Latest news with #Wenders
France 24
05-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Nazi surrender site sets the scene for Wim Wenders short film
The red-bricked school in the eastern city of Reims was the "centre of the world" for one night, said veteran filmmaker Wenders, recalling when the German High Command first signed its unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945 at 2:41 am. A second act of surrender was signed in Berlin the next day, on May 8, which the Allies declared the official date of victory over Nazi Germany. But as European countries gear up to celebrate Victory in Europe Day, the war in Ukraine is a reminder "that peace cannot be taken for granted," said Wenders in a voiceover in the four-minute clip. The short film, released by the German foreign ministry, combines archival footage with images of the Cannes Palme d'Or-winning director wandering through the school where the army chief of staff, General Alfred Jodl, signed Nazi Germany's total surrender. The College Moderne et Technique - since renamed Lycee Roosevelt – served as the Allied High Command headquarters, making it the "most secret" place in Europe, according to one witness quoted in the footage. "Nobody knows… that from the map room of this school, General Eisenhower is in charge of the fortunes of the Western Allies," said the director. "Twelve years of terror, six years of war, the Holocaust, the worst crimes the world has ever known, ended here, in a school in Reims." A set of keys on display in the school's museum are those that a US official returned to Reims' mayor, calling them "the keys to the freedom of the world". But for Wenders, the peace brokered in that schoolhouse is under threat. "I have lived 80 years in peace, a peace the night in this school brought us all," said Wenders, born three months after Germany's capitulation. "Today, there is war in Europe again," he added. "A war against Europe." The Kremlin launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022, hoping to take the country in days, but has since become embroiled in a bloody conflict that has killed tens of thousands. On May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow, evoking the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II to rally support for his troops fighting in Ukraine. The Russian leader has used WWII narratives to justify sending troops to Ukraine, vowing in 2022 to "de-Nazify" the country and since comparing the current conflict to the Soviet war effort. "Eighty years after the liberation of our continent, Europeans are realising again that peace cannot be taken for granted," said Wenders.
New York Times
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Wim Wenders on Where the War in Europe Really Ended 80 Years Ago
Wim Wenders, the renowned German film director, is nearly 80 years old, as old as the peace in Europe that followed the capitulation of the Nazi regime. 'From my childhood onward, I have lived 80 years in peace,' he says in a short film he has directed to commemorate the end of World War II. But now, with a war in Ukraine that he calls 'a war against Europe,' Wenders says that the stakes have rarely been higher. 'Eighty years after the liberation of our continent, we Europeans are realizing again that peace cannot be taken for granted,' he says in the film. 'It is now up to us to take the keys to freedom into our own hands.' In an interview in his Berlin office, Wenders said that the decades of peace 'defined my life,' as the war had defined the life of his parents. His father, an army surgeon, spent five years at the front and was the only one of his class who did not die there, Wenders said. 'I had the privilege to be among the first generation of Germans who lived for 80 years in peace,' he said. 'None of my ancestors had that privilege.' Europe and Germany are crammed with varied efforts to remember the end of the war this week, including somber memorial events at concentration camps like Dachau and Bergen-Belsen. But Wenders' film is a rare personal and political testament from the man behind award-winning movies including 'Paris, Texas,' 'Wings of Desire' and 'The American Friend.' The new film is less than five minutes long and called 'The Keys to Freedom,' a moody, meditative visit to a little-known spot where history was made: a small school in Reims, France, where at 2:41 a.m. on May 7, 1945, the German army signed its unconditional surrender in front of allied commanders. The school, now the Lycée Franklin Roosevelt, then housed the headquarters of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. Today there is a small museum in the school called the Museum of the Surrender, which includes the top floor map room where the commanders worked and the capitulation was signed. When Eisenhower and his team left the school, they handed the keys to the city's authorities, and they are now displayed in a small display case at the museum. 'The commander in chief returns the keys to the mayor of Reims and says, 'These are the keys to the freedom of the world,'' Wenders says in the film. 'I was very touched by the sight of these keys, even though now they're just keys in a small museum.' Wenders wanders the museum, looking at other exhibits and chatting with current students. The surrender is recaptured through archival footage of the day's events and a modern reconstruction, with actors. The Soviets insisted that the German high command repeat its surrender in Berlin, which they had conquered. That event took place on the following evening, May 8, which is generally recognized as the moment the war in Europe officially ended. For years, under Soviet occupation, the building where the agreement was ratified was known as The Museum of the Unconditional Surrender of Fascist Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945, but after German reunification it was renamed Museum Berlin-Karlshorst. 