‘SEX AND VIOLENCE WERE NEVER REALLY MY CUP OF TEA'
Sax and Violins.
The first UK retrospective of New Wave German filmmaker Wim Wenders starts this fortnight. Paul Dale celebrates his enduring appeal
xactly what it is about the films of Wim
Wenders that tends to appeal to film lovers of
all ages is difficult to pinpoint. Like his countryman Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Wenders was born into the bankrupted (ll Joe-colonised Germany at the end of WWII. Indeed. it is youthful angst. alienation and America that informs all Wenders‘ early films from Alice in the Cities to The American Friend. All these films are revisionist road movies powered by the idea that cultural American imperialism is essentially regressive. Wenders has always been about trying to find a way out of this cultural impasse for (‘iermany‘s postwar hippies. The protagonist of his Cannes Critics Prize-winning road flick Kings of the Road puts it best when he yells: "l‘he Yanks have colonised our subconscious.'
There are some key truths we know about Wenders. There's his love of the great ['8 filmmaker Nicholas Ray. Wenders lifted a whole scene from Ray‘s I952 western 'l‘he Lusty Men for Kings oft/re Road and the title of his bi/arre l99l futuristic epic Until the 15nd oil/1e ll'orlil are the last words spoken in Ray‘s life of Christ biopic King of Kings. While in preproduction for his flop WXI L'S film noir Hammett. Wenders even made a film with Ray called Lightening ()\'(’l' ll'ater about the older filmmaker‘s last days as he died of cancer. Also an illness in childhood left Wenders infertile and this could be seen to account for his prolific output and his animistic fascination with natural and unnatural objects in many of his
films. Then there‘s his relationship with Dutch cinematographer Robby Miiller on over a dozen great films including The Goalkeeper 3' Fear of l’walty and of course Paris, 'I'exas. Together they created a look and a feel for European and ['8 independent
cinema that permeates to this day in the cinema of
Jim Jarmusch. Lars von Trier and Michael Winterbottom. all of whom Miiller went on to work with.
And thanks to the shockingly successful Buena Vista Soeial Club there’s always Cuba and Wenders‘ love of all kinds of music. which he has written about in volume after volume of essays.
And yet. Wenders is oddly undefinable. After
making angelic art school student favourite Wings of
Desire in 1987 his career wavered. he was lambasted by critics for his smug Wings sequel faraway. So Close. and his deathly dull multi-hander The Million Dollar Hotel and even for his fine Sam Shepherd adaptation Don 't Come Knot-king. Wenders. ever the optimist and great invoker of sound bites silenced those critics who accused him of being out of step in these “days of Tarantino' by saying: ‘Sex and violence was never really my cup of tea; I was always more into sax and violins.‘ Whatever your opinion of his films. he's a funny guy.
Wim Wenders season starts with a new print of Alice in the Cities at Filmhouse, Edinburgh on Fri 1 1 Jan. www.fi|mhousecinema.com
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THE BEST FILM & DVD RELEASES
* Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead Legendary New York-based filmmaker Sidney Serpico Lumet returns to form with an effortlessly played-out heist drama. See review, page 42. General release from Fri 17 Jan.
* 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days Another year. another fantastic Romanian film. Cristian Mungiu's bleak but darkly humorous Palme d'Or winner tackles the tricky issue of illegal abortion at the end of Ceausescu's rule. See review, page 40. GET, Glasgow & Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 71 Jan.
* Alice in the Cities New 35mm print of brilliant and oblique 1974 generation gap road movie kicks off an excellent Wim Wenders BFI retrospective. See preview, left. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, from Fri 17 Jan.
* I’m Not There Todd Haynes’ magnificent Bob Dylanathon. Out now on selected release.
>f< The Saragossa Manuscript Restored 35mm print of a mad 1964 Polish adventure film set in 18th century Spain. A favourite film of The Grateful Dead ’8 Jerry Garcia, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. GFT, Glasgow, Sun 6 Jan; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Wed 9 8 Thu 70 Jan. * I Don’t Want To Sleep Alone A masterful Taiwanese film and a beautifully sustained tale of loneliness, duality, furtive sex and beatings. See interview at http://snipurl.com/1vlfv GFT, Glasgow, Mon 7 Jan.
* Pierrot Le Foo Godard’s influential sequel of sorts to Breathless finally gets a decent standalone DVD release. See DVD roundup, page 43. Out Mon 7 Jan (Optimum).
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