Wim Wenders

the kinks songs, btw, are why the film has never been properly released (although morbs might argue it's also b/c it's terrible). a similar issue afflicts several of his short films from that period, most of which use american rock music on their soundtracks. indeed, the soundtracks are as often as not the subjects of the films.

i can't recall if summer in the city actually features the song "summer in the city"

it does. the whole thing.

also a complete TV perf of the Kinks doing "Days," which I'll take over Solveig D caterwauling her way through it (RIP). and there's a short lecture on Three Godfathers.

A few minutes later, Franco materializes at the museum, because that is what James Franco does, and walks up to Wenders. Franco gives him a bear hug, then begins talking — about shooting "Every Thing"; about giving Wenders a cameo role in his own new directorial effort "Zeroville" ("Larry the Hippie," Franco says; "Larry the Elderly Hippie," Wenders corrects); about a Björk exhibit at the museum; about several other matters on Franco's mind.

After Franco leaves, Wenders turns to a reporter and asks, "Do you think there's only one of him?"

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-wim-wenders-20150312-story.html

Pretty good question tbh

I skipped Until the End of the World at the time--I wasn't even crazy about Wings of Desire--but there's a clip in the Steve Jobs documentary that makes me want to see it now. I'm sure it's the mess that most people said it was, but the clip seemed prophetic and immediate. In any event, Amazon prices are insane.

Janus Films was a number of Wenders' films in the pipeline for a travelling retro...and eventual Criterions (if they haven't already had the treatment). They are:

The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Alice in the Cities
Wrong Move
Kings of the Road
The American Friend
The State of Things
Paris, Texas
Tokyo-ga
Wings of Desire
Notebook on Cities and Clothes
Until the End of the World (Director's Cut)
Buena Vista Social Club

Haven't watched this shit since the 90s. Only one way to find out if I can still appreciate it.

Until the End is about to be reissued for sure

but the clip seemed prophetic and immediate

was it Claire screaming "you killed me! I am dead! my heart is dead!" because the batteries on her iPad were at 0% and Gene wouldn't let her plug it in to recharge?

No dialogue, just people staring blankly at what looked like a 1991 version of personal-device screens. I encounter a lot of that day to day.

WW back in NYC for the IFC Center retro

http://www.ifccenter.com/series/wim-wenders-portraits-along-the-road/

An interesting new review of the directors cut

http://gu.com/p/4bpjd

At one point Hoffman says "you can laugh now but..." and I can say the same w/r/t an earlier film - at 15yo Wings of Desire broke my brain and opened me up to whole realms of artistic expression I was unaware of. It has longuers and silly sections but I can honestly say that film changed my life.

i was shocked at the pan around Shea Stadium in Alice -- a place i spent a fair amount of time in the summer of '73 -- and as a topper, WW fixing this shot on decades-long Mets organist Jane Jarvis.

http://auteurs_production.s3.amazonaws.com/post_images_danny/multiple%20images/Alice%20in%20the%20Cities/alice_1.jpg

A scene that has stayed with me for 35 years, now on YouTube of course.

http://heardjustwhatiseen.wordpress.com/2016/01/30/in-the-rain-and-snow/

Has anyone seen the new 3D one? His 3D documentaries have been pretty interesting, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

I saw Kings of the Road three times within a couple of weeks in 1984 when it had a short run in this dingy neighborhood theatre that mostly played softcore porn. Very susceptible to its mood and look at that particular point in my life (I was 22 or 23). For almost the first half tonight, I was second-guessing myself a little--still looked great, but it seemed rather mannered, and just kind of puttered along. Then all the good stuff showed up: Lisa Kreuzer (especially the Truffaut-like tear), the motorbike, "Just Like Eddie," the complicated train-leaving shot, the Last Picture Show-like ending (a little pat, nice anyway). Rüdiger Vogler's sleepy-eyed amble gets a little wearing at times, and I thought the scene between Hanns Zischler and his father was the film's clumsiest--much better in Five Easy Pieces. Great discovery: Crispian St. Peters' "So Long" (the guy who did "The Pied Piper"--I'm now wondering if it was his "You Were on My Mind" in The Goalie's Anxiety, not a remake). I thought the one projectionist looked a lot like R.W. Fassbinder, not accidental I'm sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJeglDl1SiI

Seems like my main takeaway from seeing the restored Wrong Move tonight was that Hanna Schygulla was probably the coolest person in the world in 1975...and that the long walk'n'talk on the mountain road about midway through is possibly the most beautiful example of its ilk.

