A View on Wenders

One of this year’s Co-Production Conference countries at the Atlantic Film Festival is Germany, and no German filmmaker has a more international outlook than Wim Wenders. As part of the Gallery’s annual collaboration with the AFF, film curator Ron Foley Macdonald has organized a short retrospective that reconsiders two of Wenders’ most influential films (Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire) along with his groundbreaking documentaries (Tokyo-Ga and The Buena Vista Social Club) and some of his cinematic collaborations with filmmakers who have influenced him, such as legendary Rebel Without A Cause director Nicholas Ray (Lightning Over Water) and Michelangelo Antonioni (Beyond the Clouds).

Screenings daily at 5 pm. Admission is free. Seating is limited.

Thursday 17 September - The American Friend

Wim Wenders, West Germany/France, 1977, 126 minutes. From Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley series comes The American Friend, a noirish art scam scheme story starring Dennis Hopper. (In English and German with subtitles.)

Friday 18 September - Lightning Over Water

Wim Wenders/Nicholas Ray, USA/Sweden/West Germany, 1980, 90 minutes. The last days of the great American film director and iconoclast Nicholas Ray, in an unforgettable cinematic portrait.

Saturday 19 September - Paris, Texas

Wim Wenders, USA/West Germany/France, 1984, 148 minutes. Sam Shepard wrote this extraordinary story of a man searching for his lost wife in the vast dry gulch of America’s 1980’s Reaganite Renaissance. Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski star.

Sunday 20 September - Tokyo-Ga

Wim Wenders, West Germany/USA, 1985, 92 minutes. A celebratory portrait of the ‘most Japanese’ of Japanese directors Yasujiro Ozu, Tokyo-Ga is a profound and illuminating examination of Oriental cinematic and domestic space.

Monday 21 September - Wings of Desire

Wim Wenders, West Germany/France, 1987, 128 minutes. Bruno Ganz stars as an angel desiring human values in the most unforgettable film ever made about Berlin and its divided nature two years before the fall of the Wall. (In German with subtitles.)

Tuesday 22 September - Faraway, So Close!

Wim Wenders, Germany, 1993, 146 minutes. Wenders revisited the setting and storyline of Wings of Desire for this sequel-of-sorts that again deals with spiritual beings craving the solidity of corporeal form. (In English and German with subtitles.)

Wednesday 23 September - Beyond the Clouds

Michelangelo Antonioni/Wim Wenders, Italy/Germany/France, 1995, 113 minutes. Four narratives form the core of Antonioni’s last film, co-directed with Wenders after the great Italian director was left unable to speak due to a stroke. John Malkovich stars.

Thursday 24 September - The Buena Vista Social Club

Wim Wenders, Germany/USA, 1998, 105 minutes. Filming Californian guitarist Ry Cooder’s visit to the forgotten musical corners of Cuba, Wenders helped launch a vogue for a near-forgotten but still vital form of Latin music that has become internationally popular. (In English and Spanish with subtitles.)

Friday 25 September - Don’t Come Knocking

Wim Wenders, USA/Germany/France/UK, 2005, 122 minutes. Returning to the themes of Paris, Texas and starring its writer Sam Shepard, Wenders takes a looks again at the elemental myths of the American West and its legacy of shattered domesticity. With Tim Roth, Jessica Lange and Sarah Polley.