'The idea was to go where the real thing was negotiated and signed, not just ratified, like what then was repeated on May 8, in Karlshorst — but the real McCoy,' Wenders said. 'A place in France to which I owed that freedom in which my life has taken place.' Wenders, who was born in August 1945, became a key figure in what was known as the 'New German Cinema' movement of the 1960s and '70s, an influential art house revolution by the postwar generation. In recent years, he has turned toward documentaries, which are less complicated to fund and get greenlit these days, he said. He narrates 'The Keys to Freedom' in three languages, German, English and French, and said he considered it a political film that looked back to his earliest work documenting German protests against the war in Vietnam. The film was sparked by an idea from Germany's foreign ministry. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the re-election of Europe-skeptic President Trump, it has been looking to be more forthright in its public messaging, especially about German values and the country's commitment to European security, said Peter Ptassek, a senior diplomat in charge of strategic communications. The ministry approached Wenders, who agreed to work for free, as did most of his team. The ministry provided 'under 100,000 euros' (about $113,000) for the project, to help pay for technical staff and production, Ptassek said. 'With the war in Ukraine and what's happening now in the U.S., we realized we had to raise our voice and explain ourselves,' Ptassek said. 'If you don't explain what you're doing, you lose trust.' ''The 'Keys to Freedom' is a symbol that fits so well,' he added. 'Eighty years of American protection no longer seem reliable. We have to take these keys and assume our responsibility.' Wenders hopes the film will speak to young people, but he has doubts. Even the French students in the school in Reims think of the war as ancient history, he said. 'They are the third generation living in this peace, and therefore they take it for granted,' he said. 'So it makes it easy to believe that this is eternal.' The shoot in Reims 'made me acutely aware how precious freedom can be,' Wenders said. 'In my life too, I had taken it for granted, and seeing that little war room made me realize how fragile it really is.' Talking to the students, he said, 'made me realize that it's quite a job, politically in Europe at this moment, to make people even take the word freedom seriously. Even the word doesn't mean much because they know nothing else. So that's why I wanted to keep the film really open at the end,' he said, to present the idea that 'we have to be aware of the fact that Uncle Sam isn't doing our job for very much longer, and we might have to defend this freedom ourselves.'
Time of India
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Pope Francis passes away at 88: Did you know he appeared in a film directed by Wim Wenders that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival? Deets here
twitter Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and a globally respected religious figure, passed away at the age of 88. The Vatican confirmed his death in an official statement on April 21, 2025, announcing that he died peacefully at Casa Santa Marta, his residence in Vatican City. Known for breaking many traditions, Pope Francis made history in several ways. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and also the first non-European leader of the Catholic Church in over 1,200 years — a milestone not seen since the Syrian-born Pope Gregory III in the 8th century. But what many people may not know is that Pope Francis also became somewhat of a movie figure during his lifetime. In 2018, a documentary titled "Pope Francis: A Man of His Word" was released. The film was directed and co-written by Wim Wenders, a German filmmaker well-known for his work with famous artists like Alicia Vikander, Mel Gibson, and even the rock band U2. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 17+ Actors You Didn't Know Were Gay - No. 8 Will Shock Women Journalistate Undo The film was unique because it offered a personal look at the Pope's thoughts, travels, and messages to the world. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival that year and was later released in the United States. What made it even more special was how Pope Francis appeared on screen. He was seen talking directly to the camera, creating the feeling that he was speaking one-on-one with viewers. This approach, often called 'breaking the fourth wall,' gave the documentary an intimate and powerful tone. In an interview with the BBC, Wenders spoke about his experience working with the Pope. He described Pope Francis as someone who had the same kind of presence as top movie stars, but in a very different way. According to Wenders, the Pope's powerful screen presence came not from fame or ego, but from his strong faith, genuine humility, and desire to connect with people. Wenders added that Pope Francis had told him he had never watched any of his films and did not follow cinema, proving his decision to appear in a movie was not for fame but to reach a wider audience. Wenders believed the Pope used the film as a way to communicate directly with people around the world, not as an actor, but as a spiritual guide. Throughout the film, Pope Francis talks about topics like compassion, justice, and caring for the poor — values he held close throughout his time as pope. As people around the world mourn his death, Pope Francis is being remembered not only as a religious leader but also as a compassionate human being who tried to connect with people in every possible way — including through a movie.
