GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL 2012

German Film Festival 2012: Focus Wim Wenders 1 RMA AN FILM FESTIVAL 2012 GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL 202 ERMAN FILM FESTIVA 2 2012 GE GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL 2012 Focus Wim Wenders 28 August 8 September

photo by Wolfgang Bellwinkel 2 German Film Festival 2012: Focus Wim Wenders 3 SPRACHE. ADVERT KULTUR. DEUTSCHLAND. In the beginning I just wanted to make movies, but with the passage of time the journey itself was no longer the goal, but what you find at the end. Now I make films to discover something I didn t know, very much like a detective. Wim Wenders Welcome After last year s success with our German Film Festival FOCUS Werner Herzog, the Goethe-Institut dug deep into the catalogue of films by Wim Wenders for the 2012 edition of our FOCUS Festival. You will have the chance to revisit four decades of Wenders work from the earliest to the classic, from the most obscure to the most poetic there will be something new to discover even for the most die-hard Wim Wenders fan. We hope to see you at all our films, but if you should only have time for two of them, we recommend Wings of Desire, and please don t miss Lisbon Story with the most beautiful soundtrack by Portuguese group Madredeus with vocalist Teresa Salgueiro. In collaboration with the New Zealand Film Archive, the Goethe-Institut is delighted to be able to bring these and other films by Wim Wenders to the big screen for a Wellington audience. We wish to thank all those, both in Germany and Wellington, who have worked hard and helped to bring about the German Film Festival 2012. Your Goethe-Institut Team www.goethe.de/nz

4 German Film Festival 2012: Focus Wim Wenders 5 Wim Wenders A highly influential contemporary film director, Wim Wenders is one of the most significant representatives of the New German Cinema of the 70s. He was drawn to filmmaking from an early age and his directing career started at the University of Television and Film in Munich. He has produced numerous movies, documentaries and short films. Alongside a successful film career, Wenders has published a number of photography books and essays and a large selection of his photos Pictures from the Surface of the Earth has been exhibited internationally. Born in Düsseldorf in 1945, he shot his first short film, Schauplätze in 1966/67. He finished his degree with his first feature length film Summer in the City (1971) and became a founding member of the German film distributor Filmverlag der Autoren. Two years later, Wenders made his artistic breakthrough with the acclaimed road movie Alice in the Cities (Alice in den Städten), which won the German Film Critics award in 1974. In this film, as in most of his later feature films, Wenders presented his protagonists as introspective escapists who find personal refuge in random travels, pop music or melancholic idleness. He established his own production company Road Movies in Berlin in 1975. A year later, Wenders finished Kings of the Road (Im Lauf der Zeit). The journey of two men along the inner German border bemoans the closing of provincial cinemas and also reflects the social atmosphere of mid-1970s West Germany. The American Friend (Der amerikanische Freund, 1977) attracted the interest of Francis Ford Coppola who asked him to direct the film noir homage Hammett. During shooting breaks on Hammett, Wenders worked on The State of Things (Der Stand der Dinge, 1982) which tells the poetic story of a stranded film team. The audience is caught up in the magic which evolves through his poignant images of abandoned landscapes in Portugal. The State of Things was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival 1982. Perhaps his best known film, the highly acclaimed Paris, Texas (1984), depicts the connection between the old and the new world, whilst Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin, 1987) soon gained cult status. The poetic angel allegory filmed in divided Berlin premiered at the 1987 Cannes film festival and won Wenders the award of Best Director. I ve turned from an imagemaker into a storyteller. Only a story can give meaning And a moral to an image. Wim Wenders In 1984 Wenders became a member of the Berlin Akademie der Künste and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Sorbonne University in 1989. In 1990 he received the German Federal Cross of Merit, in 1991 the Murnau Award and in 1996 he became president of the European Film Academy. He returned to the Berlin of angels with Faraway, So Close! (In weiter Ferne so nah, 1993) and to the Lisbon of failed movie projects with Lisbon Story (1994). Wenders then followed his old companion Ry Cooder, who wrote the music for Paris, Texas, to Cuba to film Buena Vista Social Club (1998), a video documentary about the old men of the Son Cubano the film became an overwhelming world-wide success and ushered in a revival of the Cuban Son music. Don t Come Knocking (2005), a road movie in the tradition of Paris, Texas about an ageing Western star searching for his children, also received critical praise. The film premiered at the 2005 Cannes film festival and won the 2005 European Film Award in the category Best Cinematography. At the 2011 Berlinale Film Festival, Wenders presented his extraordinary project Pina. Shot in 3D, the dance film showcases choreography by his long-time friend, the late Pina Bausch. A magnificent, Oscar-nominated celebration of dance, the film won the European Film Award 2011 for Best Documentary. Wenders is currently a professor of Film at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. Acknowledgements: www.goethe.de www.filmportal.de

