Wim Wenders

This is classic Fuller filmmaking … and as Dominik Graf notes, there is no mistaking the director’s “brand of ecstatic underground cinema.”

Throughout Wim Wenders’s Paris, Texas (1984), Travis Henderson (played by Harry Dean Stanton) carries with him a photograph of an empty lot he bought in the eponymous city, which he later tells his son is near “the Red River” that borders Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The reference automatically draws to mind Howard Hawks’s beloved 1948 Western, Red River, which drew together an unlikely screen pair with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift.

So in many respects, here and elsewhere, and again, it does admittedly come down to what could be done in the 1950s versus the 1970s, Rainer Werner Fassbinder is indeed like Douglas Sirk, but like Douglas Sirk turned up to 11.

When Wim Wenders first saw Sebastiõ Salgado’s photographs, he knew he was looking at the work of an artistic genius. Salgado used his camera to document various indigenous peoples throughout the world, exploring the depths of little-known cultures and lifestyles. Much of his early work celebrated the heterogeneous nature of humanity, but as Salgado became more interested in the plights of war-ravaged nations, his photographs became darker and more provocative. The Salt of the Earth, co-directed by Wenders and Salgado’s son Juliano Ribeiro, delineates one man’s tumultuous relationship with humanity. As evidenced by Salgado’s extraordinary photographs, human beings are at once the most beautiful and the most appalling creatures to have ever walked the Earth.

Paris, Texas (1984), a collaboration by writer Sam Shepard and director Wim Wenders, is a film of dichotomies: dichotomy of location, of ideals, of personalities, of gender roles. Even the words in its title are at odds with each other. The film follows Travis Henderson, played by a worn Harry Dean Stanton, who is always …

December 12 marks 110 years since the birth of the great Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu (and 50 years to the date since his death). So what better way to commemorate the occasion than to revisit what is widely seen as his masterpiece among masterpieces, Tokyo Story, out now on a 3-disc dual format Blu-ray/DVD from The Criterion Collection?

In keeping with the acting style of the subject of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed.

In keeping with the acting style of the object of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed. The facts and opinions expressed, through Stanton and various collaborators, are simply allowed to be – free of added manipulation – in what amounts as a rather quiet documentary, excluding film clips with their own soundtracks and instances in which we get to see Stanton express his passion for performing music. Like the documentary’s most discussed film, Paris, Texas (1984), Partly Fiction is serene but also apt at emotional devastation, though as in Wim Wenders’ masterpiece, sorrow and optimism are intertwined.

This is a list of our favourite soundtracks of 2011. We are currently working on a list of the best original scores, which should be posted sometime before the end of the year. It hasn’t been the greatest year for movie soundtracks, but I can say that the top five have been spinning in my …

Pina Directed by Wim Wenders 2011, Germany / France / UK The idea of watching contemporary dance pieces for over an hour and a half may not sound like the most riveting way to spend an evening. However, right from the get-go, Wim Wenders’s new film, Pina proves this assumption wrong. The film offers a …

Telluride 2011, Day 3 After being a no-show yesterday, Wim Wenders graciously made up for his trespass by coming in at 7am for the regularly scheduled student meetup in order to give the Q&A he was originally on the books for. I had a question about Pina‘s ediitng which was to open with an admission …

Telluride Film Festival 2011, Day 1 The first day of the festival proper also means the first round of Symposium speakers have arrived, and two of them are program fixtures. The first is documentarian Ken Burns, who’s spoken to the Symposium students every year since the second edition; the second is theater director / arts …

“Wings is a rare cinematic achievement – a poetic, literary script turned into pure cinematic expression…” Wings Of Desire Directed by Wim Wenders Every so often, a filmmaker will turn to a smaller project while he’s impatiently waiting to get a bigger one financed, and often that small independent film will turn out to be …

Undertones: Volume 10 In 1977, amongst works by Beethoven, Chuck Berry and examples of indigenous music from around the world, Blind Willie Johnson’s mournful blues work, “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” was shot into space as part of the Voyager Golden Record. Launched from the Voyager spacecraft, the collection of music, sounds …