Wim Wenders’ Submergence

James More is a lot like James Bond, but he can also devise a sustainable village water supply system. He has to know the engineering, because it is all part of his cover. (By the way, that is “More” with one “o,” as in For All Seasons.) Regardless, it is easy to believe women would be interested in him, but he is not a Bond-like player. That is why the intoxicating and possibly tragic vacation romance that blossoms between him and Danielle Flinders, an avowedly single workaholic marine bio-statistician, hits them both so hard in Wim Wenders’ Submergence (trailer here), which releases today on DVD and BluRay.

Before leaving on a dangerous assignment, More takes a rare vacation in Normandy. We can safely say it will be perilous, based on the in media res opening, focusing on More starving in a Somali Jihadist prison cell. Flinders is also biding time before leaving on an undersea expedition that is not without risks. When they meet, the mutual attraction is immediate—and it progressively deepens over their short holiday.

When it is time to leave, they resolve to try to make a go of it long-distance, but, presumably for her protection, More has yet to fully level with Flinders regarding his true line of work. That is why she is so confused when he goes dark after getting captured by the Islamists. She is so distracted by his presumed ghosting, it even affects her work. He too is rather heartsick over her, but he has more pressing concerns, like catching bugs to eat.

Submergence is considerably better than critics made it out to be, but the speed at which Flinders’ separation anxiety turns into self-pity is hard to buy into. Granted, she thinks he is in Kenya rather than Somalia, but that is still not a super-stable country with an ultra-modern communications infrastructure. She really ought to chill out and stop calling every five minutes.

Still, the first half romance is quite appealing, in a Brief Encounter kind of way. Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy are attractive leads, but they also have a real facility for making screenwriter Erin Dignam’s adapted dialogue sound natural—and erotically charged. Their chemistry feels real.

More’s captivity sequences also have a visceral charge. Some have focused on a bit of dialogue in which More professes to admire the terrorists’ faith, but that is taken somewhat out of context. Frankly, the film is pretty forthright in its depiction the ruinous influence of Islamist extremism on Somalia. There is not much for viewers or More to admire there. In fact, it gets rather bold when the subject of a forced conversion video comes up.

Apparently, J.M. Ledgard’s source novel makes much of how the two lovers’ lives supposedly parallel each other’s after their separation, but Wenders wisely de-emphasizes that synchronicity, aside from a few moments of dog whistle intuition, wherein Flinders suddenly cocks her head in sudden alarm. In fact, the deep-sea exploration branch of the film is definitely its weakest link. Nonetheless, Celyn Jones is terrific as Thumbs, her less talented colleague, who is better suited to winning over the ship’s crew.

Of course, Vikander and McAvoy are the marquee attractions and they play their wind-swept romantic roles to the hilt. Wenders and cinematographer Benoît Debie fully capitalize on the strikingly cinematic landscapes of Normandy for the courtship segments and the Greenland Sea (Iceland, Faroe Islands) for the submersible episodes. It looks great, but despite all its lyricism, Submergence is still shrewder and more connected to the real world, as it really is, than most Hollywood films. Recommended for fans of star-crossed art-house romance, Submergence is now available for home viewing.

Our Last Tango: Staying True to the Dance

They were like the Vernon and Irene Castle of tango, except at the height of their success they were divorced and barely on speaking terms. María Nieves and Juan Carlos Copes were the toast of Broadway as the lead dancers of the original 1985 production of Tango Argentino and the 1999 revival, but their backstage relationship was rather frosty. Yet, despite the betrayals and resentments, they always stayed true to the dance. German Kral invites the legendary dance partners to take stock of their lives and careers in Our Last Tango (trailer here), executive produced by Pina filmmaker Wim Wenders, which opens this Friday in New York.

Copes and Nieves first met in the sort of tango milonga that used to be at the center of social life for Argentina’s working class. Ironically, tastes were changing just as the couple’s skills reached their peak. However, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Sort of using jazz as a template, Copes moved tango from the dance floor to the stage, presenting it as national art form. It worked well enough to get Tango Argentino mounted on Broadway, but by that time he was married to someone younger than Nieves.

Both dancers reflect on their time together, but Nieves clearly gets more screen time (reportedly, Copes temporarily withdrew from the project at his current wife’s insistence, so he has nobody to blame except himself). Nevertheless, Kral keeps the film reasonably even-handed. Clearly, their relationship is too complicated to be reduced down to a few soundbites. Indeed, the extraordinarily talented and photogenic dancers who play Nieves and Copes in dramatic re-enactments (Ayelen Álvarez Miño being a particular standout) do their best to understand and forgive the failings of their characters in conversations that give Last Tango a slightly meta, deeply humane vibe.

There is a fair amount of archival footage of Copes and Nieves as an established act, but some of their most important dances happened before that. Kral integrates those recreations quite smoothly, giving the film an expressionistic feeling. Years of their lives are essentially papered over, but the essence is vividly captured on screen. Eventually, it all builds towards a reunion between the two dancers, but it is almost an anti-climax following the eighty-year-old Copes’ show-stopping feature-spot.

Last Tango is loaded with wonderfully evocative dance numbers, lensed by cinematographers Jo Heim and Félix Monti with the romantic style tango demands. Arguably, it is one of the most visually lush music-related docs since Calle 54, ranking alongside the dance films of Carlo Saura, even with the emotionally charged interview segments. It is an exquisitely sophisticated, deeply satisfying film that deserves to become a word-of-mouth hit. Very highly recommended, Our Last Tango opens this Friday (4/15) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.

