Wim Wenders

Interview by Rada Djurica

This interview took place during the press conference at the 2006 International Film Festival in Belgrade (FEST), in which Rada participated. For more on FEST, see her essay.

You came to Belgrade with an art photography exhibition. How do you expect that is going to be accepted?

I’m happy to be here, first of all, “Dobar dan”; I’m glad the sun is shining and I’m glad that some of you in Belgrade came to see my show (and already saw the film).

Does you consider the main character, Howard, of your film Don’t Come Knocking, to be a loser?

Howard considers himself as the hero. Of course, the way we see him is something completely different. He is playing hero all his life in the movies, and he always takes this for reality. Until one day he wakes up and realizes that he plays in the movie of his own life, where he is not a main actor or even supporting actor but extra, and he's horrified that his life has gone without him.

I don’t see this film as too positive, and I would like to know why someone would neglect the light and his own life. Where is this curse coming from?

I don’t think that the film is utterly optimistic; we, Sam Shepard and I, see this film as tragicomic. And we also suggested to the audience to do not take the character too seriously. And I don’t think that film is tragic but at the end, quite hopeful. Men have a very different vision of life than women, and obviously the world of the American West is the world of men. And that’s the way Howard lived. At the end you realize, that the characters that have a grip on reality and are decision makers, are women that Howard encounters. The mother, the woman he abanded 30 years ago, and the love of his life and daughter. Women are living in reality, while men are dreamers.

Men have a strange way of dealing with conflict. When Howard meets his son, they already start hating each other and they haven’t even spoken to each other. And it seems that the only way to deal with this situation is to deal with it with aggression. Women in this story are dealing with it in a different way: they talk. And Howard works out to himself in the end that there is a more civilized way to deal with the situation.

Which film you've made is your favorite, and which film is really you?

You should never ask a director what is his favorite film. I’ve learned one thing, I always think of all my movies as if they’re my children. And now I learned that I love the best not the movie that was most successful but the one that made me grow up as an artist. I love my “grown up children,” mature films are strong, but I love most my “weak little children.” I love both Sam Shepard’s films the same; because Shepard knows a lots about the American family. It entirely deals with the mother-daughter, man-woman family relationship. Don’t Come Knocking and Paris, Texas are similar stories, comic and tragicomic, and this film is something that I’ve learned in 20 years of my work.

You dealt in the previous decade with violence, while in this decade you are dealing with the subject of identity. Is this a personal issue?

I think you are right. I’m glad that the crew managed to express something different. I’m glad because I've had enough of violent subjects. Now we expressed gentleness. The year of 2006, there is a big comeback of documentary film, which I’m glad, because now the film serves not only to entertain people but to provide information, too. A little poetry or little emotion, I think, is pretty encouraging.

What does your photography mean? Are there similar themes in your films, too, and does it express the same emotional emptiness of sorts?

I grew up in post-war Germany, and I realized that my favorites are landscapes in the desert, because I am using it as an empty background. It is much easier to paint or imagine something in the desert, because the desert is empty. The desert and the city have many things in common; in the big city you can feel far lonelier then in the desert. I like deserts and I find the endless horizon, which you have probably had the chance to see in film and pictures, because the horizon is never there for you, as you get closer it, it is running away from you all the time. And you have a reason to reach it, because you have the feeling that it hides something you must discover.

I don’t know if you had the chance to see my film that I did before this one, and it’s called Land of Plenty. This film deals with the family and with what Americans are like today. Americans today are turned to themselves. They know very little about others, and the film is dealing with them. This is another subject we could talk about forever.

Sam and I know each other for a very long time, for 30 years, and we met when we were relatively young. We made a film 20 years ago together, and it was a fantastic experience for both of us. I must say that the screenwriter-director relationship is always problematic, because everyone has a different vision. In America, it is often that people are trying to separate and create conflict between the screenwriter and director, but we have become very good friends and this film turned out to be brilliant. And we decided to take a break and not work together for a longer period so that we did not ruin the perfect experience we had. So we didn’t collaborate for 20 years, but we stayed friends. aAd this is how we protected our friendship. We are different types. Sam is cowboy, and I am the city type. During the film I had to feed the cows and work on the ranch. Sam Shepard doesn’t use a computer, but he uses some old German typewriter from 50 years ago. His children bought him a mobile 15 years ago that he still uses, because he can’t get used to the little mobiles we all use. He is an old-fashioned type.

How do you manage to keep your work fresh after all those years?

I’ve realized very early that when man realizes that he does something good and then he doesn’t kill his project. I have realized that if I don’t repeat myself, I get something new every time . I do every film from zero, and I think I sometimes manage to do it. My inspiration never ends, I’ve always been inspired by life, paintings, music.

You often collaborate with musicians, especially with Bono. Any other collaboration with U2 or Bono in sight?

I was privileged to have a good relationship with U2 and Bono for 20 years; we often worked on videos together. And a couple of films. I am amazed with Bono and how he manages to do what he does. My wife knows that I like to work, but he is the only man I know who works two times more than me. Occasionally, he does politics, and the way he does it — every time I try to speak to him on the phone he is in Washington, or speaking with Chirac. But what is amazing, he does the work. I hope we will have a chance to work together again, even if that is very hard. I must tell you, that entire band, U2 and Bono, stayed decent, no matter all that fame and glory.

What is the meaning of music in your films?

When I made my first film I was 21 years old. It was a silent film with German titles. And for the very first time I decided to match the picture with music, so I played music on a tape along with the picture. And that was most exciting moment of my life. In some way I am always extending that moment. Even today when I do something, I match it with music; for me it's the most important part of creation.

What are your thoughts on Jim Jarmusch?

I think it is beautiful for such festival to start with Jarmusch’s Broken Flower and end with Don't Come Knocking. We are very good friends. When Jessica Lang finished shooting, on our film, she got the script for Jarmuch’s film. We organized everything that way so she could manage both. I knew that she was going to work on Jarmusch’s film. She told me that she’d read the script and that in his film, there is a man who is looking for a son. I was a little bit worried at first, but I’ve seen his film and he saw my film. And we at the end concluded that even though it's the same subject, the films are very different. We actually tried, at the Cannes Film Festival, to convince people that we swapped the scripts, but they didn’t believe us.

Is your central subject in films traveling?

The film Voyager features Sam Shepard, too, but the story is from my favorite novel in German by Max Frisch. You are right; traveling is the central subject of my films. And I’m glad that I have found a profession that I can do on the move. I’m not limited to one place, and the job of a director is traveling. I only want to know how other people live, and for people that I don’t know how to live, I would like to find out how do they live. I would like in a way to work on connecting human kind. I also think that traveling is one of the most powerful ways to experience life is adventure. Or traveling.

Is that your camera?

I have been traveling with this camera for a very long time, and I need to have equipment. And some of the images in the exhibition were taken on my travels.

Did you take some photographs during the shoot for the film Don’t Come Knocking?

I always take photographs while I’m working. Most of the time I’m doing landscapes, sometimes people. My wife is a photographer, but we never bother each other or make it a competition.