Toronto film critic Adam Nayman will introduce our "Wenders in the Cities" series live on September 28. Here are his thoughts on "Alice in the Cities" and Wenders' travels between Germany and the USA:With the possible exception of his New German Cinema contemporary Werner Herzog –now living in Hollywood and making movies with Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman– no German filmmaker has examined the relationship between his homeland and the United States like Wim Wenders.
The evidence is overwhelming. Think of the judicious juxtapositions in films like "The American Friend" (1977), which relocated Patricia Highsmith’s yankee antihero to Hamburg in the form of Easy Rider Dennis Hopper, or "The State of Things" (1982), in which a stranded European art-house filmmaker decamps to Los Angeles. Or of Peter Falk –Colombo himself!– wandering thoughtfully through Berlin in "Wings of Desire" (1987). Or of "Paris, Texas" (1984), an iconic Southwest travelogue with one of the greatest blues scores of all time.
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Only 1 out of 5 German films is made by a woman, and then less funded. The largest German public broadcaster ARD just announced that they will put policies in place to up the number of female directors for their significant feature film and TV series productions, a move welcomed online by such industry associations as AG DOK and by gender equality initiative "Pro Quote Regie".
Shot in one single take of 134 minutes, it took only 3 attempts to film VICTORIA. The effect is dizzying, at times boring throughout the first half but then utterly hypnotising, to the bitter end. If it was a book, it would be called unputdownable.
The German title of “A Heavy Heart” more astutely describes the film's feel and focus. "Herbert". As simple as that.
Jane Schoettle is one of the International Programmers for the Toronto International Film Festival, where she is responsible for programming films from Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Germany, as well as American independent cinema. She is also the founder and past Director of the TIFF Kids International Film Festival. Schoettle took time out of her busy pre-festival schedule to talk themes and trends, female stories, European history and the freshest German films she is inviting to screen at TIFF next month.
