WIM WENDERS / SEPTEMBER 23, 1997
Copyright 1997 America Online
Forwarded by HunnyPi

AOL: Welcome to The Hub. You're chatting with Wim Wenders, the director of "The End of Violence," which stars Andie MacDowell and Bill Pullman. We are ready to start!

Q: Living in Houston I often drive by some of the locations you used for "Paris, Texas" and they still evoke strong feelings in me. You have the ability to make even the most commonplace locations seem almost magical. This is the mark of a great director.

Wim Wenders: I think places sometimes just call out to you and they reach out to find somebody who will put them in the movies. Houston was a place that was just shouting.

Q: Have you worked with any of the big American actors and what how are they different or similar with foreign film stars?

WW: I've worked with some great American actors. Peter Falk, William Hurt, Andie MacDowell, Dennis Hopper Bill Pullman to name a few. I think it's a great pleasure working with them because they are truly movie actors. They know the way to work on camera. They are very physical and extremely cooperative. So I've had nothing but great experiences with American actors. There is such a wealth of actors in America like nowhere else in the world.

Q: Was there a particular film or performance that inspired you to become a film director?

WW: No. I really only wanted to become a painter. I was inspired more by painters when I was growing up. Ozu is the one and only director who inspired me, he is a Japanese director.

Q: What are some of the films you would place in your top ten films of all time list?

WW: The Rule of the Game (a French film). The Salt of the Earth. Rebel Without a Cause. Young Mr. Lincoln. Tokyo Story. Great films! King of Comedy. Down by Law.

Q: What has been the greatest obstacle to your success in film?

WW: Not only to myself but to other film makers, the greater the budget the greater the obstacles.

Q: What do you find most challenging and most rewarding about filmmaking?

WW: Most rewarding is certainly that you are never alone in your work and you work with people of all other arts and all sorts of professions. You work with writers, cinematographers, actors, musicians, architects, painters. People from all sorts of artistic expression. It's a myth that the movie director is alone creating a film. That is a complete lie and myth. It's the only profession where you're never alone. And that in itself is a great privilege.

Q: What are some of the qualities you look for in a story?

WW: The greatest quality is also the most difficult to hold on to and it's not to lost your faith in it. To keep believing in the soul of that story from the first moment that you conceive it or hear it to the final cut of your film. Sometimes when you carry on a story for too long you are risking to lose it. I prefer to make films spontaneously without pondering for years and years over the script.

Q: What is the key to making fantasy work in film?

WW: I can only speak for myself. For me fantasy is rather synonymous with dreams. A lot of my films start with dreams. And the sort of fantasy that I would like the audience to follow me on is that they are able to join me on my dreams. I don't want to impose my dreams, I'd like to dream together.

AOL: We're here with world-renowned director Wim Wenders, whose new movie "The End of Violence" is in theaters now!

Q: How important is it to you to allow the actor to contribute to the conception of a character?

WW: I would never allow an actor not to contribute. An actor who will say include me out "I'm just playing the part" I couldn't work with them for one shot. I really depend on the actors giving part of their soul and their life to the performance.

Q: What do you find most intriguing about the film medium?

WW: That it can be so completely contemporary and direct and reflect people's needs so immediately. And it has that in common with rock & roll.

Q: The German cinema has had such a great history. What do you feel could be done to help revitalize the German cinema?

WW: The German cinema has had a comeback the last two years like nobody would have every believed. Right now it's stronger than every before. For the first time since the second world war, German movies occupy more than one third of the screens. Which is an unbelievable success considering it was down to only 2% two years ago. That success is partly due to a cooperation between German film makers and Americans. The American industry has bought first-time German directors. This cooperation has made the difference.

Q: What was it about the subject matter of "The End of Violence" that fascinated you?

WW: I think violence is one of the most important topics of our time today. And movies can deal with it very powerfully. And I think it's a great pity that movies lately seem to deteriorate to not dealing with the topic of violence anymore, but to use violence strictly as ingredients. Like an icing on every cake. Violence is too important to become ingredient and therefore I wanted to make a film ABOUT violence and not with violence.

Q: What is it like Working with Bono, and in general, U2, some of the time?

AOL: I suppose you wouldn't work with them ALL of the time.

WW: Bono is probably the most amazing person I've every met. Who could have become a great director, writer, philosopher, preacher, whatever. Instead he became a great singer and songwriter. And I think the amazing thing about this band is how they manage to stay true to themselves in spite of all their success.

Q: Were you satisfied with Until the End of the World? You developed it for many years and it didn't receive the same acclaim as your other films. Would you do it again?

WW: I was not satisfied at all. And I felt that the film which was released worldwide was just sort of a Readers' Digest version of what I actually made. So years afterwards I decided to edit the complete version. And this is now complete and I have a version of the film that is five hours long. I showed it twice in America - once in LA and once in Seattle. I hope it will be released early next year. And I'm really happy really happy with that long director's cut.

Q: What's the progress on 'Million Dollar Hotel"?

WW: The Million Dollar Hotel turned into the billion dollar hotel because we turned it into a science fiction film. Bono, Nicholas, Clein and myself. We hope we will be shooting it early next year.

Q: I'm an aspiring film student... can I fetch your coffee? :)

WW: Good coffee is hard to make. Send test coffee!

Q: What's it like to work with a multilingual cast which you have done many times.

WW: I feel it's very natural. Most of my life happened multi-lingually.

Q: Has technology changed the way you've made films, and if so how? Has technology resulted in your making different kinds of films?

WW: Technology always has a huge influence on not only story telling, but on music, painting and also film making. And I think that the new digital possibilities of producing images enrich our craft incredibly. I should better say, WILL enrich it, because at the moment a lot of digital technology still seem to me a little stiff. But in the long run it will open incredible doors to imagination. And every now and then it does it already.

