Wim Wenders Interview
Wim Wenders is a renouned director of such films as Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire, Buena Vista Social Club, and many more. Gary Levinson, had the fortune and pleasure to speak with Mr. Wenders on the occasion of the screening of his film “The Soul of a Man” in Berlin.
GL: At the opening and near the end of your film there are majestic photos of the blue planet earth taken from space. Is it any coincidence that the film is also related to this color, in that it is about the blues?
WW: With my editor, we were joking a bit about these NASA shots of our Blue Planet becoming the title background for my Blues film. It seemed ironic, somehow, that the Earth really “had the Blues”. I would refrain from adding any deeper meaning to it, though. Then again: As the narrator of the film, Blind Willie Johnson, sees the history of the Blues from quite some distance, literally, from Outer Space or from Heaven, if you want, those remote images of our planet seemed quite appropriate. And the words we hear over them, Blind Willie’s repetitive and insistent question “What is the soul of a man?” (which gave the film its title) also open such monumental dimensions that only the widest possible perspective would correspond to them.
GL: You said after the film that there was no product placement in this film, and that the smoking in the film is there to be historically accurate. Are you worried, however, that especially young Black people who will see your film will feel that they should emulate their Black blues men?
WW: I’d be so much more worried about the world that these young musicians are growing into, that seeing somebody smoke a cigarette seems the least possible danger to them…
GL: How do you feel about product placement in general?
WW: In general, it sucks. As soon as somebody is holding a pack of cigarette or a whiskey bottle in such a way that you just HAVE to read the logo, that film risks to lose me. I like to see commercials, I do a lot of them as director myself, but if I watch a film, I want to be left alone. Of course our contemporary world is packed with products and logos. You can’t really shoot in a city without getting some of it into every shot. That’s fine. But you immediately sense if something is PLACED. The other day, over Christmas in Germany, I saw CAST AWAY on television. That whole thing was such a ludicrous giant commercial for Fedex that I felt nothing but pity for the actors in the film. Whatever Tom Hanks was doing was mercilessly discredited by the relentless visuals of Fedex all over the place.
GL: Do you know if any of the other 6 directors, treated the same subject (ie: Blind Willie, Skip James, and J.B. Lenoir) in their films?
WW: Scorsese made sure, when each of us 7 directors picked our subjects, that there was no risk of overlapping. And indeed, our 7 “territories” were so different that none of our respective protagonists appeared in a considerable way in any of the other films.
GL: You said the subtitles are there to give honor to the musicians as songwriters. Have you thought of making the viewing of the film a multi-media event by giving out a program with the lyrics printed in it, and how do you feel about projects of this kind?
WW: That would have exceeded the realm of our possibilities. Most people will see those films on television, anyway, and even for the theatrical distribution that some of them will have, any multi-media applications would have blown our modest means. These seven films are really very narrative, all of them, and our aim is rather to have the audience “glued to the screen”.
GL: You’re a fan of blues music. There must be other styles that you also like. Were you pleased enough, did you learn enough, in the making of this film to encourage you to make a similar film for another musical genre, maybe a rock, jazz, or folk film?
WW: Well, I’ve done my share of music films already. With BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB I got a full dose of Cuban music, and that film was one of the greatest experiences of my professional life, in terms of learning, and in terms of having fun while shooting. And then I made a feature-length film in Germany, about the German Rock band BAP. The film is called ODE TO COLOGNE. So altogether, with the BLUES, I made what I call “my three B-Movies”. Not to say I will never be tempted again, but for a while I’ll go back to fictional films.
GL: Out of all the films that you’ve made, what is your personal favorite, and which one do you most hope that people will have seen?
WW: It is always tough to name any of your children your favorite. But as UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD was my most ambitious project ever, I will name that one. Not in the “Reader’s Digest” version that was distributed, but in my own director’s cut of 5 hours. That was a film of truly epic proportions, shot all around the world, in 4 continents, and the two and a half hour extract of it was just too dense.
GL: Working together with Sam Shepard you made the beautiful Paris, Texas. Would you ever like to do a project with him again, or are there other authors you would like to collaborate with?
WW: Sam and I are working together again for the last two years. We came up with a great script, and I will shoot that film this summer, in 2004. DON’T COME KNOCKING is our working title. PARIS, TEXAS was indeed a great collaboration, which we cherished so much that we hesitated repeating it. We just didn’t want to damage that memory. But 20 years later, we felt we had waited enough. In the future, I will make another film with my long time friend Peter Handke. We have worked on several films together, and I want to continue that collaboration.
GL: What are some of your all time favorite films?
WW: That varies every day. Instead of film titles, I’d rather give you a list of directors. I like their work so much that any film of theirs could figure on my list of favorites. There is first of all Yasujiro Ozu, my all-time master, if I might say so. A Japanese director, who made about 50 films, and each and every one of them is great. Then there is Francois Truffaut. And André Tarkowski. And Howard Hawks. And John Ford. And Fritz Lang. And Jim Jarmush. And and and… I’m always troubled with these lists. Normally you always forget the most important. Like right now, how could I have forgotten Fellini? Or Bergman? Or Godard? Or or or…
GL: You spend a lot of time in the USA, especially in Los Angeles. How do you feel about the American pronunciation of your name?
WW: I prefer it if they pronounce it wrong but spell it right. So I’ve gotten used to be Whim Whenders. The first time I ever heard it right was in a baseball stadium, at a Yankees game. All of a sudden, there was an announcement, “a message to all stadium vendors!” I almost jumped up. There was my name, pronounced correctly!
Thank you!
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Gary Levinson
Community Editor
IndieMusicReview.NET
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