Wim Wenders Movies
Born in Dusseldorf just after the end of World War II, German film director Wim Wenders grew up with an insatiable appetite for American movies. Not all that interested in big-budget products, he, instead, developed a fascination with B-movies, notably melodramas and Westerns. After studying Medicine and Philosophy in his native country, Wenders took up art in Paris (a mecca for viewing American films), and then returned to his homeland to attend Munich's Academy of Film and Television. Like many of his French movie-fan brethren, Wenders began his career writing film criticism before directing a few short subjects of his own, and, in 1970, he and several other young filmmakers formed a production-distribution firm, Filmverlag Der Autoren. Summer in the City (1970) was Wenders' first feature film, but it was his 1973 adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter that first brought him attention outside of Germany. The film included many accomplishments, most notably coaxing a superb performance from Senta Berger as Hester Prynne, and managing to make the landscapes of Spain resemble 17th century New England.At this point, Wenders began his road movie cycle, inspired by such American pictures as Easy Rider (1970) and Two-Lane Blacktop (1971). Three films in this genre followed in quick succession: Alice in the Cities (1974), The Wrong Move (1975), and Kings of the Road (1976). For his first English-language picture, The American Friend (1977), Wenders cast three of his American movie idols: actor Dennis Hopper (director/star of Easy Rider) and "cult" directors Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) and Samuel Fuller (The Steel Helmet). Wenders would later co-direct Lightning Over Water (1980) with Ray.
Wenders' American-financed films Hammett (1980) and Paris, Texas (1983) were remarkable in their evocation of time and place, and the director could certainly have continued quite satisfactorily in Hollywood. However, he seemed to prefer activity in Europe, even though he was always one step ahead of his creditors -- especially when running his own studio, Gray City. Wenders' return to German filmmaking was rewarded in 1987 with the release of Der Himmel Über Berlin, or Wings of Desire. The story of an angel who wants to become human after finding earthly love met with an enthusiastic international response, culminating in a slew of honors for Wenders (including a 1987 Cannes Best Director award, a 1988 European Film Academy award for Best Director, and a host of awards from the New York Film Critics Circle) and an eventual 1998 American remake, City of Angels.
In the 1990s, Wenders' love of on-the-road location filming was again manifested in such films as Until the End of the World (1991) (filmed on four continents and designed to be "the ultimate road movie"), and Faraway, So Close (1993), a marathon experience (which originally ran 164 minutes) wherein an angel wanders about to observe the changing scene in a newly unified Germany. In 1995, Wenders made a road movie of a different sort with Par-Dela les Nuages/Beyond the Clouds, which he co-directed with legendary Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni. Set in various European countries, the film explored the vagaries of love and lust through the experiences of several principle characters. Receiving decidedly mixed reviews, it differed strongly from Wenders' next effort, Die Gebrüder Sklandanowsky/A Trick of the Light, a 1996 historical tribute to some of the more neglected developers of moving picture technology. Wenders returned to the States the following year with The End of Violence, a film that explored the effects of violence on the intertwining of people's lives. Featuring Bill Pullman, Andie McDowell, and Gabriel Byrne, it was not a great commercial or critical success, but Wenders did win acclaim the following year for The Buena Vista Social Club. A documentary about Cuban music, the film was the result of a successful collaboration between Wenders and musician Ry Cooder, who had previously supplied the score for the director's Paris, Texas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2009
Eight internationally known filmmakers address vital issues concerning the Third World in this omnibus feature. In 2000, 191 countries affiliated with the United Nations agreed to take part in a program to cut world poverty in half before the year 2015 by observing eight Millennium Development Goals. In Eight, each of these goals is addressed in a short film from a different filmmaker. "Tiya's Dream" by Adberrahmane Sissako focuses on "Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger" in a story about an African student preparing a class project on the Millennium Development Goals. A child in Iceland is learning about Nepal in Gael García Bernal's "The Letter", a variation on the theme of "Achieving Universal Primary Education." Mira Nair examines the issue "Promote Gender Equality" in "How Can It Be", about a Muslim woman who wants to leave her husband. "Mansion on the Hill" by Gus Van Sant focuses on contemporary teens as he contemplates efforts to "Reduce Child Mortality." Jan Kounen traveled to Peru to film his polemic on "Improving Maternal Health," "The Story of Panshin Beka". A man struggles with a fatal disease in Gaspar Noe's "SIDA", aligned to the goal "Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases." A village in the Australian outback struggles with environmental issues in "The Water Diary", a parable on "Ensuring Environmental Sustainability" by Jane Campion. And Wim Wenders looks into the ways people in need can help themselves in "Person to Person", his study of "Global Partnerships for Development." Eight received its world premiere at the 2008 Rome Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2008
