Wim Wenders

Infobox Actor
name = Wim Wenders


caption = Wim Wenders, 2005
birthname = Ernst Wilhelm Wenders
birthdate = birth date and age|1945|08|14
birthplace = Düsseldorf, Germany
yearsactive = 1967 - present
occupation = Film director
spouse = Edda Köchl (1968-1974)
Lisa Kreuzer (1974-1978)
Ronee Blakley (1979-1981)
Isabelle Weingarten (1981-1982)
Donata Wenders (1993-)
website = http://www.wim-wenders.com/
baftaawards = Best Direction
1984 "Paris, Texas"
goyaawards = Best Documentary
2007 "Invisibles"
awards = Silver Bear Jury Prize
2000 "The Million Dollar Hotel"
Golden Palm
1984 "Paris, Texas"
Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival)
1993 "Faraway, So Close!"
Golden Lion
1982 "The State of Things"

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".

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" in the 1987 Bavarian Film Awards [http://www.bayern.de/Anlage19170/PreistraegerdesBayerischenFilmpreises-Pierrot.pdf] and 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. In 1993 he again won the Bavarian Film Awards for Best Director. [http://www.bayern.de/Anlage19170/PreistraegerdesBayerischenFilmpreises-Pierrot.pdf] 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

* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
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title = Paris, Texas
year = 1984
pages =
place = Nördlingen
publisher = Greno
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-3921568118
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
author-link =
first2 =
last2 =
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title = Emotion pictures: Essays und Filmkritiken, 1968-1984
year = 1986
pages =
place = Frankfurt
publisher = Verlag der Autoren
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-3886610785
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
author-link =
first2 =
last2 =
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title = Emotion pictures: reflections on cinema
year = 1989
pages =
place = London
publisher = Faber and Faber
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-0571152711
* Citation
first = Sam
last = Shepard
author-link = Sam Shepard
first2 = Wim
last2 = Wenders
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contribution-url =
title = Paris, Texas: Screenplay
year = 1991
pages =
place = New York
publisher = Ecco Press
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-0880012669
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
author-link =
first2 = Michael
last2 = Hofmann
author2-link = Michael Hofmann
editor-last =
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editor2-last =
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contribution =
contribution-url =
title = The logic of

year = 1992
pages =
place = London
publisher = Faber and Faber
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-0571165179
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
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title = Die Zeit mit Antonioni: Chronik eines Films
year = 1995
pages =
place = Frankfurt
publisher = Verlag der Autoren
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-3886611621
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
author-link =
first2 = Peter
last2 = Handke
author2-link = Peter Handke
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title = Der Himmel über Berlin: Ein Filmbuch von Wim Wenders und Peter Handke
year = 1998
pages =
place = Berlin
publisher = Suhrkamp Verlag
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-3518024065
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
author-link =
first2 = Donata
last2 = Wenders
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contribution =
contribution-url =
title = The heart is a sleeping Beauty: the Million Dollar Hotel - a film book
year = 2000
pages =
place = New York
publisher = teNeues
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-3823854685
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
author-link =
first2 = Michael
last2 = Hofmann
author2-link = Michael Hofmann
editor-last =
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editor2-last =
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contribution =
contribution-url =
title = My time with Antonioni: the diary of an extraordinary experience
year = 2000
pages =
place = London
publisher = Faber and Faber
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-0571200764
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
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title = Written in the West
year = 2001
pages =
place = New York
publisher = teNeues
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-3823854692
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
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title = Once: pictures and stories
year = 2001
pages =
place = New York
publisher = D.A.P./Schirmer/Mosel
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-1891024252
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
author-link =
first2 = Michael
last2 = Hofmann
author2-link = Michael Hofmann
editor-last =
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editor2-last =
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contribution =
contribution-url =
title = On film: essays and conversations
year = 2001
pages =
place = London
publisher = Faber and Faber
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-0571207183
* Citation
first = Peter
last = Lindbergh
author-link = Peter Lindbergh
first2 = Wim
last2 = Wenders
author2-link =
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contribution =
contribution-url =
title = Peter Lindbergh: stories
year = 2002
pages =
place = Santa Fe
publisher = Arena Editions
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-1892041647
* Citation
first = Berthold
last = Steinhilber
author-link =
first2 = Wim
last2 = Wenders
author2-link =
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contribution =
contribution-url =
title = Ghost towns of the American West
year = 2003
pages =
place = New York
publisher = Harry N. Abrams
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 978-0810945081
* Citation
first = Wim
last = Wenders
author-link =
first2 = Yoko
last2 = Tawada
author2-link = Yoko Tawada
editor-last =
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contribution =
contribution-url =
title = Where Europe begins
year = 2007
pages =
place = New York
publisher = New Directions Publishers
url =
doi =
id = 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

* [http://www.wim-wenders.com/ Official website]
*
* [http://www.necessaryprose.com/wenders.html Angels and the Modern City: Essay on Wenders' film "Wings of Desire"]
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/wenders.html Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database]
* [http://www.filmportal.de/df/bb/Uebersicht,,,,,,,,EFC0CAA3F03B03C1E03053D50B372D46,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.html filmportal.de] including biography, filmography and photos
* [http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/Germanfilmbib.html#Wenders Wenders Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)]
* [http://www.toxicuniverse.com/review.php?aid=1000404 Wim Wenders: Image and Cultural Influence] ToxicUniverse.com article by Tony Pellum
* [http://www.avinus-magazin.eu/html/wenders_interview.html Interview with Wim Wenders (in German)]
* [http://www.nakedpunch.com/nakedpunch4.html Naked Punch Review Interview] with Wim Wenders.
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14216322/ Wim Wenders to be part of "Global Town Hall" summit]
* [http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/02/02/berlin.qa/ CNN interview with Wim Wenders]
* [http://www.wimwenders.de/ Informative German language website]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFIHnl4rmd0 Wim Wenders Interview (portuguese subtitles)]
* [http://www.gerardcourant.com/projection.php?t=c&film=212 Wim Wenders's Cinématon - A 4 minutes portrait by Gérard Courant (1982)]

Persondata
NAME=Wenders, Wim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Wenders, Ernst Wilhelm
SHORT DESCRIPTION=film director
DATE OF BIRTH=August 14, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH=Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=