Lifelong Obsessions

So once a month sometime I’m going to feature one of my Lifelong Obsessions… The first one to start with seems a perfect choice – a man whose poignant movies I’ve admired for quite some years now, the German Director Wim Wenders.

A little about the man himself – Wim was born in 1945 in Dusseldorf. In his teenage years, he dropped out of university to become a full-time painter. After failing his entry tests at France’s national film school, he became an engraver and an obsessor of cinema, watching up to five films a day. In the 60′s with the rise of the New German Cinema, he started creating.

My most favourite movie Wenders ever was made the year I was born (not that I saw it till much later on..) – Paris, Texas. I think the things I love most about this are the colours (pillarbox reds… light blues…) and the sheer quietness apart from the long stretches of dialogue, its such a peaceful watch and somewhat homely as well as being haunting.

Last year I purchased Wim’s photography book ‘Once’ which features images in the same vein as Paris, Texas.. each image is so poignant and tells so much of a story. Whilst scouting locations for new movies, Wim would take snaps across America, loads of these are included in Once. Again, its so silent, apart from a small amount of poetic captionary. WOW.