Der amerikanische Freund (1977)

Another "new to the film buff" older film. Wim Wenders, and, to be honest, I think the first Wenders I have seen. It goes a little something like this...

There's an art fraud dealer (Dennis Hopper) and a art fraudist (frauder?). They're selling paintings in Germany that are done by a dead painter, but really done by the guy who is faking that he is that painter (or is that painter and faking that he's dead). The dealer meets a guy. A German guy. The German guy doesn't like him much because he makes money from art. Or makes money from fake art. Hard to say. The German guy is a framer and painting restorer. But he's sick. Really sick. Or maybe not really all that sick. Somebody asks Dennis Hopper to kill some guy, but he says no. He gets a print framed by the sick(ish) framer guy who's freaked out 'coz people's telling him he's REALLY sick. They're friends now. The doctor says he's not so sick, really. Then the other guy asks the (maybe) not-so-sick framer guy to kill the guy he wanted the other guy (his friend now) to kill. He says he's REALLY sick, so why not kill somebody? He gets a different doctor to say he's REALLY sick. So he kills the guy they said to kill. Then they don't give him all the money so he goes to kill another guy. Dennis Hopper gets upset with the guy getting his friend to kill everybody, so he helps the framer kill the next few guys. Then everybody gets sad. Then the art dealer and the framer kill a whole bunch more people, including the guy who got them to kill all the other people. There's an ambulance. The ambulance explodes. The (I guess REALLY sick) guy abandons his art dealer friend and then he dies.



If the above plot clarification doesn't attract you...it is a very beautifully shot film. Made me want to go to Germany! Dennis Hopper stinks a bit, but the German actor is great. Plus, hands-down, the coolest kid's bedroom on earth as a prominent feature.