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German filmmaker Wim Wenders says he stands by his comments about the separation of politics and filmmakers at the Berlin Film Festival this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could repeat the same thing I said then. I could be more explicit,\u201d said Wenders in the press conference for his new film From Inside Out \u2013 The Architecture of Peter Zumthor, which has its world premiere today in Venice Open (formerly out of competition). \u201cWhat I said then is that filmmakers, we are the opposite of politicians. We have empathy. Politics works without empathy. That\u2019s all I said.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dWe have a very different thing,\u201d said Wenders in response to a question from The Guardian on the issue. \u201dWe are not working with the mindset of politicians. We are working with the mindset of empathetic people, and we are into changing things.\u00a0Politics are into confirming what is, and that\u2019s what I said, and it was quoted as \u2018we have to stay out of politics\u2019, which was clearly not what I said because it\u2019s not what I said now, and I said the same thing then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dThe frame of filmmakers is a different mindset than the mindset of politicians, and we should not work with their mindset. We work with a different set of rules. I say that again, and I hope you\u2019re not misquoting me, and saying \u2018we have to stay out of politics\u2019 because we do the opposite. We are the antidote.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue arose following Wenders\u2019 discussion of politics in the context of his new documentary, which explores the work and philosophy of Swiss architect Zumthor.<\/p>\n
\u201dPolitics and architecture are linked in many ways,\u201d said Wenders. \u201cToday most buildings are prefabricated, because it\u2019s easier, faster, more efficient. Peter\u2019s buildings are the opposite – they\u2019re handmade. Every one is unique; they are all prototypes of an architecture that didn\u2019t exist before. So politics does not necessarily agree with that idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wenders cited a building Zumthor was going to make on the site of a former Nazi headquarters in the middle of Berlin for the Schutzstaffel (SS). Wenders said Zumthor had begun work on the project before it was abandoned by the city of Berlin, supposedly for cost reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn hindsight, you realise they didn\u2019t stop it because it was too expensive,\u201d said Wenders. \u201cThey stopped it because they felt it was no longer necessary, because they already had the Holocaust memorial and the Jewish museum, and they figured they had served history enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dThe political act was to make the place invisible,\u201d said Wenders. \u201cThe place doesn\u2019t speak anymore, and politics doesn\u2019t want places to speak; politics wants to control what they show.\u201d<\/p>\n
The German filmmaker also discussed the similarities between Zumthor\u2019s flexible style and his own filmmaking processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m convinced that a movie is not something that is done when you have a script,\u201d said Wenders. \u201dMost movies today are a product, and the product is defined by the script. In my book, the script does not define the product, the script is a suggestion. The truth of the story of the movie only appears in the act of shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201dI demand that whoever helps me make [a film] accepts that it may be different, and I can only work it out in the making. A movie and story is something I can only believe in if I live it. If any changes happen, so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dThe whole purpose of having movies is to explore; i realised that was Peter\u2019s approach [to architecture].\u201d<\/p>\n
From Inside Out is produced by Karsten Brunig and Wenders for Road Movies, with Marc Schmidheiny, Christoph Daniel, Dario Suter, and Joel Brandeis for DCM. HanWay Films handles world sales.<\/p>\n
Venice Film Festival runs until Saturday, September 12.<\/p>\n
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