6 German Film Festival 2012: Focus Wim Wenders Photo: Donata Wenders 7 What is most enjoyable about the cinema is simply working with a language that is classical in the sense that the image is understood by everyone. Wim Wenders PARIS, TEXAS Tuesday 28 August 6:30pm Opening Night by invitation only Germany 1984, colour, 149 mins, English Screenplay: Sam Shepard Cinematography: Robby Müller Editing: Peter Przygodda Music: Ry Cooder With: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Aurore Clément, Hunter Carson, Bernhard Wicki, Socorro Valdez Production: Road Movies Filmproduktion, Argos Films S.A. Rating: PG Paris, Texas is probably Wim Wenders most successful and critically acclaimed film winning a number of international prizes including the Palme D Or in Cannes for Best Film in 1984. Travis family broke up years ago and since then he has seen neither his wife Jane nor his son Hunter. After the separation, Travis disappeared for four years without a trace. He turns up in a small town in the middle of the Texan desert with no memory of his past. With the aid of his brother who also raised Hunter he gradually begins to recover his speech and slowly begins to build up a relationship with his estranged son. Together they finally set off to look for Jane, who they find in a peep show in Houston, Texas.

8 German Film Festival 2012: Focus Wim Wenders 9 DON T COME KNOCKING THE AMERICAN FRIEND Der amerikanische Freund Wednesday 29 August 7:00pm Germany & France, 2005, colour, 120 mins, English Screenplay: Sam Shepard Cinematography: Franz Lustig Editing: Peter Przygodda, Oliver Weiß Music: T-Bone Burnett, Patrick Warren With: Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, Gabriel Mann, Sarah Polley, Fairuza Balk, Eva Maria Saint, George Kennedy Production: Reverse Angle Production GmbH, Arte France Cinéma Rating: M offensive language While working on a new film, Western actor Spence is suddenly struck by the feeling that he might not have much longer to live. Driven by impulse, the ageing womaniser jumps on his horse and rides off. Planning to reconnect with all the people who played an important role in his life, Spence first visits his mother with whom he has had no contact for 30 years. Chased by a detective hired by the film production company, he continues to travel across the USA. When Spence learns from two of his former love interests that he has fathered two children in his wild days a boy and a girl the ensuing encounters with his unknown offspring turn out very differently. Thursday 30 August 7:00pm Germany 1977, colour, 121 mins, German/ English (with English subtitles) Screenplay: Wim Wenders, based on the novel Ripley s Game by P. Highsmith Cinematography: Robby Müller Editing: Peter Przygodda Music: Jürgen Knieper With: Bruno Ganz, Dennis Hopper, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain, Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, Peter Lilienthal, Daniel Schmid, Jean Eustache, Sandy Whitelaw, Lou Castel Production: Road Movies Filmproduktion, Wim Wenders Produktion, Les Films du Losange, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) Rating: M medium level violence Jonathan, formerly a restorer, and now a picture-framer, lives in Hamburg. He suffers from leukemia and knows he is dying. Tom Ripley, an American art dealer, makes him a very dubious offer: to kill a man in Paris in return for money with which he, a terminally ill man, could safeguard the future of his wife and child. When Ripley s French client also offers him the chance to get a second opinion from a leukemia specialist in Paris, and even pays him an unrequested advance, Jonathan flies off to Paris On his return a second murder is inevitable. Ripley himself is now in need of Jonathan s help.

