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Wim Wenders |
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Director / Screenwriter /
Producer |
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1945 - |
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Born August 14,
Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany |
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Key
Production Countries: Germany, USA, France |
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Key Genres: Drama,
Road Movie, Documentary |
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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) |
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Highly
Recommended: Alice
in the Cities (1974)*, Kings
of the Road (1976)*, The
American Friend (1977)*, Paris,
Texas (1984)*, Wings of Desire (1987)* |
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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) |
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Approach with Caution: Hammett (1983), Notebook on Cities and Clothes (1989), Faraway, So Close! (1993), Lisbon Story (1994) |
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Duds:
Until the End of the World (1991), The End of Violence (1997) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
] [
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) ] |
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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 ] |
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"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) |
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"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) |
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"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)
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"Thus far Wenders has made haunting, angst-ridden films about
identity and freedom of choice." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"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 |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include The Scarlet Letter (1973), Wrong Move
(1975), The Million Dollar Hotel (1999), Land of Plenty (2004), and
Don't Come Knocking (2005). |
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7+ |
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"Wim Wenders always seems to be on the move. In the course of his career he has made films in Japan, Portugal, Cuba, Italy, Russia, Australia, his native Germany, and the US. Not surprisingly, he called his film company
Road Movies... Collaborating from the very first with novelist Peter Handke and cinematographer Robby Müller, Wenders favoured long takes , taciturn, alienated protagonists and open-ended narratives. This was
a deeply mittel-European sensibility. Yet increasingly he was drawn towards the dynamics of American genre filmmaking. That tension produced an imaginative Patricia Highsmith adapatation,
The American Friend (1977)."
-
Tom Charity, The Rough Guide to Film |
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●
Top 250 Directors |
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100 Essential Directors (Pop
Matters) |
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●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
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See Also |
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Wim Wender's Favourites |
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Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991)
Lèos Carax,
Blade Runner (1982)
Ridley Scott,
Breathless (1959)
Jean-Luc Godard,
Down by Law (1986)
Jim Jarmusch,
The King of Comedy (1983)
Martin Scorsese,
The Lusty Men (1952)Nicholas
Ray,
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
John Ford,
Marnie (1964)
Alfred Hitchcock,
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Howard Hawks,
Red Line 7000 (1965)
Howard Hawks,
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Jean Renoir,
The Wild Child (1969)
François Truffaut,
The Woman in the Window (1944)
Fritz Lang.
Source:
Fifty Filmmakers
Book (2002) |
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