Wim Wenders, filmmaker on Trump from interview in 2017
I recently watched an amazing film by Wim Wenders on the artist Anselm Keifer, called Anselm. Anselm based much of his work on the devastation caused by WW II. I knew Wim Wenders would have something to say about Trump being in office, so I found an interview from 2017 where he did talk about him. I transcribed the parts about Trump and so on from the video interview.
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https://www.channel4.com/news/wim-wenders-on-trump-brexit-and-harvey-weinstein
Wim Wenders on Trump, Brexit and Harvey Weinstein from October 2017
Matt Frei Europe Editor and Presenter
He is known for his slow-moving and beautifully-shot films like ‘Wings of Desire’, but director Wim Wenders has also spent his life taking tens of thousands of polaroid photographs.
The quietly-spoken German became very animated indeed discussing Trump, Brexit and the Harvey Weinstein allegations.
Born in West Germany at the end of the 2nd world war, Wim Wenders escaped the rubble of home to fantasy of cinema and the open horizons of America.
Wenders provides a unique and poignant chronical of the American heartland that went from whisper of despair to roar of anger under Donald Trump. All through the silky prism of the polaroid.
The American landscape for me was a great temptation. I grew up in a destroyed country. 45 Germany was flat, my city of Dusseldorf 90% destroyed, and the first great landscapes and great cities, unbelievable places I saw was in movies.
Q: And if you were growing up in Germany today, if you were a young Wim Wenders growing up in Germany today, would you have the same romantic attachment to today's America? To the America of Trump?
So, I don't call his name, I call him Mr 45. I hate his name just as much as I hate what he stands for, so I don't even call his name anymore.
Q: When you look at the future of Europe as it stands today, you've got right wing populism in all sorts of countries. Where do you see the future of the continent that you cherish, that you live in.
It will take a big act to remove that new idea of nationalism again. I don't even know where it came from because here was the most peaceful continent after the history full of wars and conflicts, and all of a sudden, people want their borders back and they have these ideas of nations and keep their own nation clean of foreigners. I mean it's horrifying ideas, and all of a sudden there is this nationalism everywhere again and its going 2, 3, 4 steps back in history.
Q: As someone who grew up in the rubble of West Germany, that must depress you.
A: For me, Europe was the greatest idea and still is, it was the greatest hope, and now seeing it being, people turning their back to it, and wanting other ideas back that date back to the 19th century, its insane. I don't know what got into people, I don't know what got into people in England. I think they were pretty misinformed when they voted for Brexit. I think they were sadly misled. It steals the future from a whole young generation and a lot of old folks voted to take their future away. Sorry, that's the way I saw it.
Anselm film trailer
Our house was bombed the night I was born’: Anselm Kiefer on the nightmares he can’t escape
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jun/08/anselm-kiefer-finnegans-wake-bombed