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"Ode
to Cologne" BERLIN - What Wim Wenders did for Cuban jazz in "Buena Vista Social Club," he does for German rock'n'roll in "Ode to Cologne" (German title: "Viel Passiert") This highly imaginative film celebrates BAP, a Cologne rock band legendary in Germany but nearly unknown elsewhere. Instead of making a concert film, Wenders uses footage and reminiscences by BAP's singer-songwriter, Wolfgang Niedecken, to create a filmic journey through two decades of German history and music.
While certain of success in Germany, where it gets released March 7, "Ode" could make inroads elsewhere despite the band's obscurity outside German-speaking territories. The music is cool, and Wenders' filmmaking even better. In an aging movie house before during and after a BAP concert, the projectionist shows reel after reel of old concerts and interviews. Niedecken himself looks back at the band he helped create. He recalls his admiration for the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and the Kinks. He then decides to write songs in his native Kolsch, a dialect not understood outside of Cologne. Despite this fact, they become nationwide hits.
A political band - it was among the first to stage protests against neoNazism in Germany - BAP's songs and lyrics reflect the evolution of the country during the past two decades, before and after reunification. "Viel Passiert" -"A lot has happened"- Niedecken notes.
In creating this collage of music, history and images of modern Germany, Wenders has put together a fascination portrait of a band and a kind of folk rock that operates in its own cocoon within Western pop music traditions. |
