work alone Anselm (The Voice of Time), The German director’s new film is a 3D documentary about artist Anselm Kiefer.
The German film director creates a breathtaking film. Anselm (The Voice of Time), his compatriot Anselm Kiefer, a visual artist of German memory; Two giants brought together by 3D in an atypical documentary like an immersive experience around the creative process carried out in the various places inhabited by the artist, be it in the Odenwald mountains in southern Germany, his former workshop in Bariak, his giant workshop in Croissy-Beaubourg and in his native Rastat region, in the Black Forest. The film as experience
Madame Figaro. – What do you have in common with Anselm Kiefer, who stars in this movie? ?
Wim Wenders. – Childhood in post-war Germany (we were both born in 1945), and this dream of making a film together for thirty years. We met in 1991, at a very important moment in Anselm’s life, when he was preparing his major exhibition in Berlin after his victory in the USA. By chance, one evening he arrived at my restaurant in Kreuzberg, L’Exile, where I had only one seat left, recognized me and we started talking. It became a habit for several weeks. He showed me the exhibition he organized, I had never seen anything like it. And while talking, we realized that I am a director who dreamed of being an artist, and he is an artist whose big dream was to make films. Then we told ourselves that we should do something together. It took time. Anselm settled in France, and over the years we saw each other regularly, reminiscing about our shared plan, which finally came to fruition in 2019, when Anselm called me to show Baryak, this great land in the south (Gardum, Editor’s Note), which is now open to the public.
How did the filming go? ?
We shot seven times for about ten days over two and a half years. I was always editing between takes and each time I realized what needed to be added or what was missing. At first I didn’t know how to do justice to the enormity of this work. I did the first shooting in Baryak in the winter, and I realized that we should return in the summer. I was filming in Croix-Beaubourg, Saint-E-Marne, in his studio, then I realized that I should return, and then also go to the depths of Germany, where he worked for fifteen years. His son, Daniel, talked to me a lot about this period when he often accompanied his father as a child, and finally I asked if he could come with me and play his father.
3D shows much more than film, it corrects vision
Wim Wenders
The film also features Anton Wenders…
My 10-year-old grandson, who plays young Anselm. He is the grandson of my younger brother who died very young leaving two children that I helped raise. I searched for weeks and couldn’t find a boy with a southern German accent and a certain vivacity and intelligence in his eyes. And there was this boy in the family who dreams of becoming a scientist and who wasn’t very impressed with movies, except for 3D.
Why did you choose 3D shooting? ?
Lead the public in this experience of discovering Anselm’s work. 3D shows much more than film, it clearly enhances vision. The information it adds makes the brain work differently, it’s much more active than for a normal movie. Acknowledging space brings tremendous emotional sensations and presence. There is nothing more beautiful to transport you into the world.
The choice to shoot a documentary quickly became clear between you ?
Yes, since 1991 we have always had this desire. I’m glad I didn’t do it sooner, I wouldn’t have had the funds and experience in cinema for that. Anselm is the only artist who manages to live time in his paintings and buildings. He encompasses it like no other. And I also slowly learned how time can be present in film, how film itself becomes its own time. It also has a lot to do with 3D; I wouldn’t dare do it by traditional means.
I was a director who dreamed of being an artist, and Anselm Kiefer was an artist whose big dream was to make movies.
Wim Wenders
There is a dimension of time in the work that was otherwise absent. ?
There are many artists you can explore in the catalog. With Anselm, this is practically impossible. I have about fifty books published about him, but to understand his art, which is more of an experience, you have to face his works. Besides, the film is more of an experience than a film.
Making a film about an artist is not easy…
No, but with this richness that Anselm showed me, and that I saw in his studio and in Barzack, there was an incredible depth of intelligence. His library could be the library of a small town. You might think he hasn’t read everything, but when you get a piece of work, you know it’s been annotated and edited. About astronomy, sciences, myths… He could have become a scientist, he became an artist.
How did you prepare for the shooting of the film? ?
We did one thing. I visited the place and for a week we talked for four or five hours every afternoon, each time on a different topic: childhood, poetry, women, science, myths, the different eras of his painting, his methods… Finally. , I had a thousand-page manuscript that I had my team transcribe for weeks. It was a bit like my Bible. He answered all my questions. That gave me a good reason not to ask him again.
Architects work with the same sense I do, a sense of place
Wim Wenders
On October 20th in Lyon, you receive the Lumière Prize…
It’s a great honor. The award is given by the Lumière Institute, which is dedicated to cinema and its history. I’m very proud of it. There will also be a retrospective of my films and three exhibitions of my photographs at the Lumière Festival.
Where is your film project about architecture?
I started five years ago, I only shot teaser, and since then I’ve been trying to convince financiers to make this film in 3D. But everyone tells me. “Architecture has a place in cinema…” It will be about the Swiss Peter Zumthor, the favorite architect of all architects (Pritzker Prize 2009, Editor’s Note). All the elders say. “In another life I’ll be Zumthor. He has a very small office and has completed about twenty buildings while others have done hundreds. Architects work with the same sense I do, a sense of place. I totally depend on my sense of place. If I don’t like a place, I don’t know where to put the camera. Together, Zumthor and I, we will do this study of the meaning of place.
Anselm (The Voice of Time), By Wim Wenders. Released on October 18.
Source: Le Figaro
