Anselm Kiefer: Last News

Naman Ramachandran Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) is mounting “Wim Wenders – King of the Road – The India Tour,” marking the German filmmaker’s first visit to India at age 79. The retrospective, organized with the Wim Wenders Foundation and Goethe-Institut Mumbai, will showcase 18 of his works across five cities from Feb. 5-23.

range of nonfiction film — the subjects, the styles, the voices — is extraordinary in its reach. Does that mean that we’re in a renaissance era? You might say that. But you could also say that when it comes to this form of filmmaking, the art of reality knows no season.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Wim Wenders describes himself as “a man of habits,” which helps to explain the respect he shows the routine-driven lead character of his latest narrative feature, “Perfect Days.” The gentle drama, which takes place in Japan (it was selected as the country’s official Oscar submission this year), focuses on a Tokyo craftsman who spends his days cleaning the city’s public toilets. Routine is central to Wenders’ life as well, and it’s thanks to one of Wenders’ rituals that he found the subject for a second feature film he premiered at Cannes last May: “Anselm,” a 3D portrait of the controversial German artist Anselm Kiefer more than 30 years in the making. Wenders first met Kiefer back in 1991, as the unconventional sculptor was preparing his biggest exhibition to date at the National Gallery in Berlin.

The Oscar-contending documentary Anselm marks an encounter between two of the world’s great artists – one renowned for cinema, the other for painting, installations, and sculpture.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Zhang Yimou, China’s most enduring filmmaker, is joining the worldwide shift by feature film directors into the streaming arena. Zhang, who directed “Full River Red,” the most successful film of 2023 in China, is to be involved with his first TV series. He will executive produce “The First Shot,” his representatives confirmed to Variety. The show is to be directed by Xing Lu and is backed by Tencent Video. It is currently in development, with a tentative air date in 2025. That’s because Zhang has a film directing project with an anticipated Chinese New Year release date, due to begin shooting this summer.

Sideshow and Janus Films have snapped up all US rights to Wim Wenders’ Cannes title Anselm, a 3D documentary about the celebrated contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer.

Documentary fans might be forgiven for nurturing a dream – that Cannes would follow the recent example of Venice and Berlin and award its top prize to a nonfiction film. Complete the documentary Triple Crown – the Golden Lion, the Golden Bear and the Palme d’or.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Wim Wenders, whose immersive 3D portrait of artist Anselm Kiefer, “Anselm,” had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as a Special Screening, is a passionate advocate of the 3D format, which he believes engages the human brain in ways that 2D fails to do. “You could just as well be brain dead in some movies, because the amount of brain activity is minimal. In 3D, however, your whole brain is aflame,” he tells Variety. “Parts of your brain are working to establish the space – which is something you’re doing yourself: you get two separate images on the screen and your brain is putting them together, just like you do in life with your two eyes. So, your brain is enormously active, but other parts of your brain are active as well – you are emotionally more involved as you are more ‘there’.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” is a hot property in Cannes, and it’s yet to even premiere. Several buyers are currently circling the Japan-set, music-infused title from master filmmaker Wenders, which bows in competition on Thursday. Sources tell Variety that interested parties so far include Utopia, MUBI, Magnolia, Sideshow and Janus Films and Sony Pictures Classics. Wenders’ “Perfect Days” follows Tokyo toilet cleaner Hirayama, who seems content with his simple life. Outside of his everyday routine, he enjoys his passion for books and, in particular, for music. Over the course of the film, a series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.

Ed Meza @edmezavar German cinema is in Cannes with new works by Wim Wenders and films that explore Nazi propaganda, gender identity, economic crisis, romance, betrayal and fast cars. In addition to domestic films, a dozen German co-productions are screening in this year’s Cannes Film Festival lineup, including major works from the likes of Wes Anderson, Aki Kaurismäki and Jessica Hausner. Wenders is in Cannes with “Perfect Days,” which is vying for the Palme d’Or, and the documentary “Anselm” in Special Screenings. “Perfect Days” tells the story of a Tokyo janitor (Kôji Yakusho) who seems very content with his simple life, structured routines and passion for music, books and photography. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. The Japanese-German co-production is sold by the Match Factory.

