Wim Wenders

After watching Wings Of Desire I read up on the films of Wim Wenders.

I’d heard of a couple of them; ‘Paris, Texas’ and ‘Buena Vista Social Club’, but it was the description of Until The End Of The World that really interested me.

Until The End Of The World – 1992
I’m glad I got round to watching it, if only to satisfy my curiosity, but I’d hesitate to recommend it, which is why I don’t hesitate to explain the plot:

Set in Space Year 1999, UTEOFW tells the (long) story of a Woman who has a couple of chance encounters with some French bank robbers and a mysterious American who is being pursued by an Australian bounty hunter and a German private eye. She leaves her novelist boyfriend (Sam Neill) to chase the strange American (William Hurt, wooden as ever) from France all the way across Asia to Japan, over to California, and ultimately to Australia. This takes up the first 90 minutes, and it isn’t particularly engaging. The last hour or so of the film takes place in a laboratory in a cave in the Australian desert where the really interesting bit happens.

You see, this American fellow has a device (stolen from his former employer) which he is using to record images that he will play back to his blind mother, letting her see again for the first time in years. But it turns out that this device can be used to record dreams and play them back, and watching one’s dreams is so addictive, a person will stop caring about anything else.

I thought the whole ‘dream watching addiction’ thing was very compelling, so it’s a shame it takes so long to get there and the all other stuff doesn’t really add to the second half of the film. The ‘international road movie’ that makes up the first half is actually quite poor, full of goofy moments and bad humour that doesn’t stand up to the quality of to Wim’s overall body of work. I only watched the 158 minute version of course, not the 280 minute Directors Cut, which is split into three parts, so perhaps it’s not fair to judge UTEOTW based on the incomplete version. Renowned critic David Thomson says this film is ‘as awful a film as a good director has made’ but I think that’s a bit harsh (Mr Thomson admits to walking out of Wings Of Desire).

It’s not all bad though. The film was set in the near future, and includes some nice futuristic touches; in-car satellite navigation is predicted quite accurately, and there are some well conceived ideas about the way software interface and presentation might evolve. Often it’s the technology that features in a film that dates it the most, but in this case it’s actually the soundtrack that has aged badly. Wim approached some of the biggest names in music of the day; U2, REM, Elvis Costello and Depeche Mode to name just a few, and asked them to compose the music we’d be listening to in 1999. The results sound (to my ear) like they belong very much in 1992.

Wim’s films have always been inspired by Ozu, so it’s no surprise they unfold so slowly.

Speaking of slow films;

Paris, Texas – 1984
Wim’s most critically acclaimed work is shorter than UTEOTW but it’s still two hours plus of not much happening. But a sign of a great director is that they can make a film where not a lot happens, yet it is still compelling, and most importantly, the effort of watching the whole thing is rewarding. It has a similar vibe to Wings of Desire, although not a fantasy and with a conventional plot.

Harry Dean Stanton’s Travis Henderson wanders around the Texas desert, then he wanders around LA, then he wanders around Houston. In between there’s a lot of driving (Wim is keen on road movies). The shots of the desert and the LA suburbs are equally lovely. Should it be any surprise that non-Americans often create the most striking images of America? Lots of films feature amazing shots of the Texan desert but Wim (or should that be his cinematographer) really captures the isolation and decay of the small settlements that are dotted around. I wonder how some of the classic Westerns would have looked if directors on the 50s and 60s had access to helicopters to facilitate epic shots of the desert.

The middle class suburbs in the hills above Los Angeles have probably never looked more appealing than in this film. It’s the bit of LA I’m not used to seeing, as opposed to the low lying ‘burbs that are been depicted in Boys ‘n’ The Hood and a hundred other Gangsta’ flicks.

Paris, Texas is more than just a pretty face; it’s the story of a man and a woman who drift away from each other, and then can’t stop drifting. The cast all provide performances of understated despair. It’s certainty the greatest Harry Dean Stanton performance, his casting was an excellent choice. He makes bigger names seem overrated, the Travis Henderson character is typical Dustin Hoffman territory, but Dustin would have given too much, whereas Harry leaves us wanting more.

Though the film is long and slow, the end justifies the means. It’s happy and sad in almost equal measure, probably leaning toward the sadder side, but the characters are compelling enough to prevent it becoming depressing. Half of the dialogue takes place in the last fifteen minutes of the film, which may sound uneven, but it produces a rewarding ending.

I’d recommend Paris, Texas over the other two Wim Wender’s films I’ve seen, although it’s not as good as the best ‘slow-burn’ film; Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring.