Wim Wenders

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2000 The Million Dollar Hotel 1

haha -- waht

surprised by the number of votes for Kings of the Road

anyone catch Pina?

no, but all the reviews I've read have been fantastic. I promised myself I wouldn't fall for any WW "return to form" crap anymore but I'm tempted to break that rule.

nick james was very keen on it, i think, partly as an extension of the idea that 3d is most successful for documentary, where being vivid is a bigger priority than adding some kind of weird depth. i might go tomorrow.

I liked Million Dollar Hotel a lot! But voted for Until the End of the World.

I rambled on a bit about Pina here:

RIP Pina Bausch

Short version: loved it, 3D super effective at times, would recommend.

anybody ever watch Don't Come Knocking? Wenders re-uniting w Sam Shepard, has probably my two favorite actress in it (Sarah Polley & Fairuza Balk), seems to be one of the few WW movies Ed Gonzales reps for. Any thoughts out there?

not awful, but not good. it does look fairly nice but wenders is obsessed for some reason w/ spinning the camera 360 degrees, he does it like ten times. lol @ ur fav actress being fairuza balk

lol thx tho

Watched Paris, Texas for the first time in ages. (The DVD collections at Toronto libraries are schizophrenic--Criterions alongside Son of Happy Gilmore.) I was 23 when it came out and I saw it in Montreal, and that was just the right age--had a big effect on me. The music, the cinematography of the driving-at-night scenes, the echo of American films of the '70s via Harry Dean Stanton and Dean Stockwell, it all clicked. I watched it a few times, and the things that started to bother me then still do. The two big scenes between HDS and Kinski, most of all: they go on forever and bring the film to a complete halt. Also the improbability of how long it takes Kinski to realize who she's talking to.

But the first 90 minutes held up well. The kid is just great. Two odd instances where it may have influenced other films: 1) Harry Dean's antics at the airport are pretty much identical to Hoffman's in Rain Man, and 2) Stockwell's exasperation with HDS's muteness--"I can be silent too"--reminded me of Steve Buscemi in Fargo. Okay, I'm reaching.

I only saw it once, back in 2004 at the MFAH as part of the tour of the restored print prior to Fox doing their DVD. They brought both Kit and Hunter Carson down for the weekend to speak, and Hunter (son of Kit and Karen Black all growed up now) even brought a short he'd just directed starring Tim Roth. A truly memorable experience (I think even some of the Mydolls, the rehearsing band from the end of the film and area punk legends, came out). The film probably plays best in a theatre atmosphere. There--to me anyway--the Kinski scenes are enveloping.

One thing I always come back to is a funny trick they did w/the editing, which you'd only catch if you were a native to--or at least spent a good deal of time on--the upper Texas Gulf Coast. When Stanton & Carson trail Kinski, they start at a Texas Commerce Bank in downtown Houston. They follow her onto I-10, and (IIRC) get off in the Heights (just a few minutes west of downtown). There's a cut, which takes us to the area where Kinski works, which is in reality is about 90 minutes east, at the old abandoned main drag of Port Arthur, Texas on Proctor Street--which btw, still looks like that 30 years on. It's kinda like Pompeii in some regards.

...and The Mydolls are still at it! A clip from a year ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRcAqOV5_Hk

the first time I saw Paris, Texas was when I was in high school. It was on HBO at 3 or 4 in the morning, and I set my alarm so I could watch it. I don't really remember why, but that was when I had started going on a huge indie movie kick so that probably had something to do with it...

loved the Kinski/Stanton scenes at the time, made the movie for me. I don't remember changing my mind about them, either, but it's been a few years since my last viewing so I'm not entirely sure if they would still hold up or not.

I love the film and especially the Stanton/Kinski scene. Its the kind of scene I can go back and watch on its own.

her texas accent is pretty rough, esp in that scene

The accent seemed fine to me, but that says more about my ignorance of a real Texas accent, as opposed to a movie version.

That's great stuff, Grissom. HDS and the kid trying to catch up with Kinski is one of my favourite scenes; something about Cooder's music changes there.

I don't know--those two scenes don't seem right to me. A film that has been all about mood and spare dialogue suddenly gets very talky. The content of what they're saying is important, and it ties everything together, but they just go on for so long. At the very least, I wish they'd cut it to one scene instead of two.

really? her german accent pokes through on almost every word!

Didn't notice. I just don't have a good ear for accents...all I know for sure is that she's better than Dr. Tongue's Joe Buck. (Damn, all clips taken down.)

i'm watching wings of desire with the strokes playing and he just sang "a woman alone" exactly when the line in the movie showed on subtitles!

RIP L.M. "Kit" Carson, co-writer of Paris, Texas and mentor to Wes Anderson and the Wilson brothers.

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-l-m-kit-carson-1941-2014

i wonder if all voters watched Kings Of The Road which is obviously the best Wenders film.

tend to agree

http://www.subjectivisten.nl/.a/6a00d834e5f17c53ef017c3168124f970b-pi

this only got 1 vote though and is awesome too

Weird, I've just returned from watching Kings of the Road. And yeah, it's great. Might prefer Alice in the Cities, though.

Alice's the best.

just can't get a proper Kit Carson apprec in any thread....

I don't know if it's online, but Carson had a production diary on Paris, Texas published upon the film's release in a film mag. An excerpt was passed out at the screening I wrote about upthread. At one point during shooting Carson and Wenders had to conference call with Sam Shepherd (then shooting Country) from their hotel room in Houston so they could come up with a satisfactory ending to shoot the next day (the script just tapered off).

Alice > Kings of the Road, but its a close thing.

