In almost every film, Wim Wenders tries to show houses or streets that will soon take on a new look – will be rebuilt, reconstructed, or even completely destroyed. In this case, his films become a kind of chronicle. Fixer of cultural memory.
Despite the fact that the condition of the historical part of Venice is monitored by almost all organizations responsible for architectural monuments, this city confidently takes the sea. Every year, the city sinks into the water by 5 mm. It would seem – not much. But in the hundred and a half years of the cinema’s existence, the water level in Venice has risen by more than 50 cm.
Everything that has been swallowed up by the abyss during this century can be seen in photographs from different eras. But comparing a photo with a movie is like comparing mummified remains with ghosts. And Venice has always been famous for its mystical somnambulists.
So these 50 and a half centimeters, which went under the water over the last century, are best recorded in the cinema, and not in the photo. After all, the cinema itself shows not just literal images, but images saturated with plots.
A city standing on two shores: beauty and death – “Death in Venice” by Visconti
This tape sounds like a hymn to the lost beauty left in the distant past. The longing for an impossible dream, and not only a deadly disease, is gnawing at the artist’s soul and heart. Love for an angelic creation, as if descended from the heavenly spheres, turns into an unbearable torment that only brings death closer. Tadzio, with whom the protagonist falls in love, is an angel who appeared behind the protagonist’s soul. This is the harbinger of the cholera that came to Venice, the image of the inevitable death that visited the earth.
City of Love – “Fellini’s Casanova” by Fellini
This film comprehensively shows Venice. It is no coincidence that after the release of this film, great directors did not dare to shoot their new masterpieces in this city for a long time. Fellini recreated its carnival atmosphere. He painted his myth, showing the phantom and fatality of Venice… The excess of fantasy of the great director cannot be contained within the framework of a traditional plot. Similarly, Venice, with all its excessive beauty and excessive charms, does not fit within the framework of the traditional concept of “city”.
The city is like a corner of paradise – “Monday morning” by Otar Ioseliani
The character of this film is an ordinary worker. Like many others, he lives from weekend to weekend. One day on Monday morning, he decides not to go to work. Having taken all his savings, he goes on a trip. One of the cities he had to visit was Venice. Here this city is shown as a mecca of freedom, arts and beauty.
Unlike Fellini and Visconti, Ioseliani admires the everyday life of Venice. But his delight is not just the exclamation of a shocked tourist. The enthusiasm with which Venice is shown in this tape is reminiscent of the state of a person who walked for weeks through the desert and suddenly came across an oasis.
Similar tourist exploitation of Venice is found in many Hollywood films: “The Tourist”, “Casino Royale”, “Robbery in Italian”. But in these cases, only the external qualities of the city are revealed.
The city as a labyrinth of feelings – “Impardonnables” by Andre Teshina
In search of peace and quiet, successful thriller writer Francis comes to Venice to finish his novel. There he meets a real estate agent, Judith, who offers him a house on the island of St. Erasmus. This meeting turns into love at first sight. Months pass, and inspiration never comes to the writer. The following summer, his adult daughter Alisa comes to him, who soon unexpectedly disappears. From this moment on, the trust between Francis and Judith crumbles, and worries and problems begin to grow.
The enigmatic French director Andre Tescinet sees Venice in the same way as Ioseliani. True, this is not a bottom-up view (without the delight characteristic of people from another, more simplified cultural space). The view of Venice in this film is like an average European corner, in which feelings develop according to other physical (metaphysical) laws.