The cinematic phenomenon that blindsided Wim Wenders: “Who the fuck would have thought?”
He might be one of world cinema’s most esteemed auteurs, but it turns out that despite his many gifts, Wim Wenders is unable to see an incoming phenomenon even when it’s lurking right around the corner.
Not that there’s any shame in someone operating amidst the upper echelons of filmmaking failing to recognise a cultural juggernaut when they see one, even if it did place him firmly in the minority when the event in question had been predicted for pop culture and box office domination from a very early stage.
On the other hand, Wenders’ career hasn’t been defined by selling the most tickets or winning the most awards, so it’s entirely forgivable for the German writer, director, producer, playwright, and photographer to find himself blindsided by a storm that captured attentions and imaginations the world over.
Whether it’s narrative drama or documentary, the four-time Academy Award nominee, Bafta winner, and Palme d’Or victor has been mesmerising audiences for decades through classic doc Buena Vista Social Club, timeless neo-western Paris, Texas, romantic fantasy Wings of Desire, and most recently verite-style drama Perfect Days, winning rapturously acclaim in the process.
Wenders knows how to convey the complexities of the human experience through a fictional and nonfictional lens with equal aplomb, but when it came to one of the most hotly-hyped and intensely awaited dual-pronged cinematic spectacles in years, his understanding of the collective consciousness offered a rare failure.
“Who the fuck would have thought that Barbie would be such a success? I saw it later, but if you’d shown me the movie, I would have said, ‘Well, that’s going to be a flop,'” he marvelled to iNews in the aftermath of ‘Barbenheimer’. “I just don’t know why millions of people would want to see it, but then, in hindsight, one understands. Maybe if you could only bear one if you saw the other.”
July 21st, 2023 will be forever etched in the stone of Hollywood history, with Christopher Nolan’s three-hour biographical drama and Greta Gerwig’s toyetic fantastical comedy being unleashed on the same day in what turned out to be a masterstroke in meme-friendly marketing.
Of course, it helped exponentially that both movies were the recipients of an equally enthusiastic reception from critics and crowds alike, but the cumulative might of ‘Barbenheimer’ was the making of both. Combined, they came within touching distance of $2.5billion at the box office and gathered 21 Oscar nominations, so it was far from an internet-only craze.
Barbie had to make do with a solitary ‘Best Original Song’ trophy as Oppenheimer cleared up with seven wins, including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Actor’, which presumably left Wenders with a quizzical look on his face. Nolan’s film seems much more up his street than Gerwig’s, in fairness, but his early prognosis of a flop waiting to happen couldn’t have been more wrong.
