This month, Image Journal’s Artist of the Month isfilmmaker Wim Wenders.
As one who was formerly selected, I can promise Mr. Wenders that his fame will now skyrocket, and he’ll never have to worry about paying bills again!
All kidding aside… Wenders is one of my heroes. He’s been on Image‘s advisory board for years, and is a good friend to publisher Greg Wolfe. He directed my all-time favorite film, Wings of Desire, and has recently been collaborating with writer/director Scott Derrickson (Land of Plenty), whose new film The Day the Earth Stood Still opens soon. You never know what you’ll find in a Wenders film. He’s an explorer, so you never know if his new movie will be a transcendant wonder or a curious meandering through uncharted territory… or both. I’ll bet many were surprised, watching The End of Violence, when the camera drifted from an alley through a window into a room where Sam Phillips was performing the song “Animals on Wheels” for an audience. Moments of spontanaeity and revelation are common in Wenders work.
I had the pleasure of interviewing him about that film. (That interview is included in my book Through a Screen Darkly, and I devoted almost a whole chapter to his “prodigal father” film Don’t Come Knocking, which I enjoyed very much, but which inspired some outlandish condemnation from a popular Christian media personality.) I also wrote a profile of Wenders for Christianity Today Movies.
You can now read Wenders’ answer to Image‘s question “Why do you believe in God?” here.
It’s good to see him in the spotlight again, and I can’t wait to see his next projects. (He’s working on a horror movie!)
Speaking of Image… I’m going to begin writing about movies twice a month for their site, and my first installment will be published tomorrow here! The focus? One of my favorite films of the decade so far.
Oh, one more thing. If you go to Image‘s site, you’ll see an ad for The Glen Workshop over on the right side of the frame. You’ll see a picture there of a woman in a red shirt. That’s my wife Anne, working on a poem with mentor Scott Cairns!
You know, Jeffrey, I loved “Through A Screen Darkly”. I love movies. And based on your glowing chapter, I rented “Wings Of Desire”. And…
I just couldn’t get through it.
I guess I’m a cinematical Philistine…but I still enjoy your blog…AND movies. 🙂
Have you watched Paris, Texas? It’s a great movie in its own right, but even more interesting when you compare it with the progidal theme in Don’t Come Knocking.
And the Nick Cave cameo in Wings of Desire is pretty outstanding too. Wenders has some good taste in music.
My experience with Wings of Desire was the same, which reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend of mine.
She and I have very similar tastes, but we disagree vehemently on a number of films (she gave Independence Day 5 stars on Netflix). Often we’ll recommend a movie or a book that we know the other should like, but for some reason we don’t enjoy or even finish it. We concluded that the issue is timing. Sometimes, for whatever reason, we just don’t enjoy something “right now” (and that doesn’t necessarily make us Philistines).
Appreciation of art is a lifelong process. Some of the movies I enjoyed 10 or 15 years ago, I can’t bear today (I went to a midnight showing of Independence Day), and some of what I can’t bear today, I may grow to love (just as I hated Royal Tenenbaums when a friend dragged me to it opening night).
So while I can’t make it through Wings of Desire, The New World, or Jindabyne now, It’s exciting to know that there’s something there for me to enjoy someday.