Q: Do you value solitude in your life?

WW: Very much so. A lot of people think that very word has a negative connotation. I can only feel that it is a blessing sometimes.

Q: What do you think of Fellini? I recently saw "La Strada" and was moved by it.

WW: Fellini is one of the century and of the whole history of movies. I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times and for me he is one of the most generous, warmest people I ever met. A great child even when he grew up.

Q: Mr. Wenders, I am a filmmaker with nearly 30 years in the business. I think "Wings Of Desire" is one of the most PERFECT films ever made. What was your greatest challenge in getting that done?

WW: The greatest challenge in making Wings of Desire was that it was made without a script like you might write a poem. It was like flying a plane without instruments. And the fact that we landed it properly was not without some help from guardian angels.

Question (presumably in relation to "The End of Violence): How can we possibly have peace when all our country seems to be interested in is violence and who the president called 3 years ago?

WW: This is up to each and everybody nobody has to consume violence if he or she doesn't want to. You can just turn it off and leave the theater, if you think that the violence you're expected to consume is gratuitous.

Q: What is Your Worst Fear when you start a new film project?

WW: The only fear is that I might not be able to hold on to the dream that started it. And like every director, probably, I'm relieved when I'm finished shooting. Truffaut said that after four weeks into a movie he only dreamed of finishing it.

Q: Wim, was it tough work making the scenes with Andie McDowell flow, or was she natural?

WW: She was EASY. And it was a sheep pleasure to see her work. And I don't think I ever corrected so little in a performance.

Q: I was moved and awed by "Wings of Desire". It must be difficult to maintain the mood and dream-like quality of your movies while being constantly distracted by the inevitable technological interruptions of film making. Please comment. -SarJanLong

WW: Those inevitable technical interruptions are a blessing. And I enjoy communicating with the crew, the technicians and every one on the set. And I wouldn't want to be a painter who is all alone in front of the canvas, or a writer who is all alone in front of the computer.

Q: How important is a soundtrack to a movie, and how do you decide on what songs to include in the movie?

WW: The greatest pleasure of the whole process of making a movie to me is working with the composer or with the musicians that I ask to collaborate. And sometimes I think that is why I'm doing this whole movie making business.

Q: Do you have a favorite of your own films?

WW: For years and years it was an early film called Alice in the Cities, and now it's Wings of Desire together with Far Away So Close because to me they are like one movie, the second one being the continuation f the first.

Q: What ideas about violence were you not able to put into the film?

WW: Violence is something extremely ambiguous, and every film maker knows that. In movies violence is unfortunately very attractive and whenever you have a gun in a scene, the attention level and the adrenaline goes up. In End of Violence, I didn't want to show violence. [Expect once.] Movies can do so much more by NOT showing. And some of the most powerful films about violence don't include a single graphic shot of violence.

Q: If foreign films are so great, why do Hollywood movies make more money in foreign countries than foreign films do?

WW: Foreign films are not greater than American films and actually at this moment I feel that these categories are totally obsolete. There is a worldwide independent cinema and a worldwide industrial cinema. The only great regret that I have is that American audiences are kept from seeing anything that is not shot in English. You notice that subtitled films are almost entirely irradicated from the market.

Q: What part did you play in casting Traci Lind, and why did you wish to have her in the film?

WW: Traci plays a stunt woman who becomes an actress. So I felt it was necessary to cast somebody who was not instantly recognizable as an actress. I had noticed Traci in a few smaller parts and thought she was very good.

Q: Why did you choose Peter Falk to be the angel in "Wings of Desire"? He seems an unlikely choice, as he is steeped in persona, but he worked wonderfully in the film.

WW: Well he is an ex-angel. In life and in the movie. I don't think I could have found anybody better for that part.

Q: Wim, what was your first directing job?

WW: I made short films while I was in film school. Wrong. I made movies in 8mm when I was 12 years old! But that didn't mean I wanted to become a director. It was only my fourth film which was Alice in the Cities that made me realize I was in fact a director.

Q: What did you think of Cronenberg's Crash?

WW: I admit I have not seen it. Maybe because I was too scared. I have a terrible time going to movies that I know will scare me.

Q: Could a movie like "The End of Violence" be made in a country other than the U.S.?

WW: The End of Violence was conceived and born in LA and I would not have made it anywhere else.

Q: What made you decide to use Nick Cave, either as an actor or soundtrack music, in your movies?

WW: Nick was a big local hero in Berlin when I made Wings of Desire. And I had seen him in lots of concerts when he was still with a band called ... I can't remember.

Q: Is the end of fear the end of violence?

WW: I think the end of violence could only be paradise. Violence is caused very much by an absence of love and by an absence of connectedness and very often is a sign of complete lack of reality.

Q: Do you think an attitude of "political correctness" is used in the artistic community in lieu of a fascist-like demand for self-censorship?

WW: I think any political correctness is boring for whatever reasons. And I like people who speak they minds in movies or in politics. And I'd rather have an honest right wing politician in front of me than an opportunist liberal.

AOL: We have time for two more questions for director Wim Wenders. Be sure to see Wenders latest film, "The End of Violence," which is in theaters now.

Q: What are your religious beliefs?

WW: I was raised in a Catholic family, but left this behind when I started to study. And after a big detour thirty years later, came back to where I had left. But I consider myself a Christian without particularly wanting to belong to one or the other denomination.

Q: What influenced your casting choices in "The End of Violence"?

WW: My casting choices were influenced by nothing other than the search for the right actor. I though Bill Pullman was perfect for the Hollywood producer who then turns from the power player to a humble gardener. I thought Gabriel Byrne was perfect for the introverted scientist. And I thought Andie MacDowell was perfect anyway.

AOL: That's all the time we have! Thanks, Mr. Wenders!