filmbriefs
Actor · 1941–2019

Bruno Ganz

3
briefs
13:00
average
39 min
in total
On film.briefs3
13:00

The American Friend

Wim Wenders · 1977

Wim Wenders’ 1977 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley’s Game stars Bruno Ganz as a terminally ill picture framer drawn into murder by Dennis Hopper’s enigmatic American, Tom Ripley. Shot in Hamburg and Paris by Robby Müller, with a sparse score by Jürgen Knieper, the film treats the thriller form as a vessel for existential portraiture — prioritising texture, hesitation, and linguistic nuance over plot mechanics. Its power lies in accumulation, not revelation.

13:00

Wings of Desire

Wim Wenders · 1987

Wings of Desire (1987) is a West German–French arthouse fantasy set in Cold War Berlin, following an angel who abandons immortality to experience human sensation. Shot in black-and-white for the angels’ perspective and colour for human life, it uses poetic narration, restrained performances, and location-based realism to explore silence, memory, and embodiment. Directed by Wim Wenders with cinematography by Henri Alekan and music by Jürgen Knieper, it won European Film Awards and critical acclaim, though its deliberate pace and abstract structure divide viewers.

13:00

Faraway, So Close!

Wim Wenders · 1993

Wim Wenders’ 1993 fantasy sequel Faraway, So Close! follows the angel Cassiel as he becomes human in reunified Berlin, navigating bureaucracy, addiction, and criminal enterprise. Shot by Jürgen Jürges and scored by Laurent Petitgand, it trades the poetic stillness of Wings of Desire for a grittier, more fragmented register — one that reflects the city’s uncertain new reality. Though it won the Grand Prix at Cannes, its loose structure and tonal shifts divided critics. It is a film of texture over trajectory, best approached as a sustained meditation on presence, not a story with stakes.