It seems that Wim Wenders is a big fan of film noir (I didn't know about his first Hollywood film Hammett but I totally want to see it now), and tried to buy the film rights to two Patricia Highsmith novels, Cry Of The Owl and The Tremor Of Forgery, but both novels had already been optioned for film. It seems Highsmith found out about his inquiries and offered him the latest novel she had written, Ripley's Game. I saw the recent excellent European remake starring John Malkovic and Ray Winstone before knowing about this version. Wenders made his own screenplay for the novel and renamed it American Friend and cast Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz in the main roles. According to the film commentary of the DVD he was using the paintings of Dennis Hopper as inspiration for the film. The film has also been praised for documenting a Hamburg that no longer exists after re-gentrification-so it is a historical document of the city as well as a hard-boiled film noir story. I was a big fan of Wenders in the mid 80s and 90s after seeing his two masterpieces Paris, Texas and Wings Of Desire. That being said I found his other films from that time somewhat flawed: Until The End Of The World, Faraway So Close, and The End Of Violence. I recently saw a documentary he made about Yashiro Ozu called Tokyo Ga, which was somewhat surprising to me-I can't see the influence in his films. I have to say that I did enjoy the film, which has been hailed as one of Hopper's better performances.
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I am a huge Wenders fan and The State of Things may be my favorite. It is film noir, of sorts...
By the way, just finished watching the two Shimizu Hiroshi box sets. Have you seen any of his stuff? Mr. Thank You is great.
Posted by: ted | October 06, 2010 at 10:30 PM
Hey Ted, I'll put "The State Of Things" on my list.
I am aware of the Shimizu Criterion box set, but I can't see myself getting to it anytime soon. I am curious about catching up on Oshima, Seijun Suzuki,Kinji Fukasaku, and Masahiro Shinoda not to mention a score of contemporary films. But I like the fact there's so much more to explore.
Posted by: MC | October 07, 2010 at 01:10 AM