Filmmaker Favorites - Wim Wenders

Welcome back to A History of Film Festivals in 100 Movies. This is the bonus pod for Episode 8, where we celebrated Paris, Texas - by Wim Wenders.

As with many of our bonus features, we’re going to take a look into some of the movies Wim Wenders has picked as favorites over the years.

You will find a few of the trailers we singled out today, along with the balance of the top 10 list we’ve pulled together.

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Let’s with with  Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law (1986).  A perfect cast of characters for him, and no surprise that Wenders appreciates the style and character interplay.  A Witty prison dramedy, with road movie mixed in.  Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni and Ellen Barkin star.  Here’s the original theatrical trailer.

See on MAX, or rent on AppleTV or Amazon

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Next, we go even further back to 1970 with Wanda, by Barbara Loden.

Richard Brody of The New Yorker described Loden as the "female counterpart to John Cassavetes. In addition to Wanda, she appeared in several projects directed by her second husband, Elia Kazan, including Splendor in the Grass (1961).

Wanda is verite-style naturalism, with an amazing performance by Loden in the leading role.  Feels very real, her hopeless plight, as she takes her time with the small things in life, something we see often in Wenders work.  We see a more positive side of life’s small, but real, moments in his recent masterpiece, Perfect Days.

You can see Wanda on MAX 

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Next up Beau Travail (1999) by Claire Denis, who was an AD for Wenders on Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire.

This is a stunning visual work. Dreamy, hypnotic.  Landscapes, human detail and physique, elements we see throughout the work of Wim Wenders.

This too is available on MAX, and The Criterion Collection, as well as most of the other TVOD platforms.