“Anselm” director Wim Wenders harnesses the “poetic, immersive” quality of 3D for a documentary about the monumental German artist

The Oscar-contending documentary Anselm is a meeting between two of the world’s greatest artists – one known for his cinema, the other for his paintings, installations and sculptures.

Filmmaker Wim Wenders began his career more than fifty years ago. His credits include: Paris, Texas, Wings of longing, Buena Vista Social Club, The salt of the earthAnd Pinaand two this year alone – Anselm and the narrative function Perfect days. Its main character Anselm – German-born artist Anselm Kiefer may not be as well known to the public as Wenders, but his work amazes with its power, erudition and scope. Simply put: Kiefer makes art of monumental proportions.

“We were in the landscape of his own studio [outside Paris]Wenders tells Deadline, “this huge depot, bigger than airplane hangars — and several of them.”

Wenders concluded that capturing the size of the workspace and individual artworks required something other than a standard 2D approach.

“To get people there and see so much, 3D is the best way. This means you can not only see the room and be spatially present, but also see more,” explains Wenders. “It’s a very intense medium to capture and see the aura of something. When you look at 3D, your brain is working at full speed, because it is your brain that creates the space.”

He adds: “3D has a beautiful quality that’s almost unused because people only know 3D from action movies, and then there’s a shot every two or five seconds… 3D is done physiologically correctly, so you can really do it .” Look at it calmly and relaxed. It doesn’t hurt your eyes and it has the right depth, it’s like you’re there. And they don’t even know that quality of 3D, that poetic, immersive quality.”

Kiefer’s work is in the permanent collection of leading museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and has been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and the Center Pompidou in Paris. The Gagosian Gallery, which represents Kiefer, describes his sculptures and paintings as “encompassing a wide range of cultural, literary and philosophical allusions – from the Old and New Testaments, Kabbalah mysticism, Nordic mythology and Wagner’s Ring cycle to poetry from Ingeborg Bachmann. “and Paul Celan.”

Wenders is enthusiastic about Kiefer: “He’s not afraid of anything.” I think he believes anything can be painted, whatever. Whatever you tell him, he says, I can paint it.

In addition to Croissy, Wenders also filmed in Barjac in the south of France, where Kiefer had a studio in a disused silk factory the size of about 25 football fields. These were not the only filming locations.

“Also the landscape in the remote Odenwald [in Germany]where Anselmus worked for 10 years [early in his career] without anyone ever coming to him. No art historians, no gallery owners, no museum people,” notes Wenders. “As a completely unknown painter, he laid the foundation for his entire work there. So we were there too. We photographed majestic winter landscapes. We were near the Rhine, where he grew up as a young boy, which greatly influenced his whole life and work, the post-war landscape in Germany.”

Wenders weaves brief dramatizations into the film, segments that feature the filmmaker’s great-nephew, Anton Wenders, as a young Anselm, and Kiefer’s own son, Daniel Kiefer, who plays his 30-something father. The younger Kiefer was a little reluctant to take up the acting.

“I said to him: ‘Come, Daniel. Now you have to play it because I don’t know anyone who could do it so honestly.’ And he said, ‘Oh, I can’t do that.’ I’m not an actor.’ I said, ‘Your father is not an actor either.’ He’s in the movie,” Wenders said.

The director continues: “Daniel said, ‘But then I have to call.’ [my dad] and ask him for permission.’ And I said, “No, you’re not going to call him and tell him, because your father had only one condition: If you make this movie, don’t show me any treatment.” Don’t show me anything. Don’t tell me what you’re doing. You can do whatever you want, but promise me that you will surprise me in the end.” And I promised it. And then I said to his son: “If you tell him that you’re going to play him when he’s 35, you’re going to ruin my surprise.” So you’re not going to call him because he doesn’t want you to call. He wants to be surprised by it.’ That’s why we surprised Anselm, among other things, by having his own son appear as his younger self.”

Some of the most startling scenes in the film are those in which the artist roughs up his work as if setting fire to his paintings.

“He put his paintings in an oven and baked them because he likes to watch time pass,” explains Wenders. “Some of them have been outside for years, exposed to rain, frost, snow, you name it, and then he brings them back and continues to work on them. He likes time recorded.”

Wenders wrote that “Privacy is sacred… A man’s life must remain his own private domain.” Anselm is not intended as a biopic.

“I really felt that his work should speak for him and that the work should speak for itself,” says Wenders. “I in no way wanted to make a film that was about giving an opinion on his work. I wanted the work to stand out. You too may Experience it on film, you may Judge what you saw and what you felt and what was before you… And I felt that it suited him much more.

Wenders adds: “And that was even more true when you look at art. When you go to a museum and stand in front of something that impresses you, you don’t want the explanation in front of you. You don’t see the explanation; You see the work. And so I felt that this was more a biography of Anselm’s work and his imagination than a biography of the man.