Maandag 23 Maart vertoonden we "The American Friend" (1977). Een "... superb adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel Ripley's Game, with Dennis Hopper as her amiably cynical hero, asked to find a non-professional for a killing or two, and - in echo of Strangers on a Train - drawing an innocent family man (Bruno Ganz) into the game by persuading him that the blood disease he is suffering from is not merely incurable but terminal". Regie: Wim Wenders. Director of photography: Robby Müller, nsc/bvk.

Vooraf liet Gé Aarts de in 1968 met een zilveren beer bekroonde korte film "Toets" zien, door Robby Müller, met Anton van Munster en Eduard van der Enden gedraaid voor regisseur/geluidsman Tom Tholen.

Robby Müller (in een BFI interview met Keith Griffiths uit 2002): "My work is emotional, it is not, "I have got a job", but "I have got this job." I wait for it. When you have little money it takes a bit of courage, and in my case perhaps stupidity, it takes courage to wait when you not earning any money. This is not understood by a lot of production companies nowadays because you are either available or you are not and they don't wait for you. Most cameramen don't wait for the production because they have something else to lose. I lose my self-respect in things, I don't just want to have a job to be busy, but I want 'that' job. So if you have this trust from the director it is such good motivation for me to wait for him, and perhaps for way less money. You can look at yourself afterwards in the mirror because you have done something you are standing for."

Boven: "Der Amerikanische Freund" (Wim Wenders, 1977)

Dava Tacon in "Senses of Cinema": Nicholas Ray himself was given a supporting role in Wenders' adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley's Game (recently remade by Lilian Cavani), which existed only in manuscript form when acquired. The American Friend is a thriller about an American who hoodwinks an innocent picture framer into committing hits for organised crime. Dennis Hopper cuts an at times bizarre figure as the sinister Tom Ripley, a loner, a cowboy adrift in Hamburg, consumed with existential angst. Hopper's characterisation must have been a shock to Highsmith purists, but highly enjoyable for the rest of us. Yet the chemistry between Hopper and the film's other lead, Swiss German Bruno Ganz, was, at the beginning of shooting, explosive to say the least. Ganz's preparation for his role as Jonathan was as meticulous as the character's approach to his profession as a picture framer and restorer. Hopper had left the entire cast and crew waiting for his arrival and when he finally turned up at Hamburg's airport, direct from Francis Ford Coppola's set of Apocalypse Now (1979) in the Philippines, he was still in his photographer's costume and out of his mind on drugs and alcohol. However, according to Wenders, when he said “action”, Hopper was completely in the character, but back to his prior rather psychotic state after the order “cut!” Ganz took great resentment at Hopper's unprofessionalism and a few days into shooting, his frustration erupted and he punched his American co-star in the face. Hopper however was a far more experienced brawler and soon bloodied Ganz's lip. The two continued to brawl their way off the set into Hopper's Thunderbird only to return to the set the next morning arm in arm, heavily intoxicated, differences settled, but in no state to be filmed. The chemistry between the two very different stars is one of the strongest suits of the film, along with the superb direction—one particular highlight is a masterful scene depicting Jonathan's inept murder of an American underworld figure in the Parisian metro system.

Once again, although the film was predominantly set in Europe, the unifying aesthetic was American. This time, Wenders and Müller decided to model the film's look on Edward Hopper, whose own work had been heavily influenced by American cinema. Wenders was drawn to Hopper's simplicity of framing and the ominous mood of his painting—Hopper's often deserted urban landscapes seemed to capture a moment of quiet “before all hell breaks loose”. The choice of Edward Hopper combined with Jürgen Knieper's brooding score created a sense in the viewer that danger is always just around the corner. Furthermore, the use of a deliberately American aesthetic in European locations brought a peculiar geographic confusion to the viewer with cross cutting geared to accentuate this confusion.

Although heralding a shift towards more conventional genre filmmaking for Wenders, The American Friend still features Wendersian motifs such as the use of rock 'n' roll, with Jonathan singing the Kinks' “There's Too Much on My Mind” to himself in his workshop; motion, as in Jonathan's travels from Hamburg to Paris and Munich, and allusions to the corruptive nature of American movies. Wenders' discourse on Hollywood is at once damning and reverential, as he ironically cast Nicholas Ray and Sam Fuller as an art forger and a crime boss respectively.

The American Friend was Germany's only entry in the Cannes Film Festival in 1977. It did not win a prize, unlike Kings of the Road, which won the FIPRESCI, but it did catch the eye of Francis Ford Coppola, who was beginning his attempts to shape himself into a studio mogul, founding his own Zoetrope Studios. Wenders was travelling in Australia when he got word that Coppola wanted him to direct a feature film in America.

Boven: Robby Müllers beginjaren volgens "Cinematographers.nl"

Boven: Robby Müllers beginjaren volgens "IMDb.com"

Boven: "Toets", regie: Tom Tholen

In de jaren zestig regisseerde Joris Ivens voor de gemeente Rotterdam "Rotterdam Europoort", een moderne interpretatie van "De Vliegende Hollander". Naast de verrassende beeldtaal is de film ook bijzonder vanwege het geluid. Het geluid van Ivens’ film was het werk van Tom Tholen, die sterk bijdroeg aan de vervreemding die daarin wordt opgeroepen. Ivens raadde Tholen aan om zelf te gaan regisseren. Door zijn bemiddeling kreeg Tholen vervolgens een opdracht van het havenbedrijf. Het werd een vrije impressie waarbij er gespeeld wordt met ruimte en materie: "Toets". Bovenal heeft deze film, die tenslotte het imago van de haven diende te bevorderen, een futuristische uitstraling. Dit werd onder meer bewerkstelligd door het veelal kunstmatige geluid, maar ook door eigenzinnig kleurgebruik en een dynamische montage. Verder komt de gelaagdheid van de werkelijkheid naar voren, bijvoorbeeld wanneer we de cameramensen, waaronder een heel jonge Robby Müller, zelf zien. De film werd op de Berlinale (1968) uitgekozen tot beste korte film en won daarnaast nog prijzen in Frankrijk en Italië.

Boven: resultaat zoekactie naar de film "Toets"

Boven: de film "Toets" op de pagina van Eduard van der Enden op "cinematographers.nl"

We lieten de film "Toets" zien omdat het een vroege film is uit het kort geleden met de "Bert Haanstra Prijs" bekroonde Oeuvre van Robby Müller. En omdat "Toets" de connectie is tussen drie NSC ere-leden. Het is de enige film waaraan de afgelopen maand overleden director of photography Anton van Munster, "Bert Haanstra Oeuvre Prijs" winnaar Robby Müller en NSC ere-lid Eduard van der Enden samenwerkten.

Naar aanleiding van Robby Müllers prijs wilden we graag een belangrijke en mooie film uit zijn oeuvre laten zien: "Der Amerikanische Freund". De film die voor Wenders en Müller het begin was van een inernationale carriere: "Wim and I became well known after The American Friend. Bogdanovich had to shoot a film in Singapore, very low budget and this French guy said why not try Robby Müller and his crew? They're cheap, fast and it's just what you need here in Singapore. So he phoned Cybill Shepherd in America and asked her to look at The American Friend to see what I was like and she liked it! She looked at a copy in Memphis and obviously told him I was alright". De film die een onophoudelijke stroom lovende kritieken kreeg: "Elaborate and Brilliant" (The Sunday Telegraph), "Outstanding… exceedingly good… Ganz gives a wholly remarkable performance… a thriller and a half" (The Guardian), "A really extraordinary performance by Ganz… stunning" (The Sunday Times), "4 Stars" (BBC), "Visually rich… hypnotic" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times), "Fascinating… extremely powerful… perfect Hitchcockian set pieces… Bruno Ganz is excellent (4 STARS)" (EMPIRE), "Superb" (Time Out), "The American Friend is a well-paced thriller with a few twists — another immaculately-presented film from director Wim Wenders that takes you beyond the realms of probabilities" (MotorBar).

Boven: "Der Amerikanische Freund" (Wim Wenders, 1977)

Boven: "The American Friend" op IMDb: "Edward Lachman .... assistant camera"

Boven: "Toets" op IMDb