US
Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders has something of a love/hate relationship with Los Angeles. Violence, he believes, is "conceived, produced and distributed in this city." LA, he maintains, has "a very particular rapport with violence." But LA is also "non-committal, which I like," says the director whose typical subjects are the lost, rootless and non-committed.
In The End of Violence, Wenders charts how violence connects the lives of a cross-section of Los Angelenos. Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects, Smilla's Sense of Snow) plays Ray Bering, a computer programmer who tries to stop the FBI using the surveillance system he developed and is forced to go on the run. Bill Pullman (Independence Day, While You Were Sleeping) plays Mike Meltzer, a successful Hollywood producer of violent movies who goes into hiding after Bering crosses his path.
Andie MacDowell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Green Card) is Meltzer's wife, Paige, who is preparing to go to Guatemala to do voluntary work. Also appearing are K Todd Freeman, playing a hip-hop prophet named Six, Wenders regular Udo Kier, actor/director Peter Horton, Pruitt Taylor Vince (Heavy) and director Sam Fuller as Bering's father.
"We decided we were going to make a film about the subject of violence, but not necessarily a violent movie," says Wenders, who picked up a Cannes Special Jury Prize in 1993 for Faraway, So Close! "We felt that if it wasn't going to be a film about the obvious and evident seduction of violence, we had to eliminate the violence we were going to show. All the characters are deeply affected by violence - and violence happens - but only before or after: we never indulge in exploiting violence or showing it. Though we wanted the film to be about violence, we didn't want violence to be part of the film's language."
Wenders began developing The End of Violence when funding stalled for his sci-fi project The Billion Dollar Hotel (based on a story by singer Bono from the rock group U2 and set in LA 50 years from now). With LA-based Billion Dollar writer Nicholas Klein, Wenders wrote the script for The End of Violence in just six weeks, and wrapped before Christmas after a 28-day shoot. The $6.5 million project, produced by Wenders' Road Movies Filmproduktion and CiBy 2000, has a score by Ry Cooder, while an AFM deal with new independent music label Outpost sees Los Lobos, The Eels, the late Roy Orbison and others on a soundtrack tie-in.
Wenders' first English-language production since Paris, Texas was always pitched firmly at the international market. Like most of the director's films over the last 15 years, it was heavily financed through international and local pre-sales - including Germany (Buena Vista International), Spain (Lauren Film), Italy (Cecchi Gori) and Japan (Shochiku). But, with MGM picking up North American rights, this is Wenders' first film to secure US distribution since Himmel ueber Berlin (Wings of Desire).
Wenders maintains he has now left the New German Ciema of his roots far behind. "I don't look back on that road anymore," he says. "I feel that I had over-explained it at a certain time, and over-explained the importance of the American dream and the American movie. When I went to back to Europe, it seems now to me like it's all a lot of..."
Adam Minns
Production cos Road Movies Filmproduktion, CiBy 2000 Prods Deepak Nayar, Wim Wenders, Nicholas Klein Director Wim Wenders
Scrs Nicholas Klein, Wim Wenders Ph Pascal Rabaud Art dir Patricia Norris Cos ePeter Przygodda Cast Bill Pullman, Andie MacDowell, Gabriel Byrne
Running time 120 mins
International sales CiBy Sales
