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
Legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders returns to the screen with this loosely structured murder mystery. The Million Dollar Hotel unites Wender's obsession with cool music, lost souls, and American trash culture. Set in 2001, the film opens with Tom Tom (Jeremy Davies) taking a flying leap off the roof of the Million Dollar Hotel, an ironically titled dive in the seedy section of L.A. Told in an extended flashback, Tom Tom recounts the murder investigation of a down-and-out artist and son of a media mogul, Izzy Goldkiss (Tim Roth), who also fell off the hotel. FBI special agent Skinner (none other than Mel Gibson), sporting a neck brace, looks into the death only to discover that the building is teeming with weirdos and losers. There is Vivien (Amanda Plummer), who claims to be the fiancée of the rock star; Geronimo (Jimmy Smits), a huckster trying to make a buck by selling Izzy's abstract painting; Eloise (Milla Jovovich), a burned out prostitute with a passion for intellectual literature; and Dixie (Peter Stormare), who swears up and down that he is the fifth Beatle. As the film progresses, Skinner proves to be just as much of a freak as the hotel tenets -- he was born with a third arm that was surgically removed from his back. Just as in his Until the End of the World (1991), Wenders features a fantastic soundtrack including songs from Bono, Daniel Lanois, and Brian Eno. The Million Dollar Hotel opened the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich, (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
- 1999
Samira Gloor-Fadel debuts with this strikingly unorthodox documentary featuring two of cinema's greatest intellectuals (Wim Wenders and Jean Luc Godard) bouncing a flurry of illuminating thoughts and half-formed ideas about time, space, and the nature of cinema. The conversation is never depicted, and indeed Godard is never actually seen. Instead the visuals are largely comprised of Wenders' editing, directing, and lecture. A second element in this untraditional documentary is about the city of Berlin. We hear Wenders muse about his favorite German city accompanied by shots of its architecture. Meanwhile, a third portion shows a youth visiting the sites used in Wings of Desire (1986) while grieving the untimely death of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Berlin-Cinema (Titre Provisoire) was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wim Wenders, Thomas, (more)
Wim Wenders' documentary Buena Vista Social Club is about the adventures of Ry Cooder in Cuba. Cooder, best remembered by film fans for the wailing slide guitar theme of Wenders' Paris, Texas, went to Cuba in 1996 to meet with some legendary 'soneros' musicians of the '30s, '40s and '50s. The result was the album Buena Vista Social Club, recorded with such colorful characters as the 90-year-old singer/guitarist Compay Segundo, guitarist Eliades Ochoa, baritone Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo, "the Cuban Edith Piaf." The album won a Grammy, and in this refreshing documentary, Wim Wenders shows these exceptional musicians in their hometown, following them into their usual hang-outs -- the cafes, clubs and even living rooms -- as well as to concerts in Amsterdam and New York's Carnegie Hall, capturing their incredible vitality. "In Cuba, music flows like a river," according to Ry Cooder, who adds "Music is like a treasure hunt; you dig and dig and sometimes find something." Pursuing this metaphor, Wenders wanted to make a film that would "just float on this river ... not interfering with it, just drifting along." The result is a film full of vitality and positive energy, which is also an absolute delight to musical ears. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Maniacal hyperactive Jeff Gold (Lars Rudolph) and his companion Moussa (Said Taghmaoui) flee Berlin for a Spanish tourist resort where they share a room with a flamenco act. When Jeff gets a job as a Wild Adventure tour guide, he feels tourists need more of a jolt. He devises alternatives to the usual routines in order for tourists to experience more exciting adventures -- such as criminal activities. This German-Spanish-French co-production was shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lars Rudolph, Saïd Taghmaoui, (more)
Wim Wenders directed this allegorical drama about the emotional impact of violence in our culture, set against the backdrop of California's entertainment business. Mike Max (Bill Pullman) is a Hollywood producer who has earned a great deal of money and power in the film industry through his success with a series of brutally violent action pictures. While Max can juggle any number of tasks while working, he can't find time for his wife Paige (Andie MacDowell), and when she announces that she's divorcing him, he admits to himself (but not to her) that he deliberately put her through emotional trauma; Paige leaves to do volunteer work in the Third World, hoping to bring new meaning to her life. Very little reaches Max on an emotional level until Cat (Traci Lind), a stunt performer, is seriously injured on the set of Max's latest project. Not long after, Max is