CineVegas Review: ‘Palermo Shooting’

There are many living legends of filmmaking in the world today that are still going strong in their craft and Wim Wenders (pronounced Vim Venders) is among that list. While he’s not in the top tier of my most favorite directors, I still appreciate his mastery of the art and craft of making some damn good movies. Many critics will cite that his cinematic body of work has it’s ups and downs, but most directors fall into that category. I’d like to go on the record however, and state that ‘Palermo Shooting’ ranks fairly high on my list of Wenders’ films.

‘Palermo Shooting’ is like many of Wenders’ films — complex, enigmatic and can be a bit taxing to watch at times. The first half of the film plays with a perfect tone and pace that draws the audience into the developing mystery and paints a detailed picture of our main character. In this case, our main character is a very successful fine art photographer named Finn (played by Andreas Frege, also known as the German punk singer Campino) that has taken a liking to fashion photography despite his agent’s warnings that it will destroy his credibility as an artist. Finn does not care, as he finds a strange sort of peace and relaxation within the hyped frenzy of fashion photography.

On the surface it seems Finn has a great life filled with fame, money, nice things and women, but Finn is actually empty on the inside although he doesn’t truly realize this yet. He struggles to hold onto the happiness that seems inherent with the kind of life he leads. Recently experiencing trouble sleeping due to repeated strange and surrealistic dreams, Finn begins to envision a mysterious man in a silver hooded robe, a man who keeps shooting arrows at him in broad daylight, but when Finn attempts to explain to others he finds the arrows have vanished as if existing in an ethereal form and no one claims to have seen a thing.

During a fashion shoot with Milla Jovovich in Greece Italy, Finn decides to remain behind for a bit while his crew return home, wandering the ancient streets of the Greek town and photography the town with a 20-year old favorite camera of his. While exploring and intermittently taking mid day naps in public places around the town, Finn happens to meet Karla (Inga Busch) who restores art for a living. As the two of them slowly grow closer, Finn realizes that she is the only person who believes his stories of the mysterious hooded man (Dennis Hopper) and finds herself uncomfortable by his visions.

After an extremely close call with death from one of the man’s arrows, Finn seeks to search this man out and discover his identity and the reasons for which the man continues to pursue him. What Finn doesn’t realize is that the mysterious man has given him several chances more than is customary and Finn will learn he is asking questions for which the answers he may not be ready to hear. The first half of the film, which carries a level of interest and intrigue that keeps the audience wondering what the outcome will be, slows to a more cautious and cerebral pace in the second half that at times slows to a crawl. Hopper’s small but important role in the film is concentrated in this second half, which leads up to the slightly unexpected ending.

‘Palermo Shooting’ contains many of the trademark elements of Wenders’ films, from a creative and saturated use of popular and eclectic music with a soundtrack including Bonnie Prince Billy, Nick Cave and The Velvet Underground, to the use of super-imposed imagery to convey the feelings of the character and foreshadow events to come. Campino is surprisingly adept in his performance, revealing a depth and range of emotion that we rarely see from musicians that cross over into acting. ‘Palermo Shooting’ is primarily a one man show, whereas Finn actually undergoes an internal battle with himself that is portrayed on film as an external struggle, manifesting in what seem to be outwardly physical obstacles. Ultimately, Finn is allowed to learn a valuable lesson about life and death and all that exists between the two, changing his outlook on the life he once though complete.

Some may feel the need to call Wenders a pretentious old hack, but I find this accusation unwarranted and just plain mean-spirited. I agree that many of his films present ideas that are heavy and at times hard to swallow, but let’s not fault a filmmaker for taking chances and venturing into a realm of storytelling that is challenging and difficult. I find that, even if his films aren’t always a success, they’re almost always interesting and worth the credit of having tread across a path so many others have feared to tread. ‘Palermo Shooting’ is not for everyone’s tastes and will likely either lose many viewers or simply bore them, but the film remains a moderately successful entry into the archive of Wim Wenders that has plenty of creative juice to keep the curious and open-minded viewer’s batteries charged.