Screenings index

Palermo Shooting

dir. Wim Wenders / Germany, France, Italy 2008 / 124’

subtitles: Polish and English

Panorama 12 Lotus, $9.99, Beeswax, Blue Beard, Breathless, Collectress, Ecce Momo!, Hooked, I am Not Your Friend + I Will Not Be Your Friend, Katalin Varga, Machan, My Only Sunshine, My Sweet Shirin, North, Nymph, Ordinary People, Palermo Shooting, Parque vía, Rachel Getting Married, Ricky, Schottentor, Seraphine, Stella, The Northern Land, The Other One, The Rat Herb, The Visitor, The White Ribbon, Two Lines, Under the Tree, Winter Silence Section index

Cast

Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Milla Jovovich, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Inga Busch, Axel Sichrovsky, Gerhard Gutberlet, Harry Blain, Sebastian Blomberg

Film description

Another road movie by the German master. The main character is a popular photographer, who leads a hedonist life in a big city. He has everything he wants, but apparently misses something and he is emotionally burnt-out. When he miraculously avoids a serious accident, he decides to change everything and, inspired by the name of a passing barge, he leaves for Palermo of title. There, he confronts death once again and meets an extraordinary woman.

Summarising films by Wenders, including Palermo Shooting, is pointless - the important things are set outside the plot: in dialogues, often touching on the most important issues, as in Kieślowski's works; in carefully selected music (e.g. Nick Cave, Beirut, Tom Waits, Portishead) which is a commentary to the plot and sets atmosphere;in impressive cinematography; and finally in the atmosphere of lazy wandering through a chaotic city, searching for views to be photographed, enjoying each moment. Palermo Shooting reminds one of Lisbon Story, being a sort of variation on issues dealt with in that film. But here there are eschatological motifs, which had never been present in so literal a form in Wenders's films before, including the unusual scene of conversation with... Death.

Jan Topolski