{"id":276572,"date":"2025-04-08T01:28:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T01:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/wim-wenders-on-his-india-tour-i-dont-think-ai-laughs-or-cries-it-cant-produce-anything-original\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T01:28:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T01:28:37","slug":"wim-wenders-on-his-india-tour-i-dont-think-ai-laughs-or-cries-it-cant-produce-anything-original","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/wim-wenders-on-his-india-tour-i-dont-think-ai-laughs-or-cries-it-cant-produce-anything-original\/","title":{"rendered":"Wim Wenders on his India tour: \u2018I don\u2019t think AI laughs or cries, it can\u2019t produce anything original\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wim<\/div>


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At 79, Wim Wenders is spry and energetic, his height making him easily visible in the crowd. He\u2019s been travelling through Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, before arriving in Delhi, receiving a welcome reserved usually for rockstars.<\/p>\n

A retrospective featuring 18 of his films gets full houses everywhere. His mindful interactions with the audience are a revelation: You know that you are in the company of a true legend. His India tour, \u2018King Of The Road\u2019, was organised by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur\u2019s Film Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n

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He speaks to The Indian Express<\/a> about his experience of Indian roads, how his \u2018Paris, Texas\u2019 (1984) remains the ultimate road movie, how his angels from \u2018Wings Of Desire\u2019 (1987) still walk amongst us, and his love for the craft of cinema.<\/p>\n

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\"Perfect A still from Perfect days (2023).<\/span><\/p>\n

How does it feel to be away from Berlin at this time of the year, when the Berlinale (February 13-23) is on?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m missing the Berlinale for the first time in 20 years! During the film festival, I meet so many friends that I almost don\u2019t sleep, and I almost don\u2019t get to see any movies! In a way, it\u2019s a nice feeling to be so far away.<\/p>\n

What has been your experience of being on the road in India?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I know the roads of the world \u2014 in North America, South America, Australia and Africa. This is my first time in India. My wife and I spent two days by ourselves in Kerala, shooting a little documentary on craftspeople in Aranmula (Pathanamthitta).<\/p>\n

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Driving or being driven in India is a hair-raising experience, you realise that people are zipping past all the time. Cars come from all directions. In any other country, there would be constant accidents. It seems miraculous that there is a common understanding between two motorists as they speed past.<\/p>\n

At first, I was a bit desperate, then I realised there are other rules here, rules that are quite human and pleasant, then I started enjoying the reckless driving.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Meet Kani Kusruti at her Goa home: \u201cMy friends tease me that \u2018this is Kani\u2019s era\u2019; I think I\u2019m just an average actor\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

While shooting \u2018Paris, Texas\u2019, were you aware that it would become a reference point for road movies going forward?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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No, not at all. But I was very much aware that I was doing something that had not been done before. I was so happy to be working with my dear friend Robby (M\u00fcller, cinematographer). Usually, we would draw frames the night before for the next day and prepare ourselves for the shots, but for \u2018Paris, Texas\u2019 we realised we shouldn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

We were so impressed by the colours of the American West and the landscapes and the monumental horizons that we decided that, maybe, for once we should come in the morning and not know what we would shoot, have no plan, not know where the camera would stand. Often, we would be there before the sun was up, so that the light and the colours would tell us how to do the shooting.<\/p>\n

It was an incredible experience, so liberating that we never went back to the old ways of working. So \u2018Paris, Texas\u2019 didn\u2019t have any model in any kind of cinema, we let the landscape dictate us. No one in the West had made a film like that. Even the name \u2018Americana\u2019 is now a common term for roads, buildings, motels, things that are abandoned (a leitmotif in the film). I don\u2019t think that word existed before \u2018Paris, Texas\u2019.<\/p>\n

If they were here today, do you think that the angels in \u2018Wings Of Desire\u2019 would think the (Berlin) wall is still there?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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I think they can still see it really well. I was quite pissed off with my city of Berlin when, after the wall fell, they were in such a rush to take it all away. I was in the council of citizens that was discussing how the two cities could become one and what the image of the new Berlin will be like.<\/p>\n

No other city in the world has it \u2014 the wall spans over 50 metres. I said, leave the empty space so that people will always remember where the wall was, see it, feel it and this will help them to become one, but instead they were in a hurry to erase the memory of the wall. Then, almost 20 years later, they had to rebuild part of it for tourists.<\/p>\n

\"Wings A still from Wings of Desire(1987)<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe the angels can hear the innermost thoughts of people, and I think they know how much the wall still exists for the people.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve done so many documentaries on art and artists that you are considered an artist yourself. Do you think you are more an artist than a filmmaker?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Not really. I love the idea of cinema that is also a craft and I really think of myself as a craftsman of cinema. I love camera work, I love the tools that we have, lenses and tracks and cranes, whatever we have to move the camera. I love to produce the language of film each time, with each shot you produce another element of time, and it creates a new time altogether.<\/p>\n

I never liked the idea of being considered an artist because I love artists and filmmaking is a different effort from creating art.<\/p>\n

Do you think AI can ever take over the singular filmmaker\u2019s vision? Do you think cinema is under threat from AI?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We are already making so many movies these days that we don\u2019t need any filmmakers. So many sequels, so many films have become such a franchise business, and what else are they than an artificial intelligence? I think most movies don\u2019t need filmmakers, most movies which are being made from formulas are artificial products anyway, and AI can only produce products.<\/p>\n

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So, in a way, we are already doing it. I\u2019m all for the kind of cinema that AI could never conceive because AI doesn\u2019t know how to suffer, how to have fun. I don\u2019t think AI laughs or cries, I don\u2019t think it can produce anything original, all it can do is produce lookalikes.<\/p>\n

\u2018Perfect Days\u2019 (2023) was such a perfect film. What does your perfect day look like?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It would start with a good breakfast. To me, it is the best meal of the day. I don\u2019t eat anything in the evening. Part of the day would have a lot of music in it \u2014 I can listen to Leonard Cohen all day, or Patti (Smith) or Lou (Reed) \u2014 and I enjoy seeing my good old tree friends and meeting people; I check the phone only if necessary. Lately, I\u2019ve been listening to a lot of African music and I\u2019m a fanatic now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n