Focus on Wim Wenders

A trip through the emotion pictures of Wim Wenders, one of the key directors of the New German Cinema and one of cinema’s greatest journeymen.

Wim Wenders has had many lives as a filmmaker. Emerging out of the New German Cinema Wave of the 70s alongside his compatriots Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff, Wenders quickly carved a name for himself, exploring the emotional terrain of post‑war Germany through his road movie trilogy, which established him on the international film scene. The films’ loose, hangout style would go on to influence US filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch.

The road movie genre would lead him to the Palme d’Or winner Paris, Texas (1984) and an ongoing love affair with the American landscape. His triumphant return to Germany with the 1987 fantasy film Wings of Desire (Best Director, Cannes Film Festival) elevated him to one of the key figures in modern European cinema.

Not one to rest on his laurels, his filmography displays an ongoing curiosity and exploration of the cinema form, resulting in a series of features made in or for 3D (Pina, 2011). Wenders’ journey would take him across the globe, bringing his own brand of humanism to films such as the Cuban music documentary Buena Vista Social Club (1999) and the portrait of Brazilian photographer Juliano Ribeiro Salgado in The Salt of the Earth (2014). His recent triumph, the Japan‑set Perfect Days (2023), shows that Wenders is not done exploring yet.

– Spiro Economopoulos, Film & TV Curator, ACMI