Wim Wenders

Born: August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Married to: Donata Wenders (1993 – present)
Isabelle Weingarten (1981 – 1982)
Ronee Blakley (1979 – 1981)
Lisa Kreuzer (1974 – 1978)
Edda Köchl (1968 – 1974)

Sex and violence was never really my cup of tea; I was always more into sax and violins.

Hollywood filmmaking has become more and more about power and control. It’s really not about telling stories. That’s just a pretense. But ironically, the fundamental difference between making films in Europe versus America is in how the screenplay is dealt with. From my experiences in Germany and France, the script is something that is constantly scrutinized by the film made from it. Americans are far more practical. For them, the screenplay is a blueprint and it must be adhered to rigidly in fear of the whole house falling down. In a sense, all of the creative energy goes into the screenplay so one could say that the film already exists before the film even begins shooting. You lose spontaneity. But in Germany and France, I think that filmmaking is regarded as an adventure in itself.