first car-jacked, then kidnapped by a pair of desperate thugs. He escapes and is given shelter by a group of Mexican-American gardeners. Wanting to retreat from the physical and spiritual violence that has become a key part of his life, Max opts to work with the gardening crew and stay away from his old life, remaining "missing" in the eyes of the world as he searches for a new life. Meanwhile, Max and his secretary Claire (Rosiland Chao) become aware of a secret plan that Ray Bering (Gabriel Byrne) has prepared for the city of Los Angeles, which will essentially put the entire town under constant surveillance, with the goal of ending violent crime once and for all. Frederic Forrest, Udo Kier, and legendary director Samuel Fuller also star; Ry Cooder composed the film's striking original score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Pullman, Andie MacDowell, (more)
- 1996
This highly idiosyncratic film, seen mostly at film festivals, is intended to be shown in segments broken up by musical interludes. It is a centennial tribute and depiction of the efforts of the brothers Skladanowsky to create and show the first motion pictures, hence, much of it was filmed using antique silent-film gear. This odd feature film by director Wim Wenders and his Munich film school class began as a class assignment. The Skladanowsky brothers gave "magic lantern" shows in Berlin for years before taking up the challenge of developing moving pictures. Their amateur efforts resulted in their development of a projector called the "Bioskop," (Bioscope), and their first commercial showing of a moving picture in Berlin in 1895 predates the Lumiere brothers' commercial showing in Paris by several weeks. The Lumiere brothers developed yet another type of film projector. Together with Edison and the Lumiere brothers, the Skladanowsky brothers deserve credit for the development of motion pictures. In this film tribute, large sections are done in the style of later silent features. In other portions of the film, Lucy Hurtgen-Skladanowsky (the very aged surviving daughter of one of the two brothers) vividly recounts her memories of the hectic activities surrounding the Bioskop premiere. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Udo Kier, Nadine Büttner, (more)
- 1995
Utilizing computer-generated effects and creative splicing to place Germany's most famous living directors in a fantasy movie house, filmmaker Edgar Reitz takes an innovative approach toward exploring the history of German cinema. In this magical theater, directors such as Leni Riefenstahl, Detlev Buck, Volker Schloendorff, Margarethe von Trotta, Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog "discuss" the state of German cinema with a focus on New German Cinema. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1995
The many ways in which men are fascinated, compelled, and confused by their attraction to women are explored in this four part drama. As a filmmaker (John Malkovich) tries to sort out his plans for his next film, he considers several stories about women and the men who love them. Silvano (Kim Rossi Stuart) meets Carmen (Ines Sastre) and immediately asks her for a date, but despite his attraction, he can't follow through on his feelings for her. The director spies a woman on the streets (Sophie Marceau) and follows her obsessively, but when he finally meets her, he's disappointed, despite their mutual physical attraction. Roberto (Peter Weller) and his wife Patricia (Fanny Ardant) have to deal with their anger about each other's infidelities, as well as their problems with their lovers, Olga (Chiara Caselli) and Carlo (Jean Reno). And Niccolo (Vincent Perez) falls in love at first sight with a young woman (Irene Jacob), unaware that she is studying to become a nun. Par-Dela Les Nuages was Michelangelo Antonioni's first film after a massive stroke derailed his directorial career in 1985; Wim Wenders served as his collaborator on the project. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Malkovich, Kim Rossi Stuart, (more)
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Lumière brothers' first films, filmmakers Sarah Moon and Philippe Poulet challenged 39 renowned international directors to each complete a 52-second film using the original Cinematographe camera under the conditions endured by the brothers. The result of the project was this film, Lumière et Compagnie. The film stock used was homemade from a slightly altered version of the Lumières' recipe. No synchronized sound was allowed and only natural lighting was permitted. The participating directors included John Boorman, Costa-Gavras, Peter Greenaway, Lasse Hallström, Spike Lee, David Lynch, Liv Ullmann, and Wim Wenders. Among the actors who performed in the films were Liam Neeson, Lena Olin, Aidan Quinn, and Alan Rickman. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1994
