WIM WENDERS

'Ernst Wilhelm ("Wim") Wenders' (born August 14, 1945) is a German film director, playwright, photographer, and producer. He was born in Düsseldorf.

Contents

Career and awards

Early life

Filmography

Selected bibliography

Quotes

External links

Career and awards

Wenders began his career in film as part of the New German Cinema in the late 1960s, making his feature directorial debut with ''Summer in the City'' in 1970. Awards that he has received include the Golden Lion for ''The State of Things at the Venice Film Festival'' in 1982, the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984 for his movie ''Paris, Texas'', and Best Direction for ''Wings of Desire'' at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. Wenders was awarded honorary doctorates at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1989 and at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium in 2005. He was awarded the Leopard of Honour at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2005.
Much of the cinematography in his movies was as a result of a highly productive collaboration with Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller. He also worked with the famous Austrian writer Peter Handke, adapting Handke's novel ''The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick'' for his second feature film, ''The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty'', and then collaborating with Handke in one of his most famous movies, ''Wings of Desire''. He co-wrote ''Until the End of the World'' with starring actress and romantic interest Solveig Dommartin.
He has directed several highly acclaimed documentaries, most notably ''Buena Vista Social Club'' about Cuban musicians, and ''Soul of a Man'' about American blues.
Wenders has also directed many music videos for U2, such as "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" and a number of television commercials including a UK advertisement for Carling Premier Canadian beer.
Wenders is also a member of the advisory board of World Cinema Foundation. The project was founded by Martin Scorsese and aimed at finding and reconstructing world cinema films that have been long neglected.

Early life

Wenders graduated from the Gymnasium (high school) in Oberhausen, in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine (1963-64) and philosophy (1964-65) in Freiburg and Düsseldorf. However, he dropped out of school and moved to Paris in October, 1966 to become a painter. Wenders failed his entry test at the Art Academy, so instead became an engraver in the studio of Johnny Friedlander, an American artist, in Montparnasse. During this time, Wenders became fascinated with cinema, and saw up to 5 movies a day at the local movie theater.
Set on making his obsession also his life's work, Wenders returned to Germany in 1967 to work in the Düsseldorf office of United Artists. That fall, he entered the "Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München" (University of Television and Film Munich). Between 1967 and 1970 while at the "HFF", Wenders also worked as a film critic for ''FilmKritik'', then the Munich daily newspaper ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'', ''Twen'' magazine, and ''Der Spiegel''.
Wenders completed several short films before graduating from the Hochschule with a feature-length 16mm black and white film, ''Summer in the City''.

Filmography

'Year'	'Title'	'German title'	'Summary'
1970	''Summer in the City''		First full length feature film
1972	''The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty'' (UK) or ''The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick'' (USA)	''	Adaptation of a novel by Peter Handke
1973	''The Scarlet Letter''	''Der Scharlachrote Buchstabe''	Adapted from the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1974	''Alice in the Cities	''Alice in den Städten''	First part of Wenders' Road Movie Trilogy
1975	''The Wrong Move''	''Falsche Bewegung''	Second part of Wenders' Road Movie Trilogy
1976	''Kings of the Road''	''Im Lauf der Zeit''	Third part of Wenders' Road Movie Trilogy
1977	''The American Friend''	''Der Amerikanische Freund''	Adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel ''Ripley's Game''
1980	''Lightning Over Water''		Documentary about the last days of Nicholas Ray
1982	''Room 666''	''Chambre 666''	Short documentary interviews directors on the future of cinema, including Steven Spielberg, Jean-Luc Godard, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Filmed at Cannes
1982	''Reverse Angle''		Short film documents Wenders' disputes with Coppola during ''Hammett''
1982	''Hammett''		Fictional story about Dashiell Hammett, American writer; based on a novel by Joe Gores
1982	''The State of Things''	''Stand der Dinge''
1984	''Paris, Texas''
1985	''Tokyo-Ga''		Documentary about Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu
1987	''Wings of Desire''	''Der Himmel über Berlin''	Written with Peter Handke
1989	''Notebook on Cities and Clothes''	''Aufzeichnungen zu Kleidern und Städten''
1990	''Red Hot + Blue''		Music video for "Night and Day" performed by U2
1991	''Until the End of the World''	''Bis ans Ende der Welt''
1992	''Arisha, the Bear and the Stone Ring''	''Arisha, der Bär und der steinerne Ring''
1993	''Faraway, So Close!''	''In weiter Ferne, so nah!''	Partially a sequel to ''Wings of Desire''
1994	''Lisbon Story''		Partially a sequel to ''The State of Things''
1995	''Beyond the Clouds''	''Jenseits der Wolken''
1995	''The Brothers Skladanowsky''	''Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky''	Also known as ''A Trick of the Light''
1997	''The End of Violence''
1998	''Willie Nelson at the Teatro''
1999	''Buena Vista Social Club''		Documentary about Cuban musicians; made with Ry Cooder
2000	''The Million Dollar Hotel''
2002	''	''Viel passiert - Der BAP-Film''	Documentary about the Cologne rock group BAP
2002	''Ten Minutes Older''		Contributed segment "Twelve Miles to Trona"
2003	''The Soul of a Man''		Documentary about Blues musicians
2004	''Land of Plenty''
2005	''Don't Come Knocking''

Selected bibliography

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

Quotes

★ "Sex and violence was never really my cup of tea; I was always more into sax and violins."

★ "I consider Ozu my all time grand master."

External links

★ Official website

★

★ Angels and the Modern City: Essay on Wenders' film ''Wings of Desire''

★ Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

★ filmportal.de including biography, filmography and photos

★ Wenders Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)

★ Wim Wenders: Image and Cultural Influence ToxicUniverse.com article by Tony Pellum

★ Interview with Wim Wenders (in German)

★ Naked Punch Review Interview with Wim Wenders.

★ Drinks with Tony interview with Wim Wenders.

★ Wim Wenders to be part of "Global Town Hall" summit

★ CNN interview with Wim Wenders

★ Informative German language website

★ Wim Wenders Interview (portuguese subtitles)