Wim Wenders as Filmmaker and Visual Critic

The international conference will take place February 24 and 25, on the campus of the University of Richmond, in Richmond, Virginia, bringing together scholars from North America, Europe, and elsewhere to discuss all things Wenders and take stock of his major contributions to the visual arts.

Click here for more information on the international conference.

Melinda Camber Porter Archive Director, Joe Flicek will present on the conversation between Melinda Camber Porter and Wim Wenders which took place on location in December 1983, while Wenders was shooting his first American film, Paris, Texas.

 

Their conversation has recently been published by Blake Press, and gives readers the opportunity to listen to Wenders discuss his approach to filmmaking, movies as his discovery, what men expect of women, and more.

 

 

Eric Rohmer discusses his film The Marquise of O

Eric Rohmer discusses his film The Marquise of O with Melinda

Rohmer, having set up the tape recorder himself, continued to conduct the interview. He neither solicits nor suffers any prompting and heads straight to the point: "It's the past in itself which interests me. I make no attempt to modernize. I want to make people appreciate the past and the art of the past. We have inherited a great tradition and must not lose it through laziness."

It is perhaps unwise to ask the dedicated professor of the past why his suject is so important to a modern audience if he makes no attempt to relate it to the present. Unconvinced by my simple question, Rohmer paused for the first time. "But surely you feel the reason," he said rather plaintively. Then he sighed and in a resigned tone continued, "I'll explain why the past is important in modern terms, if that's what you want."