TSPDT - Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders

TOP 100

►501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers

See Also

Michelangelo Antonioni

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

John Ford

Samuel Fuller

Jean-Luc Godard

Hal Hartley

Jim Jarmusch

Chris Marker

Nicholas Ray

Tom Tykwer

Alain Tanner

Yasujiro Ozu

Director / Screenwriter / Producer / Actor / Cinematographer / Editor

1945 -

Born August 14, Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Key Production Countries: Germany, USA, France

Key Genres: Drama, Road Movie, Documentary

Key Collaborators: Peter Przygodda (Editor), Robby Muller (Cinematographer), Rudiger Vogler (Leading Character Player), Jurgen Knieper (Composer/Cinematographer), Bruno Ganz (Leading Player), Solveig Dommartin (Leading Player), Lisa Kreuzer (Leading Player), Chris Sievernich (Producer), Anatole Dauman (Producer), Ulrich Felsberg (Producer)

Highly Recommended: Alice in the Cities (1974), Kings of the Road (1976), The American Friend (1977), Paris, Texas (1984), Wings of Desire (1987)

Worth a Look: The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty (1971), Lightning Over Water (1980) [co-directed by Nicholas Ray ], The State of Things (1982), Tokyo-Ga (1985), Buena Vista Social Club (1998)

Links: [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Senses of Cinema: Great Directors ] [ Film Reference ] [ Official Wim Wenders Site ] [ DGA Article by Wim Wenders ] [ New German Cinema Biography ] [ Wim Wenders Fan Page ] [ Baseline Biography ] [ Images Journal Biography ] [ Guardian Article (2008) ] [ Sight & Sound Article (2008) ]

Books: [ On Film ] [ The Cinema of Wim Wenders: Image, Narrative and the Postmodern Condition ] [ From Alice to Buena Vista: The Films of Wim Wenders ] [ The Films of Wim Wenders: Cinema as Vision and Desire ] [ Wim Wenders: Once ] [ Wim Wenders: On Film: Essays and Conversations ]

DVD's: [ Amazon ]

1,000 Greatest Films: Alice in the Cities (1974), Kings of the Road (1976), Paris, Texas (1984), Wings of Desire (1987)


	"Of all the new German directors of the 1970s, none had Wim Wenders's rhapsodic sense of America. He was brought up on American Forces radio and the glut of Hollywood movies that occupied Germany after the war...Wenders remains romantically itinerant, in love with music, America, and the idea of the movies. But he is closing in on sixty, and nothing lately has been as big or as cogent as one would like to see." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)

	"A fan of American films from his early childhood...He began his career as a critic before developing into one of the leading exponents of the New German Cinema. Themes of isolation and alienation characterize his films, which often feature journeys in search of enlightenment." - (Chambers Film Factfinder, 2006)

	"Although less prolific than his contemporary Rainer Werner Fassbinder, this West German director succeeded in making every one of his new films up to the mid-1980s something of an event...This is probably caused in some part by the fact that Wenders' style recalls memories of Hollywood films of 30 years earlier...His pictures are usually about attempted escapes from inextricable situations, by people who, like Frankenstein and his creature, could go to the ends of the earth and still find fate awaiting them." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)

	"Thus far Wenders has made haunting, angst-ridden films about identity and freedom of choice." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)

	"Entertainment today constantly emphasizes the message that things are wonderful the way they are. But there is another kind of cinema, which says that change is possible and necessary and it's up to you." - Wim Wenders