The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith quotes Wenders: "I was really happy with the picture and couldn't wait to have Patricia see it. But then, to my great disappointment, she was quite disturbed by it, didn't conceal that either and didn't have anything good to say about it after the screening. I left utterly frustrated. Months later, I got a letter from her. She said she had seen the film a second time, this time in a public screening on the Champs-Élysées during a visit in Paris. And she had much better feelings about it now. ... And she was full of praise for Dennis Hopper, too, whom she had flat-out rejected the first time. She now wrote that my film had captured the essence of that Ripley character better than any other films. You can guess how relieved I was!" In a 1988 interview, Highsmith praised the film's "stylishness" and said the scenes on the train were "terrific." The film was selected as the West German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 50th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film by the U.S. National Board of Review. Adaptations The American Friend is the second Ripley big-screen adaptation, after Purple Noon. It was followed by 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley, 2002's Ripley's Game and 2005's Ripley Underground. The Ripley films do not form an official series, or precede or follow on from each other. See also List of submissions to the 50th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film List of German submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Ripley's Game (film), a 2002 adaptation of the same novel References Bibliography Schenkar, Joan. The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith. St. Martin's Press, 2009. External links Two Faces of Ripley, filmbrain.com comparison of The American Friend and Ripley's Game The American Friend: Little Lies and Big Disasters an essay by Francine Prose at the Criterion Collection 1977 films 1977 crime drama films 1970s psychological thriller films West German films German crime drama films German psychological thriller films 1970s German-language films Films about organized crime in Germany Films based on American novels Films based on crime novels Films based on works by Patricia Highsmith Films directed by Wim Wenders Films shot in