In this thoughtful science fiction drama from filmmaker Kanji Nakajima, Kohei Takahara (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) is an astronaut who is invited to take part in a top-secret scientific study in which a clone will be created from his DNA and brought to life in the event of his untimely death. Kohei agrees to participate, and when he loses his life as his mission goes awry while returning to Earth, the clone is brought to life. While the "new" Kohei seems healthy and all but indistinguishable from the original, a major flaw is soon discovered -- the clone has no memories past Kohei's childhood, and doesn't comprehend the notion of the astronaut's death. When the clone escapes, it happens to find Kohei's body near the crash site, and is jarred back to a memory of the death of Kohei's twin brother when he was little. The clone is convinced Kohei's corpse is actually the lost twin that died years ago, and he sets out to take the body back to his family. Kuron Wa Kokyo O Mezasu (aka The Clone Returns Home) received its American premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2008
Die Toten Hosen front-man Campino headlines iconic German filmmaker Wim Wenders' drama about a world-renowned photographer who finds a new life and a new love while being targeted by a tenacious trigger-man. Finn (Campino) is a successful shutterbug who leads a hectic life, gets precious little sleep, and doesn't go anywhere without his trusty headphones. One day, when Finn's life begins to unravel, he leaves Düsseldorf behind to find peace in Palermo. Just as the seeds for a new life are planted, however, a mysterious assassin comes gunning for Finn with a vengeance. Inga Busch, Dennis Hopper, and Lou Reed co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, (more)
- 2007
At the time of its production, To Each His Own Cinema represented the latest arrival in a tidal wave of internationally oriented omnibus films, with no official relation between them but all produced within a few years of one another. Few could claim a roster of talent comparable to this one, which boasts contributions by 33 of the most acclaimed directors in world cinema,
each responsible for three minutes of celluloid. Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes Festival, devised the project as a "gift" to commemorate the festival's 60th birthday, and recruited many Golden Palm winners in the directorial selection process. Simply put, Jacob asked each director to express, cinematically, his or her "state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theater." Featured filmmakers include Joel and Ethan Coen; Olivier Assayas; Atom Egoyan; Walter Salles; Lars von Trier; Nanni Moretti; Roman Polanski; Theo Angelopoulos; Chen Kaige; Andrei Konchalovsky; and many, many others. Many of the initial entries (by Angelopoulos and others) involve the neglect or disrepute into which contemporary cinema, as a collective viewing experience, has fallen; a few segments, such as the Coen Brothers' short, about a cowboy (Josh Brolin) who attempts to determine which movie he should go see in sunny Los Angeles, employ a light and whimsical approach. At the other end of the spectrum sits David Cronenberg's piece -- a brutal short in which he prepares to commit a very public and graphic suicide on television before millions of viewers. Other highlights include Moretti -- offering a typically witty divertissement on what cinema means -- and Zhang Yimou, who lyrically depicts the gathering of numerous rural children for a screening at a movie theater. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
each responsible for three minutes of celluloid. Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes Festival, devised the project as a "gift" to commemorate the festival's 60th birthday, and recruited many Golden Palm winners in the directorial selection process. Simply put, Jacob asked each director to express, cinematically, his or her "state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theater." Featured filmmakers include Joel and Ethan Coen; Olivier Assayas; Atom Egoyan; Walter Salles; Lars von Trier; Nanni Moretti; Roman Polanski; Theo Angelopoulos; Chen Kaige; Andrei Konchalovsky; and many, many others. Many of the initial entries (by Angelopoulos and others) involve the neglect or disrepute into which contemporary cinema, as a collective viewing experience, has fallen; a few segments, such as the Coen Brothers' short, about a cowboy (Josh Brolin) who attempts to determine which movie he should go see in sunny Los Angeles, employ a light and whimsical approach. At the other end of the spectrum sits David Cronenberg's piece -- a brutal short in which he prepares to commit a very public and graphic suicide on television before millions of viewers. Other highlights include Moretti -- offering a typically witty divertissement on what cinema means -- and Zhang Yimou, who lyrically depicts the gathering of numerous rural children for a screening at a movie theater. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2007
Filmmakers Isabel Coixet, Wim Wenders, Fernando Leon de Adanoa, Mariano Barroso, and Javier Corcuera team with Javier Bardim's Pinguin Films and the charitable organization Doctors Without Frontiers to explore a variety of social problems in Africa and Latin America. Acclaimed director Wenders' Invicible Crimes details the plight of raped women in war-torn Congo, while de Adanoa's Good Night Ouma studies former child soldiers in Uganda, and Barroso turns his lens on a conversation between a pharmaceutical company representative and two selfless aid workers in Bianca's Dream. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Javier Bardem
- 2006
