Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders

By Daniel Robert Epstein
Mar 16, 2006

Wim Wenders is one of the greatest film directors in history. Films like Until the End of the World, Buena Vista Social Club and The State of Things have pointed social commentary but also are fascinating character portraits. His previous collaboration with reknown playwright Sam Shepard, Paris, Texas, is a high point for independent film and now they have reunited as director and screenwriter for Don’t Come Knocking. Shepard has taken the lead role of Howard Spence, a former movie star of mostly westerns, who runs away from his latest film set. While searching out his family and former close friends he discovers a son he never knew he had.

Check out the official website for Don’t Come Knocking

Daniel Robert Epstein: What is it that makes an American playwright and a German director connect so well?
Wim Wenders: I don’t really know if there’s any other combination like the two of us. We just hit it off well from the beginning. I remember when we started Paris, Texas we told each other stories to find out if we had something in common. I drove Sam’s car which he would never let anyone do. He put in his cassettes because he was sure he could play some music for me that I had never heard. When I heard it, I said “Wait a minute!” I smiled and pulled out my own cassette and it was exactly the same. It was Skip James. Sam thought he had me. He thought I would never in a million years know that music. We love the same movies too. We started to trust each other because we realized that he lived in the California desert and I lived in the desert of destroyed Germany. Even though we were far apart we shared a lot of things and the same perceptions.
DRE:
We can tell how this movie is personal for Sam, how was it personal for you?
WW:
The character was very personal for Sam because he really knew about these types of people. It was personal to me in how I brought places to the table. As much as Sam was in control of the characters, I knew exactly where this story should take place. I brought in Utah and most of all I brought in Butte, Montana. Butte was where most of the film was taking place and I knew from the beginning this story of the prodigal father.
DRE:
How did you choose Arches National Park?
WW:
You would not believe how many letters we sent and how many visits it took to the park authorities to finally get in there. They made that very difficult. We ended up in Moab because we ran away from Monument Valley. The script was written for Monument Valley but when we got there with my director of photography and my production manager it was pretty disastrous. It is now like a big theme park with trolley things. It was just unbearable so we went to Moab. In Moab there are these arches and I fought until they finally allowed us to do three shots in there at the beginning of the film. I was only allowed to be near the arch for a short time and the horse could only trot. Then after months of talking they allowed me to go in with just the DP and we were allowed to shoot the place. But not with the horse so we had to composite the horse in later.
DRE:
That was an amazingly funny character Tim Roth played.
WW:
We had fun with [Tim Roth’s character of] Sutter. Sutter is an Englishman and a bounty hunter so he could take lots of liberties. He was like a fish out of water. He didn’t really know his way in the West and that’s why he drove the wrong car and had the wrong suit and got scared when he was shaving himself in the desert. The desert is the quietest place on Earth and if you come from England and you’re used to hunting your victims in big cities, you can get scared. You realize in the end that Sutter is really a cool guy.
DRE:
He had such odd little scenes.
WW:
We added lots of scenes because Tim Roth said that he really wanted to do a scene with Jessica Lange. I went to Sam and told him that Tim really wanted to do a scene with Jessica and I liked that idea. We wrote that potato scene and if you’ve seen the movie you know how useless that scene is. It was great to have it and it survived all efforts to cut it out. After that we were shooting scenes with Eva Marie Saint and Tim was getting antsy. I asked what was wrong and he said that all his life he’s dreamed of working with Eva Marie Saint. So we wrote the cookie scene between them. It turned out to be one of my favorite scenes.
DRE:
Sam Shepard is famous for doing western type stories; do you see Don’t Come Knocking as a type of revisionist western?
WW:
We used Western imagery through the film. When we came up with the character of Howard we didn’t know what job he had. Then Sam suggested that he might be a Western actor and I was all opposed to the idea because the last thing I wanted to do was a film inside a film. Sam said “Let me write it because I know you will like it in the end and I know I’m on the right track.” He wrote the first scene where Howard is running away from the film set and I knew I could live with that. It’s really not a film that deals with film as such. But it brought us into the world of the Western and as we were writing the story I realized we only have to deal with people who are trying to find where they belong and that is really exactly Howard’s problem. He doesn’t know where he belongs and he missed his life. All these Western heroes seem like they’re out there with the woman of their life. Then they say they’re coming back and they rush away and now they’re all wasting their life somewhere. Howard is not really a grown up man.
DRE:
I read that originally Jessica Lange couldn’t do the role because of her schedule. But it obviously worked out, how important was it for her to be in that role?
WW:
Not only could she not fit it in her schedule but it was out of the question because in 2003 their kids were still in high school. Although Sam respected that I wanted her, he knew it wouldn’t work. But the schedule got changed and we started the movie later, Jessica could do it. The moment Sam knew Jessica could do the role he rewrote it for her.
DRE:
Paris, Texas is a modern classic. What made you and Sam work together again?
WW:
I called Sam because I had this story idea and I knew no one could write it as well as he could. We started Paris, Texas nearly 20 years ago. We started writing Don’t Come Knocking in late 2000 and we wrote it for three and a half years. I came up with the story and Sam tore it to pieces. The grain that was left was a son that never knew his father but Sam really didn’t keep anything.
DRE:
As a playwright his words don’t get changed.
WW:
That’s not true because I had seen Sam rehearse two of his plays and when he ran through the play with his actors not a single line remained the same. He changes them with the actors. He is extremely flexible. Once he’s done the first actual performance things don’t get changed. While we were shooting Sam was not against rewriting anything. His whole approach to writing is character driven. He doesn’t care about plot. When I had a suggestion that would improve a character, he was all for it. There were never any ego problems. It was great to have my writer on set and Sam loved it.
DRE:
When you made Paris, Texas you wanted Sam to play the lead, was there ever a question of him not doing the lead in Don’t Come Knocking?
WW:
I was on my knees begging him to play Travis in Paris, Texas and he steadfastly refused. I didn’t want to use that approach again. We had written half the script of Don’t Come Knocking and we hadn’t talked about casting. I casually said “When you finish that script, I’m going to give it to Jack Nicholson. I think it would be great for him.” I knew what I was doing because Sam started to make a lot of mistakes on his typewriter. He finally sneered at me and said “Jack doesn’t want to be on a horse. He doesn’t even ride.” Then I realized I had him. It was a much better approach.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

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