![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Monday, 20 September 2004 10:34 pmWim Wenders was in Toronto for TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) and I didn't plan ahead to go to his film. Dang.
I discovered Wim Wenders at school; the first of his films I saw was "Tokyo-Ga", a tribute to the director Yasujiro Ozu and to Japan. I didn't know the director, but it was a beautiful film. Shortly afterward, I saw Faraway So Close and Wings of Desire; then later, Until the End of the World. I'm not a raving adict, but his films are beautiful and occasionally when I'm down I'll remember some of his images to cheer me up.
I'm especially bummed since the paper reports that his new film, Land of Plenty has gotten great reviews (at TIFF and a nominiation for top prize at the Venice Film Festival). It's a more linear film than Wings of Desire or Faraway So Close; it's a modern examination of disillusionment in America, through the eyes of a young missionary and her uncle, a Viet Nam War veteran.
The Globe and Mail reports that he's so far failed to find a North American distributor for the film, so it will probably be a while until I get to see it.
According to the paper:
"After living as a U.S. resident in Los Angeles for the past eight years, he is in the midst of packing up and moving to New York. He is passionate about his adopted country as only someone who has ended up in a place out of choice, rather than accident, can be.
He begins our conversation by talking about the characters in his film -- before almost immediately moving on to the state of the nation. "Lana has a very innocent, almost childlike faith in God and love and being in love and the power of love, whereas Paul is not really a spiritual person. You might say his religion is America," says Wenders. "And America over the last few years has become very similar, in that nationalism has become a kind of religion. It's almost like Christianity these days can only become defined by certain right-wing politics.
"For me as a Christian, it's really revolting, and it's one of the reasons I made this film: I wanted to show that as a Christian you have to have different priorities. As a Christian, the idea of a pre-emptive war was out of the question. As a Christian, you have to be in solidarity with the poor and the exploited, and I didn't really see that in America any more. In the Bush administration some of the most basic Christian values have been perverted."
[...]
"I've heard from many American buyers who have seen it here, and they're all very insecure how to market it. Apparently the Christian message and the liberal message are considered incompatible. I've been told that this is a big marketing issue. Christian ideas are so occupied by the right wing in America that they don't know what to do with it."
The fact that a Christian audience and a politically liberal audience are seen as being mutually exclusive in today's America is the kind of revelation that drives Wenders nuts, both as an artist and a Christian.
I can see where he's coming from; the world today could use a Dr. MLK Jr. or a Dorothy Day; somebody with moral authority to stand up to the Christian Right (which is no more Christian than it is Right).
I discovered Wim Wenders at school; the first of his films I saw was "Tokyo-Ga", a tribute to the director Yasujiro Ozu and to Japan. I didn't know the director, but it was a beautiful film. Shortly afterward, I saw Faraway So Close and Wings of Desire; then later, Until the End of the World. I'm not a raving adict, but his films are beautiful and occasionally when I'm down I'll remember some of his images to cheer me up.
I'm especially bummed since the paper reports that his new film, Land of Plenty has gotten great reviews (at TIFF and a nominiation for top prize at the Venice Film Festival). It's a more linear film than Wings of Desire or Faraway So Close; it's a modern examination of disillusionment in America, through the eyes of a young missionary and her uncle, a Viet Nam War veteran.
The Globe and Mail reports that he's so far failed to find a North American distributor for the film, so it will probably be a while until I get to see it.
According to the paper:
"After living as a U.S. resident in Los Angeles for the past eight years, he is in the midst of packing up and moving to New York. He is passionate about his adopted country as only someone who has ended up in a place out of choice, rather than accident, can be.
He begins our conversation by talking about the characters in his film -- before almost immediately moving on to the state of the nation. "Lana has a very innocent, almost childlike faith in God and love and being in love and the power of love, whereas Paul is not really a spiritual person. You might say his religion is America," says Wenders. "And America over the last few years has become very similar, in that nationalism has become a kind of religion. It's almost like Christianity these days can only become defined by certain right-wing politics.
"For me as a Christian, it's really revolting, and it's one of the reasons I made this film: I wanted to show that as a Christian you have to have different priorities. As a Christian, the idea of a pre-emptive war was out of the question. As a Christian, you have to be in solidarity with the poor and the exploited, and I didn't really see that in America any more. In the Bush administration some of the most basic Christian values have been perverted."
[...]
"I've heard from many American buyers who have seen it here, and they're all very insecure how to market it. Apparently the Christian message and the liberal message are considered incompatible. I've been told that this is a big marketing issue. Christian ideas are so occupied by the right wing in America that they don't know what to do with it."
The fact that a Christian audience and a politically liberal audience are seen as being mutually exclusive in today's America is the kind of revelation that drives Wenders nuts, both as an artist and a Christian.
I can see where he's coming from; the world today could use a Dr. MLK Jr. or a Dorothy Day; somebody with moral authority to stand up to the Christian Right (which is no more Christian than it is Right).