An exploration of the revival of Nazi sentiment in Germany is the theme of the five short films gathered together in this anthology. In the first film, titled "Ohne Mich" (Without Me), the lead character, an aspiring documentary filmmaker named Dani Levy, tries to get some attention for his film about skinheads versus Turkish immigrants. However, as a Jewish lad in today's Germany, his fears for the future prompt him to move to the moon.The second film captures the spirit of triumphalism in the celebrations of the reuniting of Germany, and it titled "Short Circuit." It takes the wiring difficulties of Helmut Kohl's Leipzig speech as being prophetic of difficulties to come. The third film is a surrealistic consideration of the captivity of a documentary maker by a Hitler-loving couple, entitled "Sacred Cows." The penultimate film is titled "A Place, A Suicide," and shows the suicidal reaction of a newly crippled man to the taunt by a group of boys that "Hitler would have had you gassed." The final film is a documentary featuring interviews with to punk rockers who were savagely beaten by Nazi-influenced skinheads, entitled "Victims, Witnesses." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dani Levy, Maria Schrader, (more)
This beautifully photographed German drama is set in Lisbon, a major center for contemporary European culture, and offers insight into the nature of cinema. Sound recordist Phillip Winter is driving to Lisbon to meet his old friend Friedrich Monroe who recently sent him a postcard asking Winter to help him with a documentary, but when he arrives, Monroe is nowhere to be found. Instead, Winter only finds a few cans of film shot on an old fashioned hand cranked camera. When he is not aimlessly ambling about the beautiful city recording sounds for the film, Winters passes the time playing with the local street children who are obsessed with chronicling even the smallest events on their video cameras. He also begins falling for Teresa, the singer whose band is composing the soundtrack for the documentary. Eventually Monroe returns with a brand new vision and some strong opinions on the sorry state of contemporary cinema. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Wim Wenders revisits his masterpiece Der Himmel Uber Berlin in this film which picks up several years after the original left off. Cassiel (Otto Sander) is an angel who watches over the lives of the people of recently reunified Berlin with Raphaella (Nastassja Kinski). Damiel (Bruno Ganz), Cassiel's former partner who opted to return to the land of the living in the first film, now lives happily as a pizza chef with the woman he loved and married, circus performer Marion (Solveig Dommartin). While angels are forbidden to directly intervene in the lives of humans, Cassiel impulsively breaks this rule when a little girl falls from the balcony of an apartment block, and he swoops down to catch her. Suddenly made flesh and blood, Cassiel has earned the enmity of Emit Flesti (Willem Dafoe), a sort of overseer of the angels on the physical plane. Emit makes it his business to make things difficult for Cassiel now that he's living among the humans, and after a period of alcoholism and imprisonment, Cassiel finds himself working for gangster Tony Baker (Horst Buchholz), who distributes weapons and pornography on the black market. However, Cassiel has a change of heart and decides to destroy Tony's stockpile in a bid to make the world a better place. Peter Falk, who played himself in Der Himmel Uber Berlin, makes a return appearance when a gallery shows the sketches that he was making in the first film; rock singer Lou Reed and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev also appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Otto Sander, Peter Falk, (more)
- 1993
By now, few will remember the tragic kidnapping of the grandson of the man who, in the '60s, was the world's richest man, J. Paul Getty. Getty, a paranoid and miserly man, refused to pay ransom for his handsome, ne'er do well grandson, J. Paul Getty III. He may have believed that the boy engineered it himself, as a means to get some money out of the old skinflint. As a result, the boy was mutilated by his kidnappers (his ear was sliced off) in an attempt to persuade the old man of the seriousness of their intentions. As it happened, the kidnappers made two mistakes: one was to attempt to extort money from the world's richest miser, the other was in their handling of the boy, who managed to escape. Had it not been for those events, the world's media spotlight would probably have passed the otherwise undistinguished young man by. In this documentary, which assumes familiarity with these events, the troubled life and loves of the grandson's wife and her sister, luminous and beautiful twins from Switzerland, are explored in the light of the boy's tragic life. When Gisela married him, he was a handsome, charming, darling of the jet-set, and fully expected to inherit some portion of his grandfather's billions. In the kidnapping and its aftermath, not only did he become melancholy and erratic, ever more prone to dangerous drug use, but he was cut out of his grandfather's will. Angela, who was accused of being a gold-digger, loyally stuck by his side through all their ups and downs. In fact, even after J. Paul Getty III was rendered permanently comatose following an accident, she remained with him. One gathers that the marriage was something of a ménàge à trois, because Gisela's twin, Jutta, rarely left her side. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Getty III