Catherine Bray When audiences consider 3D as a medium, the abiding image seems to be of items popping out from the screen — a limb here in “Jaws 3D,” a dildo there in “Jackass 3D” — and perhaps that is indeed how most filmmakers have used the medium. Not enough directors have capitalized on the ability of 3D to convey a sense of physical depth; fewer still have seized on the possibility of adding philosophical depth. Thank goodness, then, for Wim Wenders. The first of two new films by the German veteran in this year’s Cannes official selection, “Anselm” is a tour de force 3D 6K portrait of the artist Anselm Kiefer, both rich in ideas and breathtaking in technical execution. Though undoubtedly a powerful confrontation with some of the biggest themes art can tackle — mortality, permanence, being, nothingness, all the hits — “Anselm” remains an accessible experience, partly because of its manageable 93-minute runtime and partly because of its endlessly engaging imagery. There’s no reason any reasonably curious audience shouldn’t be able to switch on to its considerable pleasures. 

Though he is still mostly known for his lyrical, America-set road movie Paris, Texas, which won the Palme d’Or in 1984, Germany’s Wim Wenders does most of his best work when he’s back on home turf. The Berlin Wall, for example, provided the backdrop for his 1987 masterpiece Wings of Desire, in which philosophical angels roamed a divided city that was still trying to reckon with the shame of the Second World War. His new documentary, Anselm, is ostensibly the biography of a fellow artist, but it doesn’t take too much imagination to read it as a veiled autobiography, in that its subject isn’t so much a person as the way that life experience and intelligence combine to create art.

Wim Wenders could be the Bob Dylan of European cinema: always around, always the same, always different. Sometimes he’ll arrive in Cannes with a documentary, like 2018’s Pope Francis: A Man of His Word, and sometimes he’ll come with a work of fiction, like his timeless 1984 Palme d’Or winner Paris, Texas. This year, he’s coming with one of each: Anselm, a 3D portrait of artist Anselm Kiefer, and Perfect Days, the story of a Tokyo toilet cleaner. Ironically, Wenders thought he’d have more time on his hands after the pandemic and moving on from his role at the European Film Academy. How wrong he was…

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety has been given access to an exclusive clip from “Anselm,” the 3D documentary from the three-time Academy Award nominated director Wim Wenders. The film will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as a Special Screening. HanWay Films is handling world sales. It will be released by Les Films du Losange in France and DCM in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

EXCLUSIVE: Details are emerging about Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary Anselm, which will gets its world premiere as a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

EXCLUSIVE: The Match Factory will be handling world sales on Wim Wenders’ Japan-set Cannes Competition entry Perfect Days.

Kanye West kissed his latest girlfriend Julia Fox for a smoldering picture that surfaced on Instagram this week.Photographer Danielle Levitt posted an album from a star-studded Paris Fashion Week party where Julia, 31, and Kanye, 44, locked lips.The showbiz hot couple appeared unable to keep their hands off each other throughout the pictures included. Public display:Kanye West kissed his latest girlfriend Julia Fox for a smoldering picture that surfaced on Instagram this weekKanye wore a pair of contact lenses that made him seem as though he had white irises, resulting in a distinctly eerie effect.Meanwhile Julia's look, which included a skintight red PVC dress and black opera gloves, featured wacky black eye makeup.

Wilco have announced the full line-up for this year’s edition of their Solid Sound festival, with two dozen acts spanning a diverse range of genres and formats.Riding hot on the heels of this month’s Sky Blue Sky – the four-day Mexican festival that saw Wilco play three separate shows, as well as a solo set from frontman Jeff Tweedy – Solid Sound will take place at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) over the extended weekend of May 27-29.Joining the alt-rock icons will be a slew of their contemporaries both established and emerging, with acts like Japanese Breakfast, Sylvan Esso, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Iceage and Hand Habits billed high.Tweedy will also play a special set with a range of as-yet-unannounced guests, billed on the poster (which you can find below) as ‘Jeff Tweedy & Friends’.Elsewhere at the festival, John Hodgman and Jean Grae will host a showcase of stand-up comedy, with guests like Negin Farsad, River Butcher and Nick Offerman.Other standout inclusions are a set by the Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen, a performance by Nels Cline’s Consentrik Quartet, and the ‘On Fillmore’ installation led by Finnish pop singer Jonna Tervomaa.A post shared by Wilco (@wilco)Tickets for Solid Sound will include full access MASS MoCA – hailed as the US’ most expansive gallery of contemporary art – with current attractions including installations by the likes of James Turrell, Laurie Anderson, Sol LeWitt, Jenny Holzer, and Anselm Kiefer. Three-day passes can be purchased from the festival’s website.Meanwhile, Wilco were recently inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame.