West Germany/ USA I 1982 I English, French, German etc. with English subtitles I 2K DCP (restored version) I Colour I 50 minutes I 1:1.33
Director: Wim Wenders
Screenplay: Wim Wenders
Producer: Chris Sievernich
Director of Photography: Agnès Godard
Editor: Chantal de Vismes
Music: Jürgen Knieper
Sound: Jean-Paul Mugel
Commentary: Wim Wenders
Participating: Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Steven Spielberg, Yilmaz Güney, Michelangelo Antonioni, R. W. Fassbinder, Paul Morrissey, Mike de Leon, Monte Hellman, Romain Goupil, Susan Seidelman, Noel Simsolo, Robert Kramer, Ana Carolina, Mahroun Bagdadi, Wim Wenders
“There was a general gloom at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. The feeling that the end of cinema was inevitable was roaming everywhere. A ‘black hole’ was opening in film history so to say. So I thought I would do a survey among my colleagues about the future of cinema. I invited them all to the only available room in the whole town. Room 666 at the Hotel Martinez. There was a single camera in the room and the question was on the table. My colleagues only had to turn on the tape recorder and the camera when they were ready to give their solitary answers. Godard, Fassbinder, Spielberg, Antonioni, Herzog and other filmmakers gave response to the question: ‘Is cinema a language about to get lost, an art about to die?’
Some have answered the question very extensively; others were unsettled by the situation and remained silent. We then cut those out…”