10 German Film Festival 2012: Focus Wim Wenders 11 KINGS OF THE ROAD Im Lauf der Zeit A TRICK OF THE LIGHT Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky Friday 31 August 7:00pm Germany 1976, b/w, 170 mins, German with English subtitles Screenplay: Wim Wenders Cinematography: Robby Müller Editing: Peter Przygodda Music: Axel Linstädt With: Rüdiger Vogler, Hanns Zischler, Lisa Kreuzer, Rudolf Schündler, Marquard Bohm, Hans Dieter Traier, Franziska Stömmer, Peter Kaiser, Patrick Kreuzer Production: Wim Wenders Produktion, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) Rating: R 16 For the past two years Bruno has been travelling through the small towns and villages along the East German border in his van. Along the way he repairs the projectors in the dilapidated local cinemas. One morning he sees a man driving his VW into the river Elbe. The man, Robert Lander, climbs out of his sinking car with his suitcase and swims ashore. Bruno takes him with him and so begins a journey through a provincial, unseen Germany. By the end of their journey, they derive comfort from the fact that in the course of time (the literal translation of the film s German title), their lives have taken on shape and significance. It is a quiet, almost lyrical film which disdains psychological motivation, suspense and dramatic tension. Saturday 01 September 4:30pm Germany 1996, color and b/w, 77 mins, German with English subtitles Screenplay: Carlos Alvarez, Sebastian Andrae, Sorin Dragoi, Peter Fuchs, Carsten Funke, Florian Gallenberger, Markus Hansen, Henrik Heckmann, Veit Helmer, Germán Kral, Björn Kurt, Bodo Lang, Matthias Lehmann, Stephan Puchner, Britta Sauer, Marcus Schmidt, Wim Wenders Cinematography: Jürgen Jürges Editing: Peter Przygodda, Barbara Rohm, Germán Kral, Eva Munz, Veit Helmer Music: Laurent Petitgand, Daniel Favre With: Manfred Wopalka, Nadine Büttner, Christoph Merg, Otto Kuhnle, Udo Kier, Bodo Lang, Alfred Sczczot, Marianna Kavka, Lucie Hürtgen-Skladanowsky, Ludwig Licht Production: Wim Wenders Produktion, Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF, München), Veit Helmer Filmproduktion This film by Wim Wenders and students of the Munich Film Academy deals with the birth of cinema in Berlin, where the brothers Skladanowsky built a projector, the Bioskop, at the same time as the Lumière Brothers in France and Edison in America, and thereby co-invented moving pictures in their very own, poetic, poor, endearing and rather un-german way. The film starts a hundred years ago and it ends today, with Max Skladanowsky s daughter Lucie who still remembers her father and those early days of cinema very well. The film was shot mostly on an old hand-cranker from the twenties, silent, and in the best slapstick tradition. Rating: G

12 German Film Festival 2012: Focus Wim Wenders 13 LISBON STORY ALICE IN THE CITIES Alice in den Städten Saturday 01 September 7:00pm Germany 1994, colour, 100 mins, German/ English (with English subtitles) Screenplay: Wim Wenders Cinematography: Lisa Rinzler Editing: Peter Przygodda, Anne Schnee Music: Madredeus, Jürgen Knieper With: Rüdiger Vogler, Patrick Bauchau, Vasco Sequeira, Ricardo Colares, Joel Ferreira Production: Road Movies Filmproduktion, Metro Filme Rating: PG Philip Winter, a sound engineer and creator of sounds, receives a message from director Friedrich Monroe urgently requesting him to come to Lisbon. After a series of mishaps, Winter finally arrives in the Portuguese capital and finds Friedrich Monroe s apartment, only to discover that the director has vanished, leaving behind an old camera, with hand crank, a cutting table and silent documentary film material about Lisbon. When an alarm clock rings it becomes clear that Monroe cannot have left his apartment more than a few hours earlier. Winter, fascinated by the city and a Portuguese singer, decides to wait for his friend and to look himself for the sounds to accompany the film. Thursday 06 September 7:00pm Germany 1973, b/w, 108 mins, German with English subtitles Screenplay: Wim Wenders, Veith v. Fürstenberg Cinematography: Robby Müller Editing: Peter Przygodda Music: Can, Chuck Berry, Gustav Mahler, Deep Purple With: Rüdiger Vogler, Yella Rottländer, Lisa Kreuzer, Edda Köchl Production: Wim Wenders Produktion, PIFDA 1 Rating: PG Philip, a journalist from Munich, is supposed to be writing an article about the American landscape for his publishers, yet all he has to show from his fourweek tour of the United States are a few Polaroid photos. He wishes to return to Germany but his agent in New York refuses to give him an advance. Because of an airline strike he can only book a ticket to Amsterdam and it is at the airport that he meets two other travellers heading to Amsterdam, Lisa and her nine year old daughter Alice. When Lisa has to cancel her flight, she asks him to take Alice with him and promises to come for her soon. Thrown together in this way, Philip and Alice become friends.

