France/ Germany/ USA I 1997 I English, Spanish [CR1] I [CR2] 4K DCP (restored version) I Colour I 122 minutes I 1:1.66
Director: Wim Wenders
Screenplay: Nicholas Klein, Wim Wenders
Producer: Nicholas Klein, Deepak Nayar, Wim Wenders
Director of Photography: Pascal Rabaud
Editor: Peter Przygodda
Music: Ry Cooder
Cast: Bill Pullman (Mike Max), Andie MacDowell (Paige), Gabriel Byrne (Ray Bering), Loren Dean (Doc), Traci Lind (Cat), Daniel Benzali (Brice Phelps), John Diehl (Lowell Lewis), K. Todd Freeman (Six), Pruitt Taylor Vince (Frank Cray), Peter Horton (Brian), Udo Kier (Zoltan), Marshall Bell (Call[CR3] ), Enrique Castillo (Ramon), Nicole Parker (Ade), Rosalind Chao (Claire), Marisol Padilla Sanchez (Mathilda), Frederic Forrest (MacDermot), Samuel Fuller (Louis)
Wim Wenders’ webbed exploration of an image saturated Los Angeles is a thought provoking analysis of human brutality. ']ust when you think you've got it all figured, in a heartbeat, it changes again', says one of Wim Wenders' characters from The End of Violence. It rings as a warning. On entering this strangely meandering thriller, the viewer steps into a shady, multifaceted world, where the image does not act as evidence but instead leads one astray. Wim Wenders tells the story of Mike Max, a cynical producer (Bill Pullman) who has made a fortune by financing films smeared with blood and crime, and who is about to be left by his wife (Andie MacDowell). The day he miraculously escapes a kidnapping attempt, redemption comes to him. He decides to leave the champagne dollar-driven world, and take refuge in a community of Mexican immigrants. But as often with Wim Wenders, one plot leads to another, and the story becomes multi-layered. We soon follow the journey of Ray Bering (Gabriel Byrne), an idealistic engineer involved in a large-scale video-surveillance project run by the FBI to curb violence, and the existential meanderings of Cat, a Hollywood actress (Traci Lind) . . .These fragments of life, seemingly disconnected, gradually take on the form of a nightmarish labyrinth, set against the backdrop of ubiquitous surveillance cameras and screens. Despite its ironic title, The End of Violence is a cerebral and sobering examination of the all consuming, dehumanising reign of images.
