Wim Wenders

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Wim Wenders

Image:Wim Wenders(cannesPhotocall)-.jpg Wim Wenders at Cannes, 2002
Born:	August 14 1945 (age 63) Image:Flag of Germany.svg Düsseldorf, Germany
Occupation:	Film director

Ernst Wilhelm ("Wim") Wenders (born August 14, 1945) is a German film director, photographer, and producer. He was born in Düsseldorf.

Contents 1 Career and awards 2 Early life 3 Filmography 4 Quotes 5 External links

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 cinematographer Robby Muller. He also worked with the famous 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 with 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 also 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.

Early life

Wim's father, a surgeon, and his mother, of Dutch descent, decided before his birth to name him "Wim." Authorities insisted it was not “a proper German name” and forced his parents to change it on his birth certificate to something else, Wilhem.

Wenders graduated from the “Gymnasium” (high school) in Oberhausen, in the Ruhr district. 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 the Art Academy, 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" (Academy of Film and Television) in 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.

Filmography

Year	Title	German title	Summary
1970	Summer in the City		First full length feature film
1972	The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty (UK) or The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (USA)	Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter	Adaptation of a novel by Peter Handke
1973	The Scarlet Letter	Der Scharlachrote Buchstabe	Adapted from the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1974	Alice in the Cities	Alice in den Städten	First part of Wenders' Road Movie Trilogy
1975	The Wrong Move	Falsche Bewegung	Second part of Wenders' Road Movie Trilogy
1976	Kings of the Road	Im Lauf der Zeit	Third part of Wenders' Road Movie Trilogy
1977	The American Friend	Der Amerikanische Freund	Adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel Ripley's Game
1980	Lightning Over Water		Documentary about the last days of Nicholas Ray
1982	Room 666	Chambre 666
1982	Reverse Angle		Short film documents Wenders' disputes with Coppola during Hammett
1982	Hammett		Fictional story about Dashiell Hammett, American writer; based on a novel by Joe Gores
1982	The State of Things	Stand der Dinge
1984	Paris, Texas
1985	Tokyo-Ga		Documentary about Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu
1987	Wings of Desire	Der Himmel über Berlin	Written with Peter Handke
1989	Notebook on Cities and Clothes	Aufzeichnungen zu Kleidern und Städten
1990	Red Hot + Blue		Music video for "Night and Day" performed by U2
1991	Until the End of the World	Bis ans Ende der Welt
1992	Arisha, the Bear and the Stone Ring	Arisha, der Bär und der steinerne Ring
1993	Faraway, So Close!	In weiter Ferne, so nah!	Partially a sequel to Wings of Desire
1994	Lisbon Story		Partially a sequel to The State of Things
1995	The Brothers Skladanowsky	Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky	Also known as A Trick of the Light
1997	The End of Violence
1998	Willie Nelson at the Teatro
1999	Buena Vista Social Club		Documentary about Cuban musicians; made with Ry Cooder
2000	The Million Dollar Hotel
2002	Ode to Cologne: A Rock 'N' Roll Film	Viel passiert - Der BAP-Film
2002	Ten Minutes Older		Contributed segment "Twelve Miles to Trona"
2003	The Soul of a Man		Documentary about Blues musicians
2004	Land of Plenty
2005	Don't Come Knocking

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."

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