14 German Film Festival 2012: Focus Wim Wenders 15 THE STATE OF THINGS Der Stand der Dinge Wings of Desire Der Himmel über Berlin Friday 07 September 7:00pm Germany & Portugal, 1982, b/w, 120 mins, German/ English (with English subtitles) Screenplay: Wim Wenders, Robert Kramer Cinematography: Henri Alekan Editing: Barbara von Weitershausen, Peter Przygodda Music: Jürgen Knieper With: Patrick Bauchau, Viva Auder, Isabelle Weingarten, Samuel Fuller, Rebecca Pauly, Jeffrey Kime, Camilla Mora, Geoffrey Carey, Alexandra Auder, Roger Corman, Paul Getty, Allen Goorwitz, Artur Semedo Production: Road Movies Filmproduktion, Wim Wenders Produktion, Pro-ject Filmproduktion im Verlag der Autoren, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) Rating: M offensive language Friedrich, a German director, is making a film in Portugal in a deserted, stormbattered seaside hotel. Joe, the cameraman, tells the director that they have run out of film and are unable to continue filming, while the producer has just left for Los Angeles. At first, the crew seeks solace in various pastimes, but slowly the interruption breaks the team down into individuals dealing with unexpected solitude. Friedrich eventually tries to find the missing producer. Up until then he had always had more belief in life itself than in telling stories, and it was precisely this conviction that led the American investor to run off. In the end, the director finds himself seriously embroiled in a story that of the producer Gordon. Saturday 08 September 7:00pm Germany 1987, colour and b/w, 123 mins, German/ English (with English subtitles) Screenplay: Wim Wenders, Peter Handke Cinematography: Henri Alekan Editing: Peter Przygodda Music: Jürgen Knieper With: Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander, Solveig Dommartin, Curt Bois, Peter Falk Production: Road Movies Filmproduktion, Argos Films Rating: PG coarse language Wings of Desire follows two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, who watch over the people below from their lofty vantage points high above Berlin. Untouchable and at first rarely touched, the angels observe life in divided Berlin. Visible only to children, they are unable to truly intervene. Damiel falls in love with Marion, a trapeze artist who appears able to escape the confines of earth s gravity and who often performs wearing angel s wings. To become truly close to Marion, however, emotionally and physically, he must give up his ethereal existence. A hugely acclaimed and multi-award winning movie including Best Director for Wenders at Cannes 1987.

16 German Film Festival 2012: Focus Wim Wenders 17 TV Lounge Programme timetable/programme German Film Festival 2012 Tuesday 28 August Thursday 06 September ROOM 666 Chambre 666 Documentary, France & USA, 1982, colour, 50 mins, various languages (with English subtitles) Screenplay: Wim Wenders Cinematography: Agnès Godard Editing: Chantal de Visme Music: Jürgen Knieper, Bernard Herrmann With: Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Yilmaz Güney, Michelangelo Antonioni, Steven Spielberg, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and others Production: Wim Wenders Produktion, Gray City Inc Image: The New Zealand Film Archive Dave Murphy Location: Cannes, room 666 at the Hotel Martinez. Godard, Fassbinder, Spielberg and other famous directors answer the question: Is cinema a language about to be lost, an art about to die? We will screen this film as a loop in the TV Lounge at the New Zealand Film Archive, open from 9am 5pm, Monday Friday. 6:30pm Paris, Texas (149 mins) by invitation only Wednesday 29 August 7:00pm Don t Come Knocking (120 mins) Thursday 30 August 7:00pm The American Friend (121 mins) Friday 31 August 7:00pm Kings of the Road (170 mins) Saturday 01 September 4:30pm A Trick of the Light (77 mins) 7:00pm Lisbon Story (100 mins) 7:00pm Alice in the Cities (108 mins) Friday 07 September 7:00pm The State of Things (120 mins) Saturday 08 September 7:00pm Wings of Desire (123 mins)

18 LOCATION The New Zealand Film Archive Te Anakura Whitiahua 84 Taranaki Street Corner Taranaki and Ghuznee Streets Wellington 6011 Phone: +64 4 3847647 Website: www.filmarchive.org.nz IMPRINT Goethe-Institut New Zealand 150 Cuba Street PO Box 9253 Wellington 6141 Phone: +64 4 3856924 Email: info@wellington.goethe.org Website: www.goethe.de/nz Tickets: $ 8/6 Programme Changes We reluctantly reserve the right to change the schedule by amending dates or replacing films. Any necessary changes will be advertised at the festival venue and on the Goethe-Institut New Zealand website. The Goethe-Institut is the Federal Republic of Germany s cultural institution; it operates 149 institutes in 92 countries. In New Zealand the Goethe-Institut has been based in Wellington since 1980. Design & Layout: The International Office Film texts: Hans Günther Pflaum, Wolfgang Jacobsen, German Films & Marketing GmbH, www.filmportal.de, www.goethe.de Images Reverse Angle Library GmbH Special thanks to: Filmbereich Goethe-Institut, Duncan Forbes, Elaina Hamilton, Brendan Moore, Sharon Rhodes, Mark Sweeney, Amanda White A Language With Heart Learning German is your passport to the heart of Europe! www.goethe.de/nz Get your free copy of our guide to scholarships, exchanges and other opportunities from german@wellington.goethe.org

RMA AN FILM FESTIVAL 2012 GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL 202 ERMAN FILM FESTIVA 2 2012 GE