Corbijn’s The American is moderately faithful to Martin Booth’s novel A Very Private Gentleman. It’s the story of a gunmaker/assassin hiding from his enemies. Booth’s novel has three picnics, but Corbijn includes two. Hired to make a high-powered rifle for an assassination, he makes a test run with his client Mathilde. For pleasantries, Jack has packed wicker with food, wine, and the rifle. It’s disassembled and wrapped in a cloth so that it looks (unintentionally) like a long sandwich. Mathilde looks on, unimpressed.
Corbijn is vague about what Jack has packed for the picnic. According to Booth, there is bread, apples, Aspirinio, and Moscato, but Mathilde is all business and wants to test the rifle first. She is keen to chitchat about bullets, “I shall require the rounds and the weapon at the end of next week,” she says, “In the meantime, would you mind adjusting the screws on the sight?”
There is a lover’s picnic, too. This time, Jack takes Clara, a local prostitute to the same place he and Mathilde tested the rifle. “I love you, Edmund.” Clara gushes, “And I love to go for picnics.” Corbijn heightens the sensuality so that Clara immediately removes her clothes (not her panties) once out of their car. Jack, inexplicably, keeps his clothes on. Later, they make love twice. (Some picnics are like this.)
See Martin Booth. A Very Private Gentleman. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004; Anton Corbijn. The American (2010). The screenplay by Rowan Joffe is based on Martin Booth’s A Very Private Gentleman.
The cast: George Clooney as Jack; Thelka Rueten as Matilde; Violante Placido as Clara