Der Amerikanische Freund
France
1977 Dramatic thriller
2h 5min
Original language: French
Jonathan Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz) believes that he will soon die of leukemia. The unscrupulous American Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper) learns of this and exploits Zimmermann's illness for his own purposes.
He introduces Jonathan to the underworld figure Minot (Gérard Blain), who offers to hire the terminally ill man as a professional hit man. He is to be paid appropriately for his work and thus enabled to leave something behind for his wife (Lisa Kreuzer) and their child. What does he have to lose, since he is going to die anyway? A friendship develops between the two very different men, and this ultimately leads Ripley to intervene when Zimmermann proves incapable of carrying out an additional murder.
| Directed by | Wim Wenders |
| Written by | Wim Wenders |
| Company | New Yorker FilmsNew Yorker FilmsNew Yorker Films |