- 1991
- R
Wim Wenders' sprawling cyberpunk noir epic -- shot in no less than nine different countries -- is set in 1999 and stars Solveig Dommartin as Claire, a young Frenchwoman who comes into contact with a large sum of money stolen during a bank heist; in her travels she picks up a mysterious American hitchhiker (William Hurt), who himself steals some of the money before parting from her company. Upon discovering the theft, Claire sets out on his trail, with both a Hammett-styled German private eye (Rudiger Vogler) as well as her former lover, a novelist portrayed by Sam Neill, in tow. The hitchhiker is really Sam Farber, the son of an underground scientist (Max Von Sydow), and his mission is to travel the globe in order to acquire the funding necessary to develop the technology which will allow his blind mother (Jeanne Moreau) to "see" visual recordings of her family members; the second half of the film takes place largely in the Farbers' compound in the Australian Outback, where Sam, Claire and the others take refuge while attempting to bring the sight project to its fruition, in the meantime pondering earth's future in the wake of a nuclear disaster in outer space. Wenders' most ambitious film to date, budgeted at $23 million, Until the End Of the World is also among his most seriously flawed efforts -- despite a keen sense of cultural perception, a fascinating sci-fi take on life in the near-future and stunning Robby Muller cinematography, the picture never quite gels. Much of the blame seems to fall upon its distributors -- upon its wide release in 1991, the movie was drastically cut to a running time of 2 1/2 hours, resulting in a disjointed narrative that doesn't shift gears so much as grind them as the action moves from country to country. Still, while a three-hour version, issued on laserdisc in Japan, comes closer to realizing the full scope of Wenders' epic vision, rumors of a five-hour director's cut -- said to have been screened to thunderous applause at a handful of film festivals -- continue to persist, suggesting that a masterpiece may well exist here after all. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, (more)
- 1990
This documentary focuses on the person and the films of one of Germany's premiere post-war filmmakers, Wim Wenders. Wenders is a lifelong fan of American pop culture, particularly its rock music and B-movies, and his highly personalized filmmaking style is deeply influenced by both of these. He is best known for films featuring drifters and the lure of the open road and open spaces. The documentary features interviews with actors like Dennis Hopper, filmmakers (cinematographer Robby Muller) and rock musicians (e.g., Ry Cooder) and others who have worked with him over the years, as well as interviews with the director himself, who is well aware of his cinematic gifts and limitations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wim Wenders, Harry Dean Stanton, (more)
In this film, the prolific German documentary director Wim Wenders has taken on the subject of Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto as he prepares to debut his designs for another season in Paris. The documentary is as much a meditation by the director on the meaning of documenatries and information in the age of electronic data and computerized images as it is about the skill, dedication, philosophy and work of the fashion designer. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yohji Yamamoto
- 1987
Alex (Kari Vaananen) is a Finnish cabbie working in Berlin with plenty of problems in this comedy with film noir touches. With two dead men and a suitcase filled with hundred dollar bills, he has difficulty disposing of the bodies. He is chased by the top crime boss (Samuel Fuller) and his crony (Eddie Constantine). Alex's wife is allergic to the money, so the cabbie endures more than he can handle trying to rid himself of the cash and the corpses. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kari Väänänen, Roberta Manfredi, (more)
- 1987
In this deeply symbolic and visually lush film, as far as Tashbash is concerned, he's just a malcontent, a fairly ordinary hell-raiser who has gotten into trouble with the law in the past. Sure, he hates the village headman who is a toady to the region's oppressive landlord, and he dislikes the fact that everyone looks to the headman for help because they have no place else to turn, but he's just an ordinary guy and has no solutions for his fellow villagers. However, after one of them has a vision in which Tashbash is shown to be a manifestation of one of their more important local saints, the villagers unite as one in seeking him out for help with the upcoming visit of the landlord to collect rents which they can't pay. Their adulation and reverence is so persistent that eventually even Tashbash becomes a believer. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutkay Aziz, Yavuzer Cetinkaya, (more)
Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are angels who watch over the city of Berlin. They don't have harps or wings (well, they usually don't have wings) and they prefer overcoats to gossamer gowns. But they can travel unseen through the city, listening to people's thoughts, watching their actions and studying their lives. While they can make their presence felt in small ways, only children and other angels can see them. They spend their days serenely observing, unable to interact with people, and they feel neither pain nor joy. One day, Damiel finds his way into a circus and sees Marion (Solveig Dommartin), a high-wire artist, practicing her act; he is immediately smitten. After the owners of the circus tell the company that the show is out of money and must disband, Marion sinks into a funk, shuffling back to her trailer to ponder what to do next. As he watches her, Damiel makes a decision: he wants to be human, and he wants to be with Marion, to lift her spirits and, if need be, to share her pain. Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire is a remarkable modern fairy tale about the nature of being alive. The angels witness the gamut of human emotions, and they experience the luxury of simple pleasures (even a cup of coffee and a cigarette) as ones who've never known them. From the angels' viewpoint, Berlin is seen in gorgeous black-and-white -- strikingly beautiful but unreal; when they join the humans, the image shifts to rough but natural-looking color, and the waltz-like grace of the angels' drift through the city changes to a harsher rhythm. Peter Falk appears as himself, revealing a secret that we may not have known about the man who played Columbo, and there's also a brief but powerful appearance by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Wings of Desire hinges on the intangible and elusive, and it builds something beautiful from those qualities. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, (more)
- 1985
In this intriguing documentary, award-winning German director and producer Wim Wenders combines clips from one of his favorite directors, Ozu Yasujiro (see the tribute to Ozu, Ikite wa Mita Keredo.. by Inoue Kazuo), with actual scenes from the sprawling, crowded megalopolis of Tokyo to discover where the real world and cinematic license may intersect, if at all. Ozu's films captured the poignant and fleeting aspects of worldly existence -- as in colorful autumn leaves that cannot last long. Wenders almost emulates his technique when he decides, in this 92-minute look at Tokyo -- to spend time on fragments of city life that are telling, eloquent statements of a Japanese ethic. Golfers on city rooftops, the neon lights of the famous Ginza shopping area, baseball games in a cemetery, the omnipresent televisions (even in taxis), and the waxed-over food that stands for months and years in restaurant windows to advertise the menu are all surreal and eloquent scenes. Juxtaposed against the noise and bustling crowds in a city in which people live elbow-to-elbow -- and contrasted with viewpoints on Ozu offered by two former associates -- these scenes and their counterpoints present a well-rounded view of Tokyo, Ozu, and what it means to be Wim Wenders filming in Japan. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Werner Herzog
- 1985
In an amusing spoof on the world of film aficionados and scholars, novice director Heiner Stadler has come up with a clever story of film intrigue and deception, all in the name of saving face. The chain of events begins with an ambitious film critic sitting in on a screening of a 1920s movie during the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. This sparks his interest, so when a film projectionist tells him about the long-lost director Bobo Wawerka who actually made the 1920s film but mysteriously disappeared from view after leaving for Hollywood -- the budding film critic decides he has to investigate the fate of the unrecognized Bobo. Armed with the knowledge given him by the projectionist that Bobo's last-known work was making the fist of King Kong in that famous movie, the aspiring researcher takes off on funding cajoled from the editor of a film journal. The credibility of this story is enforced by some chicanery on the part of the projectionist, and the young reporter next wings his way to Hollywood -- where he finds out the truth: there never was any Bobo Wawerka, period. But now what can he do to save his reputation? Interspersed with cameos by film professionals such as Wim Wenders, a well-known Hamburg film exhibitor, and producer Bernd Eichinger, this parody has a little added punch.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonard Lansink
- 1984
In this unusual documentary based on a series of identical questions addressed to world-famous directors such as Werner Herzog, Steven Spielberg, and Jean-Luc Godard, director Wim Wenders placed each of his colleagues one-by-one in a single room, gave them one reel (11 minutes) of time to look into the stationary camera if they chose, and answer set questions. The juxtaposition of so many individualistic, experienced, and innovative filmmakers commenting on topics like television's effect on cinema, the influence of ad techniques, the tendency toward miniseries, and other relevant subjects offers worthwhile moments that are unlikely to be found elsewhere. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Luc Godard, Steven Spielberg, (more)
