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Leonetta Bentivoglio:
Where are you? In Cuba? In L.A.? In Berlin?
In Milano? Why don't you reply?
Wim Wenders: Sorry, Leonetta. In Cuba I had no e-mail contact,
and on my return to Europe, things were very hectic. I only spent
4 hours in Milano… Right now I am on a tour across Germany
to promote my German Rock'n Roll film "Ode To Cologne"......
L.B.: Please, Please, let me know something!
Ciao! Best wishes,
Leonetta
W.W.: Well, here it is:
1)
Could you speak about your recent trip to New York City and your
visit to Ground Zero?
That is not so recent anymore. I was in New York in Mid-November.
It seemed out of the question to have access to Ground Zero. The
area was completely shut off for all press and photographers. There
was still an acid smell in the air and a cloud of dust and smoke
hang over downtown. But then I met Joel Meyerowitz who was the only
photographer who had a permit to take pictures on Ground Zero, on
a permanent basis, as the Mayor's official photographer. It had
taken him weeks to persuade the Mayor's office, but he had managed,
with the help of the N.Y. Chief of police who understood Joel's
argument that the incredible efforts of behalf of the firemen, the
police, the rescue teams and the demolition crews had to documented.
Joel is one of my great idols, as a photographer, and I have learned
a lot from him when I started to take photography more seriously.
Anyway, Joel smuggled me in as his assistant, and I was able to
take pictures during one entire morning. I t was a glorious day,
with an incredible clear sky and the morning sun exploding into
the dust and smoke. Joel kept looking at me, while I was photographing,
mumbling every now and then how lucky I was to have picked this
very day.
Would it be possible
for you to explain what you saw?
I was struck by the vastness of the destruction. It was a hellish
place, a true vision of Dante's Inferno. All the buildings and skyscrapers
around the area were also damaged, with big open wounds along their
sides. The smell was horrible, and you could only work there wearing
a gas-mask. With the rest of New York appearing so peaceful, still
shaken, but remarkably vulnerable and tender, the contrast was even
eerier. It felt, indeed, like in a science-fiction film, as if a
giant meteor had hit New York. I was most impressed by the spirit
of the people working there, by their sense of solidarity, their
serenity, yet friendliness. In a way, these hours I spent there
are burned now into my memory as an almost utopian sensation how
to deal with grief and with disaster. I have lived in New York for
a number of years, but never before did I feel such a respect for
her, for the city's capacity to act and respond to a catastrophe.
Do you have any project
about it?
No.
Have you shot some
photos?
A lot. I worked with both my 6x7 Plaubel and my 6x17 Fuji Panorama
camera and shot about 30 films.
Are you thinking
about a book?
No. But I included 2 of the large panoramas in my exhibition "Pictures
of the Surface of the World" that opened in Berlin and that
will now travel to other museums in Europe and America. But all
proceeds from the pictures of Ground Zero will go to humanitarian
organizations.
2)
According to you, in which way that terrorist challenge, whose image
has been bombarded to us, months-long, by world TV, has modified
our perception of reality?
As you know, I'm an eternal optimist. So I am still hoping that
even out of this disaster something good can emerge. That our image-driven
communication systems and our fun-driven societies learn from this
shock, that people reassess their value systems and start appreciating
life in different ways again then just in terms of consumerism.
Do you think it could
affect the way cinema is done in Europe or in America?
Yes, it will. It has already. The question is only how long it will
last. President Bush gets on my nerves with his talk about the "Forces
of Evil". There are other forces of evil at work on our planet,
and their form of terrorism is more subtle and secretive. I am talking
about the slow undermining of our sense of reality with a continuing
onslaught of senseless violence in film and TV products. I am talking
about a continuing onslaught on our environment, where the Americans
seem to be last in line now to draw consequences. I am talking about
the insane amount of Zillions used for a new arms' race instead
of a more balanced world economy. Maybe in the long run the most
disastrous effect of September 11 will be that it will make the
gap between rich and poor on this planet even wider. Sorry, that
I don't feel like talking much about cinema in this context.
3)
I remember that in the Autumn, immediately after the Twin Towers
attack, you expressed optimistic judgements regarding the attitude
of the USA; by the fact that, at the time, they hadn't been tempted
by a precipitous reaction. Afterwards, though, their reaction arrived,
and it was brutal.
They gave away the chance for a different kind of "World Leadership".
Sadly to say, they went the opposite way.
What is your present
judgement of the situation?
The American President and his legislation use the "War"
(I should say "abuse" the War) to undermine "Freedom"
and American values for the sake of "Security". The American
media have created a climate of paranoia, and politics are making
the most of this climate for their reactionary aims.
And how do you think
that one who produces culture could and should react?
By insisting on other priorities. Fighting this stupid "Black-and-White-Thinking".
Being open and differentiate. Listen to the rightful complaints
for instance of the Palestinians. Or of the poor nations who get
driven deeper and deeper into poverty.
You live in L.A.:
in which way do the cinema people speak and feel about the war?
"Cinema people" don't exist as a group. There are "industry
people" in LA who speak of the War in terms of business losses.
Who re-edit films, or postpone releases, but not for any ethic reasons,
you can bet on that, only for business purposes. There are other
people in LA, "liberals" and ecology-conscious people
who at this moment don't dare to raise their voices too much, because
the wave of patriotism silences many an intelligent voice these
days.
4)
Once you wrote that the future is constantly anticipated by cinema:
according to you, is there one that had managed to foresee all this?
