Anselm, Wim Wenders' new film dedicated to Anselm Kiefer, is in theaters today.

Wim Wenders returns, after his highly successful Perfect Days, to the big screen with Anselm, the film dedicated to one of the most revolutionary and innovative contemporary artists: Anselm Kiefer (Donaueschingen, 1945). Presented and distributed by Lucky Red, the film, which features in the cast Anselm Kiefer himself, Daniel Kiefer, the artist’s son as Anselm as a young man, and Anton Wenders, the director’s son, as Anselm as a child, is already in theaters today (a list of theaters can be found at this link )

Through the use of film technology, with 3D footage and a 6K resolution, Wenders takes viewers into the world of the German painter and sculptor, recounting his life journey, his vision, his revolutionary style and his immense work exploring human existence and the cyclical nature of history.

Kiefer’s visual language, steeped in references to poetry, literature, philosophy and history, emerges in all its power and complexity through Wenders’ camera. The director leads an emotional journey through Kiefer’s majestic works, revealing the multiple layers of meaning behind each creation. For more than two years, Wenders followed Kiefer’s trail, traveling from the artist’s native Germany to his current home in France. Along the way, the director captured not only Kiefer’s artworks, but also the emotional and intellectual context that generated them. The result is a cinematic work that celebrates in a true homage to the painter not only Anselm Kiefer’s art, but also the power of creativity and contemporary artistic expression.

“We met for the first time in 1991,” says Wim Wenders, “and got to know each other. Anselm was preparing his big exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. We had dinner together almost every night, in the Exil restaurant that no longer exists. We smoked, drank, and talked a lot. I was enchanted when I saw that exhibition-it was absolutely fantastic and enlightening. Already in our chats at that time, we were talking about making a film together. But while I was busy with Until the End of the World and So Far So Near, Anselm moved to the south of France and I lost sight of him for a while. We still kept in touch, however, from time to time, and the idea of making a film never foundered.”

“It took a good two years,” he explained, “doing several shoots in Barjac (I needed to film it in different seasons!) and in Croissy. We also shot on the remote Odenwald mountain range where Anselm had his first studios and had renovated an old brick factory that is in itself entire microcosm of his work. Other locations were his native countryside near Rastatt and the Rhine River. Here was another common link we discovered: the presence of that huge waterway dating back to our childhood, which we frequented in different places: Anselm near its source, with France on the other side of the border, and me near Belgium, the Netherlands and the river’s mouth.”

“I never intended to film a biography,” the director clarifies. “A man’s life must remain within the personal sphere. Even when I made Pina, I was not interested in her life as a choreographer or dancer. The private is sacred. Or rather sacrosanct. But the work, the art, deserves to be explored in a film, both with a view to understanding it better myself and, better still, to make it visible to others in attempting to do so. The extraordinary amount of work, the complexity of Anselm’s references in the context of myth, history, alchemy, astronomy, physics and philosophy at first seemed almost insurmountable to me. But by filming them and visiting the sites of Anselm’s journey I cleared my mind.”

“Did we really make a documentary?” concludes Wenders. "In Anselm, we filmed the most extraordinary works of art, canvases, sculptures, drawings, buildings and landscapes. Yeah, that’s what you do in a documentary. We also invented scenes from his childhood and dove deeply into his personal history. In doing so, we blurred the boundaries between past and present. We took this freedom because in the face of art you have to define freedom yourself otherwise you cannot be part of the transcendence that manifests before your eyes."

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Anselm, Wim Wenders' new film dedicated to Anselm Kiefer, is in theaters today.

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