The Guardian
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Light fantastic: the road trip that inspired Paris, Texas
In preparation for his 1984 film Paris, Texas, Wim Wenders set out on a road trip through Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. The trip resulted in the photo series Written in the West, which was first exhibited in 1986 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. 'It was another way of preparing for the film, a different kind of research that had less to do with locations than with the light in the west,' says Wenders. Written Once is at Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, until 15 March 'Although these photos were taken in connection with the film we made in that part of the country, they are quite independent of it. They were all made in locations where we did in fact shoot the film. But these large-format photos were my own personal, private way of preparing for it' 'Once, I drove to a screening of Paris, Texas together with Harry Dean Stanton, in a limo that almost stretched over two blocks. Even in the middle of New York, Harry was still Travis sitting in the back of his brother's car and travelling through the desert in silence' 'I had never made a film in that landscape and was hoping that taking photographs would sharpen my understanding of the light and landscape, my sense of empathy with it' 'Once, I was in Montreal, when Jim Jarmusch was showing Down By Law there. In my memory, it was raining when I took this picture of Jim, and I was sure he was holding an umbrella. But there was no umbrella in the photograph and certainly not on the negative. Instead, I discovered Roberto Benigni in the background' 'Very often, the ideas you have in advance about the colours in a film quickly begin to look tired. So my only aim in taking these photos was to improve my own capacity to react to colours; to become more open to colours; simply to get to know them better. I took a whole lot of photos purely for the colours, which was quite a new departure for me' 'In 1941, the actor Elisha Cook Jr had a supporting part in the movie The Maltese Falcon by John Houston, based on Dashiell Hammett's novel by the same title. In my movie about Hammett's life, Elisha played a cab driver' 'In the middle of the godforsaken Valley of the Gods, and after not seeing any other car for hours, we came upon a car parked by the side of the road. It was jacked up and a man's legs were sticking out from under it. We stopped behind it to see if we could help. The woman standing by the troubled car turned out to be Isabella Rossellini, the man crawling out from under it was none other than Martin Scorsese' '[This is] the lounge in a little hotel, which had been closed down for a long time, where I saw all these incredible armchairs in all those colours. I tried to get in but it was all locked up. At last I found an old man who had the keys and he suspiciously let me in. The 'surface' that interested me was the colours of the armchairs, four or five different colours. They were in a semicircle, which looked slightly theatrical in itself. You didn't even feel that the characters were missing, because it was as if the armchairs were talking to each other' 'John Lurie, great actor and sax player, and obviously quite a kisser too' 'Once, together with Dennis Hopper, we drove from Los Angeles all the way up to Barstow in the middle of the Mojave Desert, to see Nick Ray. Miloš Forman was shooting the movie version of Hair, and Nick played the general in it, in spite of the cancer he had just been diagnosed with. Dennis knew Nick from a long time ago, when Nick had given him a small part in Rebel Without a Cause. Dennis had become best friends with James Dean. Later that night the conversation inevitably turned to James Dean and Nick proudly declared: 'I taught him how to walk!''
