Wim Wenders on his India tour: ‘I don’t think AI laughs or cries, it can’t produce anything original’ | Hollywood News

At 79, Wim Wenders is spry and energetic, his height making him easily visible in the crowd. He’s been travelling through Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, before arriving in Delhi, receiving a welcome reserved usually for rockstars.A retrospective featuring 18 of his films gets full houses everywhere. His mindful interactions with the audience are a revelation: You know that you are in the company of a true legend. His India tour, ‘King Of The Road’, was organised Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s Film Heritage Foundation.
He speaks to The Indian Express about his experience of Indian roads, how his ‘Paris, Texas’ (1984) remains the ultimate road movie, how his angels from ‘Wings Of Desire’ (1987) still walk amongst us, and his love for the craft of cinema.
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A still from Perfect days (2023).
How does it feel to be away from Berlin at this time of the year, when the Berlinale (February 13-23) is on?
I’m missing the Berlinale for the first time in 20 years! During the film festival, I meet so many friends that I almost don’t sleep, and I almost don’t get to see any movies! In a way, it’s a nice feeling to be so far away.
What has been your experience of being on the road in India?
I know the roads of the world — in North America, South America, Australia and Africa. This is my first time in India. My wife and I spent two days ourselves in Kerala, shooting a little documentary on craftspeople in Aranmula (Pathanamthitta).Story continues below this ad
Driving or being driven in India is a hair-raising experience, you realise that people are zipping past all the time. Cars come from all directions. In any other country, there would be constant accidents. It seems miraculous that there is a common understanding between two motors as they speed past.
At first, I was a bit desperate, then I realised there are other rules here, rules that are quite human and pleasant, then I started enjoying the reckless driving.
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While shooting ‘Paris, Texas’, were you aware that it would become a reference point for road movies going forward?Story continues below this ad
No, not at all. But I was very much aware that I was doing something that had not been done before. I was so happy to be working with my dear friend Rob (Müller, cinematographer). Usually, we would draw frames the night before for the next day and prepare ourselves for the shots, but for ‘Paris, Texas’ we realised we shouldn’t do that.
We were so impressed the colours of the American West and the landscapes and the monumental horizons that we decided that, maybe, for once we should come in the morning and not know what we would shoot, have no plan, not know where the camera would stand. Often, we would be there before the sun was up, so that the light and the colours would tell us how to do the shooting.
It was an incredible experience, so liberating that we never went back to the old ways of working. So ‘Paris, Texas’ didn’t have any model in any kind of cinema, we let the landscape dictate us. No one in the West had made a film like that. Even the name ‘Americana’ is now a common term for roads, buildings, motels, things that are abandoned (a leitmotif in the film). I don’t think that word exed before ‘Paris, Texas’.
If they were here today, do you think that the angels in ‘Wings Of Desire’ would think the (Berlin) wall is still there?Story continues below this ad
I think they can still see it really well. I was quite pissed off with my city of Berlin when, after the wall fell, they were in such a rush to take it all away. I was in the council of citizens that was discussing how the two cities could become one and what the image of the new Berlin will be like.
No other city in the world has it — the wall spans over 50 metres. I said, leave the empty space so that people will always remember where the wall was, see it, feel it and this will help them to become one, but instead they were in a hurry to erase the memory of the wall. Then, almost 20 years later, they had to rebuild part of it for tours.
A still from Wings of Desire(1987)
I believe the angels can hear the innermost thoughts of people, and I think they know how much the wall still exs for the people.
You’ve done so many documentaries on art and arts that you are considered an art yourself. Do you think you are more an art than a filmmaker?Story continues below this ad
Not really. I love the idea of cinema that is also a craft and I really think of myself as a craftsman of cinema. I love camera work, I love the tools that we have, lenses and tracks and cranes, whatever we have to move the camera. I love to produce the language of film each time, with each shot you produce another element of time, and it creates a new time altogether.
I never liked the idea of being considered an art because I love arts and filmmaking is a different effort from creating art.
Do you think AI can ever take over the singular filmmaker’s vision? Do you think cinema is under threat from AI?
We are already making so many movies these days that we don’t need any filmmakers. So many sequels, so many films have become such a franchise business, and what else are they than an artificial intelligence? I think most movies don’t need filmmakers, most movies which are being made from formulas are artificial products anyway, and AI can only produce products.Story continues below this ad
So, in a way, we are already doing it. I’m all for the kind of cinema that AI could never conceive because AI doesn’t know how to suffer, how to have fun. I don’t think AI laughs or cries, I don’t think it can produce anything original, all it can do is produce lookalikes.
‘Perfect Days’ (2023) was such a perfect film. What does your perfect day look like?
It would start with a good breakfast. To me, it is the best meal of the day. I don’t eat anything in the evening. Part of the day would have a lot of music in it — I can len to Leonard Cohen all day, or Patti (Smith) or Lou (Reed) — and I enjoy seeing my good old tree friends and meeting people; I check the phone only if necessary. Lately, I’ve been lening to a lot of African music and I’m a fanatic now.