"All things turn to junk. Do our images also turn to junk?" - Wim Wenders
Had loaned this film to a friend of mine and I was trying to explain why it is my favorite movie and realized that it's not the easiest thing/process to describe. As a fan of road movies (Highway 61 anyone?), this score high, perhaps it's the ultimate road movie as we cross four continents with impressive cinematography and a vaguely noir aesthetic.
1999 was the year the Indian Nuclear Satellite went out of control. No one knew where it might land. It soared above the ozone layer like a lethal bird of prey. The whole world was alarmed... Claire couldn't care less. At the time, she was living her own nightmare. The same dream arrived each night. She was gliding over an unknown land, pleasantly at first, but then the gliding would turn into falling, the falling into panic, and then she'd wake up.
The videotape version is about 2.5 hours, about half of Wender's planned length. DVD releases have been delayed repeatedly. There are rumors now of some sort of Italian release DVD. Anyway, another way of looking at this film, starting from the science-fiction aspects (which are relatively few) is as a fully-realized P. K. Dick novel on the big screen. Dreams, love, nightmares, the tyranny of images.
I said: Thank you, girl; thank you, girl I'll love you till the end of the world with your eyes black as coal and your long, dark curls and with the horses prancing through the fields, with my knife in my jeans and the rain on the shield; I sang a song for the glory of the beauty of you waiting for me in your dress of blue. - Nick Cave
If you have patience with it, this movie rewards you. The epic scale looms over small characters existing in the shadows of right and wrong. Family loyalty and addiction. Hey, it's a good film that seems to either click or not (see the Amazon reviews for the range of opinions).
The Strange Case of Until the End of the World.
UtEotW.
Wim Wender's site.
Enjoy...
Posted by duver001 at October 11, 2004 10:34 PM