‘Perfect Days’ Director Wim Wenders On the Virus of Cinema and the European Dream: ‘It’s a Great Adventure to Get to See Someone Else’s Vision’
variety.comLise Pedersen With typical modesty and humor, Wim Wenders opened his masterclass at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon by answering the question: ‘Do you feel like a survivor in the history of cinema?’ with a ‘Yes, in a funny kind of way, I do sometimes feel like a dinosaur.” Expanding on his answer, the 78-year old director, who is being awarded the festival’s Lumière Award lifetime achievement prize later today, said he had been lucky enough to experience great changes in cinema throughout his lifetime and that he felt more like he had experienced rather than survived cinema –“vécu plutôt que survécu,” as he said in his fluent French.
Looking back on his 1984 cult movie “Paris, Texas,” for which he won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, the German director explained it had been the culmination of one of his greatest lessons in life. “I realized I would never be American, and that I would never make American films.
In my heart and soul, I was a German romantic and my profession was as a European filmmaker. To prove it, I made “Paris, Texas” with my own rules, my own production, a small budget, and the best people in the world: Robby Müller, Sam Shepard and Ry Cooder.
And this film allowed me to return to Europe with my head held high.” On his beginnings as a young filmmaker as part of the New German Cinema with the likes of Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wenders said that part of its success was down to the solidarity that existed among them. “We were not afraid of each other, because we had nothing in common.
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