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A Romanian schoolgirl finds her life forever changed when she accidentally knocks over a bust of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in director Catalin Mitulescu's tragic-comic coming-of-age tale. The year is 1989, and the suffocating grip of despot Ceausescu is slowly loosening as the result of rising civil unrest. After pretty Eva (Dorothea Petrie) and her rebellious boyfriend Alex (Ionut Becheru) inadvertently send a statue of Ceausescu tumbling to the ground, she is exiled to a bleak reformatory institution while he is let off with a stern warning due to his father's strong Communist party ties. It is at her new school that Eva makes the acquaintance of the disarmingly disobedient Andrei (Cristian Vararu), a boy whose dissident parents are nowhere to be found. As Andrei and Eva hatch a daring plan to swim to freedom across the Danube, Eva's deeply embittered seven-year-old brother Lalalilu (Timotei Duma) conspires with his two best friends (Marius Stan and Marian Stoica) to assassinate the notoriously brutal Ceausescu during a national celebration in which the three youngsters are set to sing in a children's choir. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothea Petrie, Timotei Duma, (more)
Musica Cubana: Live in Tokyo features a concert consisting of numerous musical acts that claim Cuba as their home. The setlist includes renditions of "La Luna," "Negrito Bailador," "Lario Lario," and "Mala Lengua." ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Wim Wenders drama Land of Plenty stars John Diehl and Michelle Williams as two very different people who are brought together for an unconventional road trip. The film takes place after September 11, 2001, and the main characters are dealing with their grief in very different ways. Paul (Diehl) keeps his paranoid eye on the lookout for terrorists wherever he goes. His niece Lana, Williams) does charity work for the indigent. After a young Muslim is shot dead, the uncle and niece travel together - her to bring the body back to the family, he to wipe out the terrorists he is convinced the young man worked with. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michelle Williams, John Diehl, (more)
- 2004
The stories of traditional and modern Cuban music merge in this documentary detailing Buena Vista Social Club star Pio Leiva and Havana taxi driver Bárbaro's efforts to assemble a band featuring some of the most talented young musicians in the Caribbean island country. As the band comes together under the direction of the Maestro, the viewer gets to gains a better understanding of the role that traditional music has played in each of the musician's lives, and hear firsthand accounts about what it means to live in the Havana of the 21st Century. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pio Leiva, Barbaro Marin, (more)
- 2004
Edgar G. Ulmer was one of the most fascinating figures of Hollywood's Golden Age. While Ulmer directed the occasional big-budget major studio film (most notably The Black Cat starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi and The Strange Woman with Hedy Lamarr), Ulmer was a maverick who valued his creative freedom and he most often worked for"Poverty Row studios, most notably PRC, where he was allowed to make films as he pleased as long as they were done fast and cheap. Ulmer made a handful of small masterpieces for the minor league studios, most notably Detour, The Naked Dawn, Bluebeard, and Ruthless, and he also directed several important Yiddish-language films as well as an early all African-American cast musical. However, Ulmer's own version of his life was often dotted with creative embellishment and stories that no one could verify (particularly pertaining to his early career in Germany), and despite his very real degree of ability and influence, much of Ulmer's story remains shrouded in uncertainty. Documentary filmmaker Michael Palm explores both the art and the illusion of this singular artist in Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen, which features interviews with some of Ulmer's more noted admirers (Peter Bogdanovich, Wim Wenders, Joe Dante), actors who worked with him (John Saxon, Ann Savage), and members of his family (Arianné Ulmer Cipes). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2003
A man scarred by tragedy finds that it refuses to leave him, even after he falls in love, in this drama. Paul (Oliver Mommsen) is a sensitive young man from a small town in Germany who was forced to witness the death of his best friend when they were both assigned to peace-keeping duties in Kosovo during a stretch in the Army. Trying to adjust to civilian life, Paul moves to Berlin, where he works for a surveillance firm and, in his spare time, plays the organ at a church. Paul gets to know his pretty but shy next-door neighbor Nele (Laura Tonke), and before long the two loners have fallen in love. Their life together is thrown into disarray when Paul is found to have contracted leukemia; preferring Nele's company to a stay in the hospital, he decides to abandon his treatment and instead joins her for a final vacation in Paris. Junimond was screened as part of the German Cinema series at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Mommsen, Laura Tonke, (more)
Part of The Blues documentary series on PBS, The Soul of a Man is written and directed by Wim Wenders and narrated by Laurence Fishburne. This installment explores the work of the filmmaker's personal musical heroes: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, and J.B. Lenoir. Through reenactments and archive footage, Wenders tells the personal stories of these highly influential and often underappreciated artists. Their musical legacy is interpreted through live performances by contemporary musicians like Bonnie Raitt, Cassandra Wilson, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Lucinda Williams, Beck, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. He also incorporates rare clips from two 16 mm films shot during the '60s by Steve and Rönnog Seaberg. The Soul of a Man was originally broadcast by PBS on September 29, 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Fishburne, Keith B. Brown, (more)
