Notebook on Cities & Clothes

At the time he made this movie (the late 80's), Wenders was asking some searching questions about the future of video and digital film-making. Questions that would eventually be answered by Lars Von Trier and his Dogme 95 rules, i.e. 'The Idiots' and Thomas Vinterberg's 'Festen'.

In 'Notebooks' Wenders finds his 35mm camera cumbersome and imposing. In contrast his video camera is more flexible and seems to disturb no-one. This then is the main focus of the documentary, the stark contrast between two forms of film-making, symbolized by the constant juxtaposition of Paris and Tokyo in the same shot. Paris shot in the classical style of his 35mm camera, almost cliched in its romantic results, while Tokyo vibrates with garish colours and a shaky hand (which in its own way has become a cliched style over 10 years later).

In fact most of Wenders thoughts about the future of image-making have more or less come true. He believed that the future authors of film would be the makers of commercials, video clips, electronic games and computer programs. Sadly insightful.

There are other pleasures here as well, springing forth from the collaboration of two deeply thoughtful people, Wenders and Yamamoto. Among them--thoughts about how clothes "make the man" (or person); the paradoxical idea of fashion as an art form; how many people's work goes into making one person famous as an "artist"; whether Eastern or Japanese ideas of artistic identity differ from Western ones; and much more--you're sure to find your own themes. Some of the music is a bit overblown, but that's my only, slight reservation. The pace might seem slow, but if you slow down with it and let it speak to you (and think WITH you), you're sure to come away with a richer perspective on much in life.

PS--the DVD version has a good commentary overlay by Wenders.