Director Wim Wenders is the rare creator able to shift between narrative and documentary features as he wishes, excelling in both forms. Following his Oscar-nominated narrative triumph last year, Perfect Days, Wenders returns to documentaries for this engrossing portrait of Anselm Kiefer, a master painter and sculptor nearing the end of his career. Whether you’re a fan of Kiefer or completely unaware of his career, Wenders offers an inviting foray into his amazing body of work.
Buy Anselm Blu-rayWenders spends much of the movie probing Kiefer’s works without context, taking us on an unguided tour aside from sparse archival interviews and one brief current insight from Kiefer. He was given free reign by Kiefer to produce the film as he saw fit, leading to his decision to employ two amateur actors to portray Kiefer as a boy and a middle-aged man for added color in the exploration of his past works. Those actors are themselves fascinating choices, with the young boy being played by Wenders’ grand-nephew and the middle-aged man played by Kiefer’s own son, a casting choice completely unknown to Kiefer until the project was complete.
The film is loosely structured in chronological order, although Wenders starts with current works and seems to drift back to them in between each major era. The different stages of Kiefer’s career are marked by the large spaces he occupied during each one, with moves happening roughly every decade once he builds out a facility and moves on to a progressively larger one. That’s the most impressive thing about Kiefer’s work: the incredible scale. His latest studio is so massive he rides a bike around inside it to get to where he needs to go, basically a movie soundstage completely packed to the rafters with large-scale paintings and sculptures.
With this film, Wenders continues his lengthy fascination with the arts, following past Oscar-nominated projects such as his buoyant trip through Cuban music in Buena Vista Social Club, his celebration of the innovative dance choreography of Pina Bausch in Pina, and the photography of Sebastio Salgado in The Salt of the Earth. Structurally, Anselm is most closely related to Pina, with Wenders skillfully staging and filming the art and simply allowing viewers to experience it rather than attempting to explain it. He also provides process insight, showing Anselm’s current efforts in the studio as he continues to craft immense new pieces.
The film is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround. As he did with Pina, Wenders shot the film in 3D, and Criterion has included the 3D version of the film for the increasingly rare audience able to view it with their home equipment. The majority of viewers will default to the second, standard Blu-ray copy of the disc also included in the package. Regardless of 2D/3D distinctions, the photography is top-notch throughout, originally lensed in 6K, expertly lit and artfully staged. Wenders primarily uses the surround channels to isolate vocal accompaniment tracks and composer Leonard Küssner’s orchestral score, enveloping listeners with suitably intriguing sounds appearing from all directions.
The Blu-ray comes from Criterion’s fairly new line of Janus Contemporaries, current films that don’t need restoration or new artwork but still receive premium packaging and limited bonus features. Think of it as “Criterion lite.” The bonus feature here is an insightful new interview with Wenders where he discusses his long association with Kiefer, their similarities including matching birth years and childhood locales, and his creative process for this film.
Anselm is available on Blu-ray on July 23rd.
