Fellow Travelers
Soul-searching journeys are the terrain of Wim Wenders, the New German Cinema star known on these shores for
Wings of Desire and
Paris,
Texas, along with three Oscar-nominated artist-profile docs. Locals can see nine of his films during
Wim Wenders: Portraits Along the Road, a touring retrospective illustrating the director’s versatility and gift for presenting road trips and interior journeys. The series begins with the contemplative detective drama
The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972), which is double-billed with the first third of Wenders’ “Road Movie Trilogy,”
Alice in the Cities (1974). Additional titles include
The American Friend (1977), adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s novel "Ripley’s Game", and the above-mentioned 1980s art-house favorites (Wenders, able to make a desert landscape dramatic, seemed an ideal director to collaborate with Paris, Texas co-writer Sam Shepard). The sublime angel story
Wings of Desire (1987) screens along with its sequel,
Faraway, So Close! (1993). The closing-night feature is the 295-minute director’s cut of the sci-fi drama Until the End of the World. A closing-night party tops it all off.
— Anita Katz
415-621-6120