XP Apparently he also published a diary for the Breathless remake, which he said was a production that "almost didn't get started" as opposed to P,T which "almost didn't finish".

i see the library has a David Holzman's Diary book (c1970), no idea what that is.

^^Probably a transcription of the film with stills.

where's the gif upthread from? Goalie?

Yes.

Saw a lovely 35mm print of Paris, Texas tonight, more than enough compensation for Nastassja no-show for Q&A. Not nearly the best WW though, but Stanton and the kid are tops.

Carson and Wenders had to conference call with Sam Shepherd (then shooting Country) from their hotel room in Houston so they could come up with a satisfactory ending to shoot the next day

They didn't.

J.Ro quite accurate in thinking this was WW's "John Ford film."

also if you haven't seen it projected, you've missed out.

NY MoMA retro in March; incl a night with WW and Peter Handke

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1557

Paris, Texas still entrances on rewatch. (A lot of that is photographic/ cinematographic, which I don't discuss in this post.)

It's such a strange and (I think) unique film, narratologically speaking. Which is why even the scenes that bothered/ disappointed me on first watch (e.g. the talky scenes across the one-way mirror) interest and fascinate me more, on rewatching, when I've let go of/ lost any of the narratological/ cinematic/ other expectations I might have had on first viewing (e.g. re the mystery of Travis's muteness: on first watch, almost *anything* would be a disappointment, i.e. any specific narrative explaining the mystery of the movie's first half).

I watched it a few times, and the things that started to bother me then still do. The two big scenes between HDS and Kinski, most of all: they go on forever and bring the film to a complete halt. Also the improbability of how long it takes Kinski to realize who she's talking to.

Yeah this bothered me too; but one thing that counters this (on rewatch) is something Kinski's character says, that over the years every man she heard on the other side of the mirror sounded like Travis. It makes watching her experience re knowledge/ discovery (hearing someone who sounds like "Travis" from the beginning- like many other men have sounded to her like Travis, including Travis himself the day before) more interesting and complicated.

One of the interesting/ strange things in this movie which affect me (not the most striking but for me among the most haunting) is something it has in common with Hitchcock's Vertigo: Stanton's character's French wife (for years basically Hunter's "mother") drops out of the movie midway, with that poignant phonecall, just as Midge (with that poignant conversation with the doctor) drops out of Vertigo.

When I (subjectively) rewatch Paris, Texas, I am (almost) as moved by the situation/ experience of French "mom" as I am by the situations/ experiences of Travis and Kinski's character. When I (subjectively) rewatch Vertigo, I am (almost) as moved by the situation/ experience of Midge as I am by the situation/ experience of Stewart's and Novak's characters.

I just think that's an interesting and particular facet to a movie: to be haunted by a character who is lost to us midway of a movie, for whom there is (or with which we as viewers have) no closure.

I only thought of this facet because today the Almodovar thread is among the recent answers, and one of the things I liked or noticed about Broken Embraces is that the Midge character-- obviously alluded to as the Vertigo "Midge" character in the scene with the doctor at the seaside-- gets to have closure and a happy ending, in a way.

xp - wow, they're also showing The Left-handed Woman. Might lead the way to a DVD release.

should i see the 5-hr Until the End of the World? liked the shorter version.

obv the earlier lesser-seen-now stuff is what i prefer to concentrate on

Only saw the shorter one myself. What you going to see next?

next? not been yet, plus have Rendezvous tix this wkend. Two on Sunday, maybe.

Does that mean you won't see him in person? He really is kind of charming.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/mar/04/wim-wenders-retrospective-five-to-watch-one-to-miss

Stupid piece. Kings of the Road is one of his best.

would've been nice if i could've seen him, but not gonna do a repeat of the few i've already seen when there's other fish to fry. (I reserved a seat for Alice in the Cities the other night, then realized i was going to see An Octoroon in Brooklyn.)

Shorter version of Until the End of World felt kind of rushed throughout the first half so I could well imagine the longer version being an improvement.

the longer version is an huge improvement, but if you hated it before it won't change your mind. it's my favorite.

only watched Paris, Texas a long time ago, have been meaning to revisit

Good post flappy. This film, like most other WW films from his imperial period, has been so ingrained in me ever since my teenage years that it's hard to see it objectively. To a large extent, 'Alice in the Cities' does much better some of the same things that 'Paris, TX' is trying to do.

Is it worth seeing The American Friend on the big screen? I have that opportunity this week. Frankly I’m afraid it might be too grim/too slow.

I think you might actually enjoy it. Think it looks really good, for one thing.

Where’s it playing?

Film Forum, part of the Patricia Highsmith series. It seems they added a few showings after it was supposed to be done with

Missed the whole thing except for the trailers. Looked interesting. Believe our old friend JBR went to see a few things.

One of his first films The Scarlet Letter was a classic story transformed to reflect the mores, aesthetics and culture of 1973. It is kind of an ultimate 1973 film in some ways

I haven't seen it, but he (and other commentators) have always been dismissive of that film, it's sort of his Boxcar Bertha.

Saw the Scarlett Letter once many years ago but didn’t really like it.

Paris, Texas is good, but I like Jim Jarmusch's Stranger The Paradise from the same year (1984) a lot more. They seem similar in some ways

I have a vague memory of reading somewhere that Stranger Than Paradise was made in part by using leftover film stock given to Jarmusch from Wenders.

Yep, short ends from Wenders' The State of Things. Robby Muller, the cinematographer on Paris, Texas, went on to work with Jarmusch a lot (but not on Stranger Than Paradise).