3D film: Poetic documentary by Wim Wenders about Anselm Kiefer

3D movie
Poetic documentary by Wim Wenders about Anselm Kiefer

Two of Germany’s most important contemporary artists meet in a new film. In “Anselm – The Rushing of Time” director Wim Wenders (78) talks about the work Anselm Kiefers (78). The result is a poetic film in 3D that deals with German history as well as mythology and religion.

Wenders and Kiefer met for the first time in 1991. The two have similarities, such as their artistic engagement with the German past. “Anselm Kiefer and I were both born at the end of the Second World War – he a few months before, I a few months after. We spent our childhood in a country that was in ruins and whose self-image was shattered,” Wenders said in advance.

Wenders accompanied Kiefer for more than two years

Wenders accompanied Kiefer for more than two years for the film. The fact that “Anselm – The Rushing of Time” is shot in 3D makes sense. Finally, Kiefer’s art is known for its texture-rich character. The 78-year-old uses lead, earth, ash or straw; his pictures are dark, often gray or black. The camera makes these monumental and material-rich works of art three-dimensional.

Some scenes were filmed in Kiefer’s huge 40-hectare studio in the south of France, which the artist moved into in the 1990s. There are various structures there – pavilions, underground crypts and even an amphitheater. And then the artist can be seen at work in his current studio near Paris. The halls are so large that Kiefer moves from work of art to work of art on a bicycle.

Wenders explores Kiefer’s aesthetic motives. “The impressive scope of Anselm’s work, the complexity of his references to mythology, history, alchemy, astronomy, physics and philosophy initially seemed almost overwhelming,” said Wenders. “But filming and visiting the places where he created his work clarified my view.”

Anselm – The Rushing of Time, Germany 2023, 94 min., FSK for ages 6 and up, by Wim Wenders, with Anselm Kiefer

dpa