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/1186-wim-wenders-the-road-trilogy

Rental place here has The Wrong Move--how would you rank it against the other two?

i'd say the weakest of the 3. more arty and a bit like Himmel Uber Berlin (still pretty good though)

The most angsty. In full brownish 70's color

Saw the 4-1/2 hour cut of Until the End of the World tonight. I fleetingly contemplated leaving during the intermission--I wasn't hating it, just wasn't terribly interested and drifting a bit. Glad I stuck around for the science-fiction-heavy second half, especially the whole dream-capture segment. Some of the images were beautiful, and there really was a kind of prophetic brilliance to Hurt and Dommartin in the throes of device-addiction. Liked some of the soundtrack: the Lou Reed and Peter Gabriel songs, the one played by the in-film pick-up band. There's a really good sci-fi film buried in here; not sure why Wenders decided to couch it in a rag-tag, elephantine road movie (and the video conference call at the end felt like a sitcom).

Didn't like Wings of Desire in 1987, liked it even less tonight. The colour section isn't bad, and Falk is funny. Found the first couple of hours oppressively self-important. People are sad and lonely, and (or but) there are angels watching over us with tender, imploring gazes--didn't need two hours to get that across. I almost always like the look of post-1970 B&W films, but even the cinematography seemed contrived (the massing birds was nice). The club scenes felt like a blueprint for the roadhouse scenes in Twin Peaks. (Thought I spotted Jim Jarmusch but didn't see his name in the credits.)

the one where james franco is a novelist in quebec one is the worst movie i have ever seen in my life

lol ive been curious abt that flick

The American Friend looks amazing, Hopper is super cool, and the subway sequence was tense and exciting, but I found it kind of needlessly opaque. Ripley's Game did it better.

Some of the images were beautiful, and there really was a kind of prophetic brilliance to Hurt and Dommartin in the throes of device-addiction.

Until the End of the World has lots of prophetic brilliance (tablets, navigation systems, the Euro) weighed down by Ranxerox eurotrash cyberpunk nonsense, which I love even more.

also watched The American Friend CC over the weekend, beautiful Robby Muller images; most of it looks like it was shot between 5 and 8 a.m. One of the '70s genre curveballs that works best imho.

The depiction of future-1999 San Francisco in UTEOTW, where the car dealer robs them and most scenes are derelict streets with cops harassing everyone, gets the flavor of actual USA future pretty well, I thought. then cut to a fancy bar where all that shit is erased from view, and she's going on about a delicious cocktail. And the French criminal guy is just clearly delighted by all of it.

I bet I've said this before on ILX.

Watched Paris Texas for the first time in 20 years or so. Still classic for the photography but the seeds of late era WW corniness were already there

Saw The American Friend for the first time--I always kind of dodged it for some reason. The print was restored and exceedingly beautiful, especially the cityscapes. Was intermittently bored. Guessing this is where Wes Anderson learned about the Kinks (or at least "Nothing in This World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl"), so salut for that.

just saw Paris, Texas for the first time at a rep screening, someone was cutting up onions somewhere nearby

saw Paris, Texas for the third time tonight, first in a theater. Robby Müller's cinematography is gorgeous, masterful - Ry Cooder's score is perfect (a friend made a great point that strings would've ruined this movie) - but I still don't like this movie at all. I find the 'mute walking in the desert' conceit corny beyond belief, the last twenty minutes are an expository dump without much clarity, but mostly I totally disagree with where the filmmakers' sympathies lie. Travis is not a sympathetic character, and the way the movie ditches Dean Stockwell & Aurore Clement halfway thru is just awful. we're supposed to smile when him and the kid are playing with walkie talkies in the truck. it's not fucking funny. he acts like a child the whole movie because he is a child, he's a coward, and thoroughly pathetic - how he can't even face her at the end. good lord... and that they brought the kid along... imagine how those adopted parents must feel. now, I will say it sailed by this time, no doubt because I was in a huge theater. it's a beautiful looking movie, but its ethics are backwards and it celebrates a certain type of man child 'playful' irresponsibility that I find really disgusting. Goddamn good score, though.

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).