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Film Mon Oct 26 2015
Wim Wenders Is on the Road Again at the Gene Siskel Film Center
Wim Wenders: On the Road Again is the title of a retrospective of films by the great German director, now screening at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St. Wenders is one of the New German Cinema directors, who, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog, rejuvenated the German film industry in the 1970s and '80s. The retrospective includes some of Wenders' early films, which have not been available and have now been digitally restored under Wenders' supervision.
An exhibit of more than 20 film posters--Wenders and the New German Cinema--is on display in the film center gallery. It's co-presented with Goethe-Institut Chicago.
Until the End of the World (1991, 295 minutes) is a unique road movie and you need stamina to see it, because it runs for almost five hours (with an intermission). You can see it at 2pm on Nov. 20 and 21. It's a rarity and one of the new digital restorations. Until the End of the World is futuristic, fanciful and vividly colorful. It shows us the future of technology as envisioned by Wenders 25 years ago. UTEOTW stars Solveig Dommartin (the trapeze artist in Wings of Desire) and William Hurt. (My opinion: Wenders probably should have restrained himself and trimmed this down to <3 hours. )
Wings of Desire (1987, 128 minutes), one of my all-time favorite films, is also digitally restored, and being shown on Oct. 31 and Nov. 4. This is the fabulous story of the angels in trench coats who watch over divided Berlin. One of them (Bruno Ganz) decides he wants to become human and that's where the trapeze artist comes in, as well as Peter Falk, a former angel. There's also a cameo by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in a subterranean Berlin club. It's part neo-realism, part dreamscape and thoroughly engrossing.
Other Wenders films being shown will be Paris, Texas (featuring Dean Stanton wandering across the American west in an adaptation of a Sam Shepard script); The State of Things; Tokyo-Ga; and Notebook on Cities and Clothes. See the film center website for details and screening times.
Previously shown Wenders films in this retrospective were Kings of the Road, a quirky road film set along the border between East and West Germany, Buena Vista Social Club, Alice in the Cities, The American Friend and The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick.
