on Wenders

Lately I have been watching a lot of Wim Wenders films. Well lately I have been buying a lot of Wim Wenders films, I have actually only watched a small proportion of them so far, but I am doing my best to make a bit of personal time each weekend to settle down and watch an arty DVD on my laptop. So far I have been most drawn to the documentaries, which provide some insight into his working methods. For his initial films the personal and the portrayed merged into each other, casting people he had relationships with, and using thinly disguised versions of himself as protaginists. The films were scripted pretty much on the hoof as locations were sourced. In some cases this works well, Kings of the Road is a wonderful piece. Other times it is disasterous, as with Lightning Over Water about Nicholas Ray which makes for extremely uncomfortable viewing.

However finding about more about how he operates it becomes clear that the director is really a person who seeks to make the impossible happen, magicking up money and resources out of nothing, refusing to recognise that anything is impossible, stubbornly shooting film inspite of any impediments. With time the director also becomes something of a brand, denoting something that viewers might want to buy into. Behind the brand there is a vast support network of artistic and technical collaborators who contribute as much, if not more, than the director.

The director is like the old Erich von Stroheim caricature, possessed by a messianic determination to create his vision on celluloid. It is almost a cliche that the director is determined beyond what any reasonable man would be. Although Wenders generally seems an affable sort, his determination to make films burns through relationships and friends, leaving only the celluloid.

I am not sure that many of us has the determination and confidence to pursue our vision with that degree of single minded-ness, I am not sure whether it is even truly an admirable quality.

In the end it is for each of us to find the right answer about what it is that is important in our lives.