Many films have foreseen all sorts of catastrophes, and I have seen
the World Trade Center crash at least three times. But none of these
films have remotely grasped the consequences that the real events
had on the people on this planet. Movies seem to have very little
concern lately about the consequences of what they depict. "Entertainment"
stops right there and declares "No Responsibility". That's
what I'm still hoping might be a result of all this: That films
cannot so easily deny their responsibility any more.
5)
Could you speak about your present film: "Blues"?
It's one film in a seven-part series on the BLUES that Martin Scorsese
is producing together with Road Movies in Berlin.
I know that it's
dedicated to two great Blues singers, who died at the end of the
'60s., JB Lenoir and Skip James.
They are my biggest Blues heroes. They both died relatively unrecognized
and poor, even if their influence is considered enormous today.
Are you making a
film-portrait of them? Would it be a road-movie?
I'm trying to make a new generation of music enthusiasts aware of
them. I am not making a film for those who are "Blues Afficionados"
already. We have traveled extensively to make this movies, all of
us 7 directors involved in the series. Of course, I can only talk
for myself here, but you couldn't call this a "road movie".
Being on the road might be part of the blues way of living, sure,
but first of all, my film tries to make the songs of Skip James
and J.B. Lenoir accessible to new audiences.
Would it have the
form of a documentary? Do you want to tell their lives (both very
tormented)?
I am not putting my emphasis on "biography", but on the
music itself. Sure, I have visited friends and family who remember
Skip and J.B., but that is not at the core of my film. The heart
of my investigation is more the eternal conflict of the "profane"
and the "sacred" inside the Blues, how many blues-men
were torn between singing about very worldly issues (women, trouble,
alcohol, misery…) and more transcendental issues, even religious
themes.
Have you followed
their footsteps? Have you collected testimonials?
I have visited the places where they lived and worked, in Mississippi
and Chicago. But again, I wasn't so much interested in the past.
I am more into the future of their music, so my emphasis was more
on contemporary musicians playing their songs.
What relation there
is with the N.Y. concerts of Lou Reed, Garland Jeffreys, etc., which
you went to film in that city at the end of last year, specifically
for the realization of your "Blues"?
Both Lou Reed and Garland Jeffreys interpreted and recorded songs
by J.B. Lenoir and Skip James. I also shot with Bonnie Raitt, with
Los Lobos, with E from the Eels, with T-Bone Burnett, with Mark
Ribot, to just name a few. And I am not finished. I will still shoot
with Manu Chao or with Nick Cave, and others who are not yet confirmed
or with whom we're still trying to work out schedules.
Could one think of
a relation with two of your previous "musical road-movies",
like "Lisbon Story" and "Buena Vista"?
There is a third film finished in that "Trilogy" now,
my German Rock'n Roll film "Ode to Cologne" which just
premiered at the Berlin Film festival and which will come out soon.
But the Blues project is very different. First of all it is going
on for a long time already, second it is part of a series realized
by seven directors, and third it is about people who are no longer
alive.
6)
What does it mean to you, today, a Heimkehr to Berlin?
Even if I am now living in Los Angeles, at least for a while, Berlin
is still my "home town", and I will always remain a European
film maker in my heart. I'm just a notorious traveler, and that
will probably never change.
Which changes do
hit you the most, vis-à-vis the Berlin of "Wings of
Desire"?
The world has changed since then, and Berlin probably more than
any other European city. And slowly she is emerging again, out of
all the rubble and all the construction sites, still very much alive,
still with a sense of humor. That wasn't so obvious in the late
Nineties…
7)
In the past, you had often said that you would like to make a film
which will be a great love story.
I did this with "Million Dollar Hotel". Or at least: I
did my best so far. But "Million Dollar Hotel" will probably
remain one of my most misunderstood films, and I am still trying
to find out why.
Would you still want
to do that sort of film?
Oh yes! There are no greater stories than love stories!
8)
You have just finished filming in South Africa a spot for Barilla,
based on an Alessandro Baricco idea.
Yes. It wasn't really a "spot" or "a commercial".
The Barilla family defined it as a "present" to their
customers, and that definition is close to what it is. It is not
about a product, it is not even an "image campaign".
Could you explain
what it's all about and how is the spot articulated?
The Barillas wanted to have a very special film made. One that would
honor their father and the tradition of the values he stood for.
But they didn't want to make it in the form of a commercial. They
really wanted it to look like a movie, like a piece of fiction.
Alessandro Baricco turned their suggestion into a powerful story,
or better: a treatment for a story. I received it and loved it.
You very rarely get this chance in the world of advertising to make
a 90 second film for theatrical distribution, with an intelligent
underlying concept, but a Carte Blanche for its realization. The
film was made without an agency, just between the Barilla Family,
Alesandro and me, with the help of BRW as the production entity.
Which is, in general,
your rapport with publicity?
I enjoy it, most of the times. I'm a confessing workaholic, and
as movies always last 2 or 3 years, you risk to get rusty in between.
In commercials you can try out new technologies, work with people
you couldn't possibly meet if you only made that one film every
two years. Commercials have sharpened my sense of timing, of discipline.
And every pretext to travel anywhere is always welcome. The Barilla
film was my first chance to shoot in South Africa, for instance.
Which are the conditions
to film a spot?
They are different each time. Each client, each product, each philosophy
behind, each visual idea create their own logic. Of course, to get
the chance to shoot such an "epic" of ninety seconds doesn't
come too often. We had 50 riders on horseback to create an army
of thousands! We had a gigantic wheat field that stretched to the
horizon. It was quite a challenge. We had a lot of fun, I can tell
you!
Have you done it
also because you love Italian pasta?
I thought I could keep this my secret.
back to March 2002 News Reel
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