathan, who has been diagnosed with a terminal blood disease. A chance encounter with the enigmatic Tom Ripley, Dennis Hopper at his most charismatic offers him a way to ensure a stable future for his family. But as Jonathan embarks on his new and dangerous role, Tom questions his motives for involving his new friend.
Superbly shot by his consistent collaborator Robbie Müller, Wim Wenders draws on his love of American cinema and pays homage to the B-movie and Film Noir tradition. The result is one of the finest, most accessible and enthralling films of his career.
Related
Film noir
Carancho
Film noir 2010 107 mins Director: Pablo Trapero
A lawyer who works as a ‘carancho’ – an ambulance chaser – falls for a doctor he meets during a late night search for potential clients.
Breathless / À bout de souffle
Film noir 1960 90 mins Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard’s extraordinary debut feature, an insouciant and iconoclastic crime film that paved the way for the French New Wave.
Drunken Angel
Film noir 1948 98 mins Director: Akira Kurosawa
Part gangster film, part melodrama and part social critique, Akira Kurosawa's first critical success follows the troubled friendship between a disillusioned doctor and a young yakuza.
Wim Wenders
Alice in the Cities
Road movie 1974 113 mins Director: Wim Wenders
A German writer leaving the USA finds himself unwittingly embarking on a road trip with an eight-year-old girl.
Paris, Texas
Drama 1984 145 mins Director: Wim Wenders
The late, great Harry Dean Stanton's finest role came as the near-mute Travis, on a journey across America to reunite his family, in Wim Wenders' moving tale of loss and redemption.
Buena Vista Social Club
Documentary 1999 101 mins Director: Wim Wenders
Cuba’s rich and colourful past comes vividly to life in this legendary, Oscar-nominated documentary from director Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire).
A Trick of the Light
Drama-documentary 1996 79 mins Director: Wim Wenders
The origins of German cinema are given life in one of Wim Wenders’ most charming and playful films, focusing on pioneering inventors, the Skladanowsky brothers.
Tokyo-Ga
Documentary 1985 92 mins Director: Wim Wenders
Profiling one of the great directors of World Cinema, Wim Wenders delivers this moving portrait of Japanese auteur Yasujiro Ozu.
Notebook on Cities and Clothes
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1989 81 mins Director: Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders helms this unusual but intimate documentary following pioneering fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto as he prepares for a fashion show in Paris.
Featuring Bruno Ganz
Wings of Desire
Fantasy 1987 128 mins Director: Wim Wenders
In director Wim Wenders' (Paris, Texas) most metaphysical work, a guardian angel desires nothing more than to be human. Presented in a stunning new restoration.
The Marquise of O...
Period drama 1976 103 mins Director: Eric Rohmer
Eric Rohmer's first feature-length film after a four-year break from filmmaking is a German-language adaptation of Henrich von Kleist's classic novel, following the titular Marquise as she deals with an unwanted pregnancy.
Nosferatu the Vampyre
Horror 1979 107 mins Director: Werner Herzog
English language version of Herzog’s stimulating take on the Dracula story starring Klaus Kinski, with echoes of Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu.
Directed by Wim Wenders
Wings of Desire
Fantasy 1987 128 mins Director: Wim Wenders
In director Wim Wenders' (Paris, Texas) most metaphysical work, a guardian angel desires nothing more than to be human. Presented in a stunning new restoration.
The Goalie's Anxiety At The Penalty Kick
Crime 1971 103 mins Director: Wim Wenders
Unavailable for three decades, Wim Wenders’ 1972 classic about an errant footballer who turns to crime; restored and remastered in stunning 4K.
A Trick of the Light
Drama-documentary 1996 79 mins Director: Wim Wenders
The origins of German cinema are given life in one of Wim Wenders’ most charming and playful films, focusing on pioneering inventors, the Skladanowsky brothers.
Tokyo-Ga
Documentary 1985 92 mins Director: Wim Wenders
Profiling one of the great directors of World Cinema, Wim Wenders delivers this moving portrait of Japanese auteur Yasujiro Ozu.
Notebook on Cities and Clothes
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1989 81 mins Director: Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders helms this unusual but intimate documentary following pioneering fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto as he prepares for a fashion show in Paris.
The Scarlet Letter
Period drama 1972 90 mins Director: Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders adapts the acclaimed novel in which a Puritan village chastises a young mother for giving birth out of wedlock.
New
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
Horror 1991 81 mins Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Shinya Tsukamoto's sequel has the Iron Man transforming into a cyberkinetic gun when a gang of vicious skinheads kidnap his son.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Fantasy 1988 67 mins Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Shinya Tsukamoto's wild cyberpunk tale of a businessman's agonising transformation into a walking scrap heap is a jaggedly dehumanised vision of the future.
Power in Our Hands
Documentary 2015 75 mins Director: Angela Spielsinger
Ground-breaking documentary that uses archive film to tell the story of the British Deaf community’s fight for civil rights.
Traps
Comedy 1998 116 mins Director: Vera Chytilová
Věra Chytilová's dark, post-communist comedy. After a veterinary surgeon is sexually assaulted by two men, she uses her particular expertise in castraton to exact her revenge…
Something Different
Drama 1963 81 mins Director: Vera Chytilová
Věra Chytilová's first feature is an important work of women's cinema, which contrasts the parallel stories of a gymnast (filmed as documentary) and a housewife (told as fiction).
Fruit of Paradise
Drama 1969 99 mins Director: Vera Chytilová
Věra Chytilová's symbolic retelling of the Adam and Eve story is a ravishing tapestry of ideas, textures, and visual tropes.