From Alice to Buena Vista: The Films of Wim Wenders

by Roger Bromley

Overview

This analysis of the films of Wim Wenders from the early 1970's through the 1990's attempts to place his work in the cultural and political context of the time. Feminist analysis, cultural theory, and psychoanalysis combine to explore the major themes in the films with an emphasis on gender and narrative and on Wenders' concern with the representation of otherness. Wenders' earlier films reflect concerns with identity and with issues of masculinity and detachment. His later films reveal a preoccupation with seeing, images, and love, which culminated in the international success of The Buena Vista Social Club. As this study suggests, Wenders' later works manifest a shift in direction away from indifference and toward reconciliation, ethical practice, and relationships.

This study will appeal to film scholars, to those with a special interest in German cinema and culture and to admirers of Wenders' films. Thematically arranged, chapters begin with the early films and trace the masculinity, identity, and lost narrative motifs throughout Wenders' oeuvre.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275966485
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/28/2001
Pages:	134
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

ROGER BROMLEY is Professor in International Cultural Studies and Director of the School of Graduate Studies and Research at Nottingham Trent University. He is the author of Lost Narratives and Narratives for a New Belonging.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Lost in Spaces: Through Alice's Looking Glass and a Cowboy in Hamburg
Living in the Borderlands: Masculinity in Crisis
Traversing Identity: Home, Family and Gender in Paris, Texas
Borderline Identities and the Experience of the Stranger
Mutualities: The Search for a Lost Narrative
Appendix
Filmography
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Bromley devotes this slim but pithy volume to an analysis from a psychological and political perspective of the development of certain themes in Wenders's films from the 1970's to the present, specifically themes of the stranger, the nature of belonging, and the state of separation from identity and history, all addressed in terms of image, gender, and narrative. Bromley's (international cultural studies, Nottingham Trent U., UK) analysis focuses especially on the following films: , , , , , and . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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