- 2003
German film school graduate Tom Schreiber makes his directorial debut with the dark drama Narren (Fools), produced by Wim Wenders' production company Road Movies. Shot with digital video, the story involves thane intense loner named Roman (Christoph Bach) who moves to Cologne to work as a draftsman and be near his dying grandmother (Hannelore Lubeck). Meanwhile, literally outside his window, the hedonistic Cologne Carnival starts up and he is unable to relax enough to indulge it its possibilities. He goes to a party and ends up witnessing a crime, but he's reluctant to participate in the concluding violence that erupts when he catches up with the perpetrator. Later, he meets a woman named Stella (Victoria Deutschmann) and ends up going back to her place -- with disturbing results. Fools was screened at the 2003 Taormina Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christoph Bach, Victoria Deutschmann, (more)
- 2003
Brazilian filmmakers Joao Jardim and Walter Carvalho ponder the old adage "the eyes are the windows to the soul" as they explore vision and perception in their 2002 documentary A Janela Da Alma (Window of the Soul). Beginning with an interview with Brazilian jazz musician Hermeto Pascoal, Carvalho and Jardim attempt to make sense of how the musician perceives his world with a pair of impaired eyes that appear to simultaneously look in different directions. From there, the Brazilian co-directors interview a number of famous subjects with varying degrees of ocular health, ranging from the non-vision impaired director Wim Wenders to blind photographer Evgen Bavcar, while both the filmmakers and the interview subjects ponder how their lives and existences would be different had their abilities or inabilities to see the world around them been different. Released in Brazil in the summer of 2002 to mixed reviews, A Janela Da Alma was screened at a number of film festivals around the world in late 2002 into early 2003. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evgen Bavcar, Antonio Cicero, (more)
- 2003
A computer hacker moves from virtual vandalism to the real thing in this independent drama. Peter (Stephan Kampwirth) is a computer expert who has become obsessed with hacking into other people's systems -- so much so that one day, while picking through someone's files, his girlfriend drowns in the bathtub following a drug overdose, without Peter ever noticing until it's too late. Thrown into a panic, he flees his Berlin apartment shortly after calling the police, and goes on the lam in Cologne. Not wanting to call attention to himself by checking into a hotel, Peter breaks into empty apartments to find a place to sleep; before long, Peter is just as hooked on breaking and entering as he was on cracking secure codes. The first feature film from writer and director Marc Ottiker, 1/2 Miete was produced by Wim Wenders as part of the "Radical Digital" series from his production company, Road Movies. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephan Kampwirth, Doris Schretzmayer, (more)
- 2002
Seven internationally respected filmmakers offer different perspectives on time and fate -- some witty, some somber -- in this omnibus film, with the stories linked by performances from jazz great Hugh Masekela. Dogs Have No Hell by Aki Kaurismaki follows one man's unusual journey as he celebrates getting out of jail by travelling to Siberia in search of a wife. Victor Erice directed the impressionistic Lifeline, in which a family of Spanish farmers try to help an infant who has fallen ill. Werner Herzog visits the Uru Eus tribe of South America -- believed to have been the last unknown indigenous people on earth prior to their discover in 1981 -- and explores the often sad toll their discovery has taken upon them in Ten Thousand Years Older. Chloe Sevigny plays an film actress waiting out a ten-minute break in her trailer in Int. Trailer. Night, directed by Jim Jarmusch. Wim Wedners contributes Twelve Miles to Trona, in which a young man, dazed and ill, tries to drive himself to a doctor through a barren desert. Spike Lee looks into the Florida vote-counting scandal, and how Al Gore's assistants and supporters reacted to it, in the short documentary We Wuz Robbed. And in 100 Flowers Hidden Deep, directed by Chen Kaige, a delusional elderly man is convinced his furniture still stands in the vacant lot where his home used to be, and he persuades workers to help him move it away to safety. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, (more)
- 2002
Wim Wenders' documentary Viel Passiert: Der BAP Film (Ode to Cologne: A Rock 'n' Roll Film) consists primarily of a look at the career of European rock star Wolfgang Niedecken. Known for singing in an almost indecipherable dialect, Niedecken is backed up by an ever rotating set of musicians know as BAP. While there are some fictional story lines employed in the film, the majority of the movie is comprised of concert footage. Ode to Cologne: A Rock 'n' Roll Film was shown at a special screening at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- BAP, Marie Baumer, (more)
- 1999
Country music legend Willie Nelson performs in this short film by director Wim Wenders, a film largely inspired by the Nelson album of the same name. Along with the man himself, such musical luminaries as Emmylou Harris and Daniel Lanois make credited appearances. ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide
