‘Paris, Texas’ Director Wim Wenders Reflects On German New Wave And Being A European Filmmaker In America

In an exclusive interview with Deadline, German New Wave filmmaker, Wim Wenders, candidly reflects on his past achievements and career as a European director in America. Wenders currently has two films up for competition, a documentary, Anselm, and a feature-length, Perfect Days, in the 76th annual Cannes Film Festival 2023 hosted in Cannes, France.  

Most notable for his Oscar-nominated documentary, Buena Vista Social Club (1999), and the Palme d’Or winning film, Paris, Texas (1984), Wenders’ films share common themes of personal identity, self-realization, alienation, and introspective analysis of the American experience. 

While many film critics consider him a prominent figure in the German New Wave (also known as New German Cinema) which lasted from 1962 to 1982, Wenders rejects the term and argues that the film movement was manufactured by the press.

“Altogether, the whole New German wave was an invention by foreign journalists. We didn’t call each other that. We were individuals making movies.”

The other individuals Wenders references were his close German filmmaker contemporaries, Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Unlike the French New Wave, Wenders states that the New German Wave was never a “movement” in the traditional sense.

“We were individual filmmakers who were very much in solidarity with each other, because we would never had gotten our films off the ground on our own. Together we became a force.”

Despite his frustrations with the foreign press, Wenders shares that after his success with Paris, Texas, he stayed in the U.S. for seven years to work on projects before returning to Europe.

“At the end of my American experience I realized I was never going to be an American director and I didn’t have it in me to make ‘the great American movie.’ But I could make a movie in America as a European director. And that became Paris, Texas.”

With two new films playing at Cannes this year, the 77-year-old director hopes to continue creating solidarity among European filmmakers and does not plan to retire anytime soon.

“I’m busier than ever in my life. Taking it easier turned out to be wishful thinking. But I’m not complaining. I love to work. Making movies is my way of living.”