| Tech Reckoning | Terence Davies |
HIDDEN DEPTHS
ANSELM Wim Wenders returns to 3D for this timeless portrait of the German artist…
‘His whole art is revolting against the act of forgetting’
WIM WENDERS
From the music of the Buena Vista Social Club to the dance rhythms of Pina Bausch, director Wim Wenders has crafted a fine sideline in documentaries about some of the world’s most idiosyncratic creatives.
To which he now adds Anselm, a stunning 3D look at the work of fellow German Anselm Kiefer. The painter and sculptor, famed for such works as The Hierarchy of Angels and The Secret Life of Plants, has long fascinated Wenders, who at 78 is exactly the same age as his subject.
‘Right now I feel his work is utterly contemporary,’ says the director, when Total Film catches up with Wenders at the Zurich Film Festival. ‘There’s a presence of war in his work, there’s a presence of crime in his work. There’s a presence of crime against nature in his work. The ground in his landscapes is charred and broken up… so there are droughts in his work, there are dead plants and dead trees. There’s a lot of climate [change] in his painting.’
Nor does Wenders overlook Kiefer’s engagement with poetry, particularly the Romanian wordsmith Paul Celan. ‘Making a film about him, I could not leave out his relation to poetry,’ says Wenders, who also shows the artist’s more extreme side – such as taking a flamethrower to his canvases. ‘He can be cruel with his paintings; he burns them, and he throws the lid on them, and he does a lot to destroy them.’ Then there was his engagement with German fascism. ‘He exposed a lot of history, exposed a lot of bad things people have done to each other. His whole art is revolting against the act of forgetting.’
Shooting in high-resolution 6K, Wenders returned to the 3D that he has used in narrative features (such as 2015’s Every Thing Will Be Fine) and documentaries (2011’s Pina). It’s ideal for exploring Kiefer’s 40-hectare studio site near Nîmes in France, immersing viewers in the imposing sculpture gardens. If Hollywood has often used 3D to project out of the screen, Wenders draws audiences in. ‘Maybe Anselm proves that it has a poetic quality,’ he says, ‘and that 3D can do other things.’
When it comes to 3D, Wenders sees a kindred spirit in James Cameron, who returned to the format for Avatar: The Way of Water. They’ve yet to swap 3D notes, but Wenders is a fan. ‘I love the guy and I love his procedure. And to make a big $200-million-budget [film] on the subject of education, which was the new Avatar, is mind-blowing. I love this, but we have never talked about it. We’re allies anyway. We are fighting for a physiologically correct way to shoot with two eyes.’
ANSELM OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 8 DECEMBER.