Wim Wenders at the IFC Center: A Trick of the Light

Moving picture technology has always moved at an accelerated rate, even during its infancy. Max Skladanowsky is a perfect example. His Bioscope was the state of the art in flickering images, until the Lumière Brothers introduced something better—a few weeks later. Wim Wenders and his students from the Munich Academy for Television and Film tell the Skladanowsky family’s story with the sort of hand-cranked technology the Skladanowskys would have used in the hybrid documentary A Trick of the Light, which kicks off its first legit U.S. theatrical engagement this Friday at the IFC Center as part of the ongoing Wim Wenders: Portraits Along the Road retrospective.

When Wenders and his student-crew interview the ninety-one year old Gertrude Skladanowsky, they are talking to motion picture history, but it was her older sister Lucie who really witnessed the Bioscope’s short reign first hand. She was raised by her father Max and his two brothers, Eugen and Emil, whom she adored. Their vaudevillian family is scuffling, but they have high hopes Max’s tinkering will lead to something. When he finally gives Berlin’s leading impresarios a sneak peak, they are impressed enough to book the Skladanowsky Brothers for a grand premiere at their Wintergarten Theater.

The better part of the stylized, herky-jerky dramatic recreations are devoted to the various acts they film and the stressful circumstances surrounding their big night. Yet, the tone is always bitter sweet, since we know from the start their Bioscope will soon be rendered obsolete by the Lumières. Still, it seems they remained rather enterprising to judge Gertrude’s reminiscences. Far from a conventional talking head interview, her sequences are “haunted” by the rebellious ghost of Lucie, played by the same young actress, but they cannot upstage the nonagenarian’s sense of humor and history.

In terms of its visuals and atmosphere, Trick is probably Wenders’ most Guy Maddinesque film, especially considering Udo Kier appears Max Skladanowsky, somewhat playing against his usual creepy type (it would go particularly well with The Forbidden Room, which screens at the upcoming NYFF). He actually anchors the dramatic section rather effectively with his tragic Teutonic dignity and uncharacteristic reserve. In contrast, Otto Kuhnle does plenty of shameless mugging as Uncle Emil, but it is not wholly inappropriate given the context—Mack Sennett surely would have approved.

The passion for cinema shared by Wenders, his collaborators, and his subjects comes through in each frame. There is a sense of wonder in Trick that is quite appealing—even playful. While not silent itself, it still makes the Silent Era much more accessible. The use of old school cameras might be a bit of a gimmick, but it certainly gives the film the right look and feel. Warmly recommended for fans of Wenders and silent movies, A Trick of the Light screens for a week at the IFC Center, starting this Friday (9/18).

Wenders’ Pina in 3D

Pina Bausch appeared in films directed by Federico Fellini and Pedro Almodóvar. Her work had been documented fairly extensively on film, but never adequately, at least according to her friend and admirer, Wim Wenders. 3D would be a game-changer, making possible immersive documentary experiences like Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams and now Wenders’ Pina (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York at the IFC Center.

It is somewhat unusual for countries to choose documentaries as their official best foreign language Academy Award submission and it is usually a mistake when they do. However, Bausch is a genuine cultural icon in Germany and Wenders has an international reputation. As a result, not only was Pina selected, it is considered one of the top contenders (perversely this also means it is in great jeopardy of being snubbed altogether, given the Academy’s erratic history in this category). Regardless, it involves the most artful and innovative uses of 3D technology perhaps ever (or at least since the “educational” Sex and Zen 3D).

Tragically, Pina 3D was nearly over before it began when Bausch unexpectedly died on the eve of the film’s rehearsals. Though Wenders initially canceled the production, Bausch’s troupe convinced him to carry on. Never merely followers of direction, Bausch’s dancers were active collaborators in the development of her choreography, responding physically to her verbal “questioning.” As a result, many formed an unusually close bond with Bausch.

Most of the works selected by Wenders and Bausch are amongst her best known and most celebrated. Yet, they also fully embrace some of the darker imagery and overtly Sisyphean themes of her work. The burying motifs in particular are not likely to be confused with The Nutcracker any time soon. Yet, if that challenges some, it will be refreshingly striking to other, especially those who appreciate modern dance.

Still, it is important to emphasize the wit and physicality of Bausch’s work. It is not drily intellectual. In fact, the eccentric social dance and snappy 1920’s music (composed by Charlie Chaplin, among others) often lend Kontakthof an air of giddiness. Decidedly not staid in his approach, Wenders opens-up the film rather effectively by filming many dances on location around the city of Wuppertal. However, the enormous boulder and man-made waterfall of Vollmond (designed by longtime colleague Peter Pabst) dramatically set the scene for the film’s real show-stopper.

With a third dimension, Wenders represents Bausch’s choreography quite powerfully. On the other hand, his practice of showing archival footage as projected film flickering against diegetic surfaces is a distracting contrivance. Though heartfelt, the interview soundbites with her dancers are not especially memorable either. In truth, Pina is really only about one thing: showing Bausch’s steps to the fullest extent possible. This it does quite well indeed. Recommended for connoisseurs of contemporary dance and those looking for a redemptive encounter with 3D glasses, Pina opens this Friday (12/23) in New York at the IFC Center.