Wim Wenders Biography Quotes 31 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders was born on August 14, 1945, in Dusseldorf, Germany, just after the end of World War II. The son of a surgeon, he grew up in a country rebuilding itself and developed an early fascination with painting, music, and stories of travel. After brief studies in medicine and philosophy, he moved to Paris in the mid-1960s intending to pursue painting, but the Cinematheque Francaise, under the stewardship of Henri Langlois, drew him into an obsessive immersion in cinema. Returning to Germany, he enrolled at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), where he began writing criticism and making shorts, shaping a voice steeped in American cinema, European modernism, and a sensitivity to place.

New German Cinema and Early Features
Wenders emerged as a central figure in the New German Cinema, alongside Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Volker Schloendorff, and Margarethe von Trotta. He helped cofound the distribution collective Filmverlag der Autoren and later the production company Road Movies. His first features appeared in the early 1970s: Summer in the City signaled his interest in drift and music; The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty adapted Peter Handke, initiating a vital artistic partnership. With cinematographer Robby Muller and editor Peter Przygodda he formed a core team. The road trilogy Alice in the Cities, Wrong Move, and Kings of the Road, with actor Rudiger Vogler as a recurring alter ego, established Wenders's signature: black-and-white imagery, open narratives, American rock on the soundtrack, and characters in search of connection. Lisa Kreuzer, an important collaborator and partner during these years, frequently appeared on screen, while Yella Rottlander gave Alice in the Cities its haunting center.

Crossing Borders: From Hamburg to Hollywood
Drawn to American mythologies, Wenders adapted Patricia Highsmith with The American Friend, casting Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz and weaving European and American film noir traditions. A stint in the United States brought a complicated experience on Hammett under Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope banner, a lesson in studio pressures that Wenders reframed in The State of Things, which won acclaim in Venice. Musicians and writers became key collaborators: Ry Cooder, whose slide guitar would later define a landmark score, and playwright Sam Shepard, whose feel for Western landscapes resonated with Wenders's sensibility.

Breakthrough and Canonical Works
Paris, Texas (1984) became Wenders's international breakthrough. Written with Sam Shepard, photographed by Robby Muller, and scored by Ry Cooder, the film starred Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski in an aching story of loss and renewal across the American Southwest. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and cemented Wenders's reputation for marrying visual lyricism with humane storytelling.

Wenders then turned to a divided Berlin for Wings of Desire, co-written with Peter Handke and photographed by Henri Alekan. Featuring Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander, and Peter Falk, the film blended black-and-white and color to imagine angels listening to human thoughts above the city. Its poetry, music (with appearances by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), and philosophical tenderness made it a touchstone. The sequel, Faraway, So Close!, returned to Berlin after reunification, adding voices such as Nastassja Kinski and Willem Dafoe.

Documentaries, Portraits, and Homages
Alongside fiction, Wenders built a distinguished documentary practice. Tokyo-Ga explored the legacy of Yasujiro Ozu and Wenders's own reverence for Japanese cinema. Notebook on Cities and Clothes portrayed fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, turning a portrait into a meditation on identity and image. Buena Vista Social Club, made with longtime collaborator Ry Cooder, celebrated Cuban musicians and introduced them to a global audience. Pina, a groundbreaking 3D film honoring choreographer Pina Bausch, extended Wenders's visual language into space and movement. The Salt of the Earth, co-directed with Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, examined the life and work of photographer Sebastiao Salgado, balancing art with environmental and humanist concerns. Later, Anselm offered a 3D immersion into the world of artist Anselm Kiefer.

Themes, Style, and Collaborators
Wenders's films revolve around travel, borders, memory, and the act of looking. They are attentive to landscapes, whether the German provinces, Berlin, the American West, or Tokyo. Longstanding collaborators helped define this cinema: Robby Muller's supple, luminous images; Peter Przygodda's patient, musical cutting; Peter Handke's language and philosophical tone; and performers such as Bruno Ganz, Rudiger Vogler, Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Otto Sander, and Dennis Hopper. Music is central, from the blues textures of Ry Cooder to rock presences like Lou Reed and Nick Cave. Assistant director Claire Denis, later a major director in her own right, learned on Wenders sets, a measure of his influence across generations.

Personal Life and Partnerships
Wenders's personal life often intersected with his work. He was married to actress Lisa Kreuzer during the period of his early features, later to musician and actor Ronee Blakley, and he shared a profound creative and personal partnership with actor Solveig Dommartin, who starred in Until the End of the World and had been central to his Berlin years. He later married photographer Donata Wenders, whose images and curatorial eye have accompanied his exhibitions and books. His own photography, gathered in volumes such as Written in the West and in numerous exhibitions, reflects the same sensitivity to roads, skies, signage, and empty spaces that pervades his films.

Later Career and Ongoing Work
Wenders continued to alternate fiction and documentary. Until the End of the World was an ambitious, multi-continent odyssey eventually presented in an expansive director's cut. Lisbon Story revisited Rudiger Vogler and embraced the music of Madredeus and Teresa Salgueiro. The Million Dollar Hotel, developed from a story by Bono, demonstrated his affinity for artists across disciplines. Land of Plenty and Don't Come Knocking engaged contemporary America, the latter reuniting him with Sam Shepard. Palermo Shooting brought together European music and cinema communities, including appearances by Lou Reed and Dennis Hopper. In the 2010s, Pina and The Salt of the Earth earned Academy Award nominations and renewed admiration for his documentary craft. Perfect Days, made in Tokyo with actor Koji Yakusho, affirmed his enduring curiosity and empathy, earning major festival honors and underlining a career-long dialogue with Japan.

Leadership, Recognition, and Legacy
Beyond directing, Wenders helped build European cinema's institutional fabric. As a founding member and longtime president of the European Film Academy, he advocated for cross-border collaboration and the international visibility of European films. He has served on and led juries at major festivals and received top awards at Cannes, Venice, and Berlin, as well as multiple Oscar nominations for documentary work. His influence threads through film schools, photography circles, and the work of filmmakers inspired by his slow travels, humane attention, and musical cadence.

Across decades, Wim Wenders has balanced restlessness with attentiveness, moving between continents, genres, and forms while remaining grounded in collaboration. The names that recur around him, Peter Handke, Robby Muller, Peter Przygodda, Bruno Ganz, Rudiger Vogler, Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Sam Shepard, Ry Cooder, Solveig Dommartin, Donata Wenders, Henri Alekan, Claire Denis, Pina Bausch, Sebastiao Salgado, chart a community that has sustained one of the most distinctive bodies of work in contemporary cinema.

Our collection contains 31 quotes who is written by Wim, under the main topics: Wisdom - Music - Writing - Art - Resilience.