| Wim Wenders |
Wim Wenders, 2005 |
| Born |
Ernst Wilhelm Wenders
August 14, 1945 (1945-08-14) (age 62)
Düsseldorf, Germany |
| Occupation |
Film director |
| Years active |
1967 - present |
| Spouse(s) |
Edda Köchl (1968-1974)
Lisa Kreuzer (1974-1978)
Ronee Blakley (1979-1981)
Isabelle Weingarten (1981-1982)
Donata Wenders (1993-) |
| Official website |
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Ernst Wilhelm ("Wim") Wenders (born August 14, 1945) is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer. He was born in Düsseldorf.
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 France's national film school IDHEC (La Fémis at present), 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.
Wim Wenders at Cannes, 2002
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 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 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. His book, "Emotion Pictures" - a collection of diary essays written while a film student - was broadcast as a series of plays on BBC Radio 3, featuring Peter Capaldi as Wenders, with Gina McKee, Saskia Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Harry Dean Stanton and Ricky Tomlinson, dramatised by Neil Cargill.
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.
Filmography
Selected bibliography
- Wenders, Wim (1984), Paris, Texas, Nördlingen: Greno, ISBN 978-3921568118
- Wenders, Wim (1986), Emotion pictures: Essays und Filmkritiken, 1968-1984, Frankfurt: Verlag der Autoren, ISBN 978-3886610785
- Wenders, Wim (1989), Emotion pictures: reflections on cinema, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0571152711
- Shepard, Sam & Wenders, Wim (1991), Paris, Texas: Screenplay, New York: Ecco Press, ISBN 978-0880012669
- Wenders, Wim & Hofmann, Michael (1992), The logic of images: essays and conversations, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0571165179
- Wenders, Wim (1995), Die Zeit mit Antonioni: Chronik eines Films, Frankfurt: Verlag der Autoren, ISBN 978-3886611621
- Wenders, Wim & Handke, Peter (1998), Der Himmel über Berlin: Ein Filmbuch von Wim Wenders und Peter Handke, Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, ISBN 978-3518024065
- Wenders, Wim & Wenders, Donata (2000), The heart is a sleeping Beauty: the Million Dollar Hotel - a film book, New York: teNeues, ISBN 978-3823854685
- Wenders, Wim & Hofmann, Michael (2000), My time with Antonioni: the diary of an extraordinary experience, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0571200764
- Wenders, Wim (2001), Written in the West, New York: teNeues, ISBN 978-3823854692
- Wenders, Wim (2001), Once: pictures and stories, New York: D.A.P./Schirmer/Mosel, ISBN 978-1891024252
- Wenders, Wim & Hofmann, Michael (2001), On film: essays and conversations, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0571207183
- Lindbergh, Peter & Wenders, Wim (2002), Peter Lindbergh: stories, Santa Fe: Arena Editions, ISBN 978-1892041647
- Steinhilber, Berthold & Wenders, Wim (2003), Ghost towns of the American West, New York: Harry N. Abrams, ISBN 978-0810945081
- Wenders, Wim & Tawada, Yoko (2007), Where Europe begins, New York: New Directions Publishers, ISBN 978-0811217026
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."
- "I want to make personal films, not private films."
External links
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Films directed by Wim Wenders |
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