Until the End of the World (1991)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Til the end of the world |
| Country of production | Germany , France , Australia |
| original language | English , French |
| Publishing year | 1991 |
| length | Director's Cut: 279 minutes Theatrical version: 179 minutes Shortened version: 158 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wim Wenders |
| script |
Michael Almereyda Peter Carey |
| production |
Paulo Branco Ulrich Felsberg Jonathan T. Taplin |
| music | Graeme Revell |
| camera | Robby Muller |
| cut | Peter Przygodda |
| occupation | |
| |
Until the End of the World (English Until the End of the World ; French Jusqu'au bout du monde) is a German-French-Australian film drama by Wim Wenders from 1991 . The film opened in German cinemas on September 12, 1991.
action
In November 1999, an Indian satellite with nuclear material on board leaves its orbit and approaches Earth. There is concern that parts of humanity and large areas of land could be contaminated by a crash.
Claire Tourneur recently broke up with her boyfriend, writer Eugene Fitzpatrick. Since then she has been restlessly on the move, rushing from party to party. She got caught in a traffic jam that arose from a mass panic - because of the Indian satellite. She leaves the autobahn and takes to back roads. When overtaking, her car collides with the car of two men. They turn out to be criminals who robbed a bank at Nice Airport . Claire is supposed to get some of the loot when she brings it to Paris . On the way she meets Sam Farber (initially under the name Trevor McPhee) and immediately falls in love with him.
Claire delivers the money to her boyfriend in Paris, takes her share and goes in search of Sam, supported by the German detective Phillip Winter, who can track down people with special spy software. Accordingly, Sam is wanted for various criminal allegations all over the world, there is a high reward on his head. A car chase follows around the globe. Sam has Claire, her boyfriend Eugene, one of the two bank robbers and various bounty hunters in tow, who repeatedly meet and split up due to funny coincidences. Stops include Berlin, Portugal, Moscow, Vladivostok, Tokyo, San Francisco and most recently the Australian bush.
Only gradually, Claire and the audience understand the connections: Sam is actually on behalf of his father, Dr. Henry Farber, on his way to relatives all over the world to record their greetings with a special camera invented by Henry. These images should then be projected directly into his blind mother's brain. The US government desperately wants to own this system and has therefore put the $ 500,000 bounty on Sam.
While Sam and Claire are flying in a small plane to his father's laboratory in the Australian desert, the Indian satellite is shot down by the Americans against violent protests from other countries. Through the nuclear EMP , all electrical devices worldwide stop working . Sam and Claire have to make an emergency landing with an engine failure and continue on foot. It is feared that the explosion could create a chain reaction with further atomic explosions. The survival of mankind is in question. However, this conflict is not a central issue, but only appears on the edge of the actual plot.
In the secret laboratory of Dr. Henry Farber, you immediately begin to project the images into Edith Farber's brain, which ultimately succeeds. Claire in particular shows outstanding visual abilities, the pictures she takes are of the best quality. The mixed up community that was after Claire and Sam is growing together under the influence of the Aborigines who live near the laboratory and feels completely at home.
Edith dies during the 1999/2000 New Year celebrations, and Henry devotes himself to another bold experiment: he now wants to apply the ability of his system to convert brain waves into visual images to dreams, initially because he wants to preserve the image of his wife, which is now just that lives in his dreams. The Aborigines among his employees protested vehemently and terminated his work, they see a taboo being exceeded here. But the project succeeds, and finally Henry, Sam and Claire have their previously unconscious nightly dreams as video recordings. The first fascination with it leads to a strong psychological dependence. People no longer interact at all, but deal exclusively with their own dreams, trying to decipher and influence them.
When Eugene, who has withdrawn to finish his novel, realizes the situation, he abducts Claire unceremoniously in order to tear her out of this addiction. As soon as the batteries of her hand-held monitor are empty, she shows symptoms like a withdrawal syndrome . Only when Eugene gives her his finished novel (about the story she just experienced) to read after a long time does she come to herself again. Sam is cured of his "dream addiction" by his brother, an Aborigine. Henry is brought to the USA by a CIA special unit and dies there. After a while, Sam finds his grave.
The film ends with Claire's 30th birthday. She now works in a space station that monitors pollution in the world's oceans. The friends from her adventure congratulate her via video conference.
Reviews
Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on January 17, 1992 that the film was " unfortunately not irresistible " in relation to the cost of its production .
The lexicon of international films described the film as “ ambitious ” and wrote that it was a “ gigantic journey , adventure , science fiction , music and love film ” that addressed the “ addiction to images ”. It is " fascinating in the technique " and " complex in the processing of countless motifs ", but the plot offers " little space to develop an emotional participation in the fate of the characters ".
Awards
Wim Wenders won the Gilde Film Prize in gold with Bis ans Ende der Welt in 1992 .
background
The film was shot in Berlin , Lisbon , Moscow , Paris , San Francisco , Tokyo , Venice and Australia , among others . It grossed approximately $ 753,000 in US cinemas . In France one counted approx. 377,000 moviegoers. The film came into the cinemas heavily cut and flopped . Ten years later, Wim Wenders made a director's cut that restores the five-hour length of the film. This version, along with many of his other films, has now been restored and digitally rescanned by his newly established foundation. The restored version celebrated its premiere on February 7, 2015 at the Berlinale .
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released under Music From the Motion Picture Soundtrack Until the End of the World in January 1991. The following songs can be found on it:
- Opening Title (Album Version) - Graeme Revell
- Sax And Violins (LP Version) - Talking Heads
- Summer Kisses, Winter Tears (Album Version) - Julee Cruise
- Move With Me (Dub) - Neneh Cherry
- The Adversary (Album Version) - Crime and the City Solution
- What's Good (Album Version) - Lou Reed
- Last Night Sleep (Album Version) - Can
- Fretless (Album Version) - REM
- Days (Album Version) - Elvis Costello
- Claire's Theme (Album Version) - Graeme Revell
- (I'll Love You) Till The End Of The World (Album Version) - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
- It Takes Time (Album Version) - Patti Smith (With Fred Smith)
- Death's Door (Album Version) - Depeche Mode
- Love Theme (Album Version) - Graeme Revell
- Calling All Angels (Remix Version) - Jane Siberry with kd lang
- Humans From Earth (Album Version) - T-Bone Burnett
- Sleeping In The Devil's Bed (Album Version) - Daniel Lanois
- Until The End Of The World (Album Version) - U2
- Finale (album version) - Graeme Revell
About the recording of the soundtrack by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in the Hansa Tonstudio turned Uli M Schueppel 1990, the documentary film The Song . The film was re-released in 2004 in a new version.
Web links
- Far Side of the World in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Until the end of the world at filmportal.de
- Far Side of the World at Rotten Tomatoes (English)