Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty. A love-hate relationship with the USA

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject History Europe - Other Countries - Newer History, European Unification, printed single-sided, grade: 2,0, University of California, Berkeley (Department of History), course: U.S. Cultural and Intellectual History: Global Contexts, language: English, comment: Hausarbeit, erstellt im Rahmen eines Seminars an der University of California at Berkeley bei Prof. Richard Cándida-Smith. , abstract: Professionally, Wenders left Europe for the United States only once. And it was adisaster. The shooting, or better the two shootings of Hammett between 1977 and1982 as an employed director under Francis Ford Coppola s control ended in apersonal nightmare. It was a kind of filmmaking he never would accept. Accustomed towriting his own story which would usually change during the process of filming, andused to choosing his actors and his crew, Coppola s Hollywood style approach in theproduction of Hammett was a blow to Wenders professional ambitions in the UnitedStates. Asked if he wanted to work there again, he said that it would be too much of aloss of autonomy. The way they despise and destroy their abundance of talent isappalling. The films are not made by artists, but by agents and lawyers. A couple ofyears later, his tone appeared to be more moderate: "It was a comprehensive experience[and] one of the most important at the same time. Nevertheless, ever since Hammett ,all of Wenders movies have been produced and financed through Europe. America as a mythical place and the place of his dreams developed in his early youth.The fascination for this country, for its culture, especially for its cinema and its music,has been decisive throughout his life. After seeing Easy Rider in 1968, at the age of 23,he later explained that after leaving the cinema he realized that [he] indeed looked like the people in the film, that [he] loved Jimi Hendrix, that [he s] not served in many places,and that [he] too spent time in jail for literally nothing." This is not just a statementabout a film, more than that, it seemed to be an identification with the protagonists of Easy Rider . But, on the other hand, doubts about American colonization in the headsof Europe obviously arose just as early. [...]