your GLW?
Subscribe!
One plum pudding would have been enough11 November 1992 One plum pudding would have been enoughUntil the end of the world Co-productions which are financed by several European countries are called Euro-puddings. Maybe a French-German-Australian co-production should be called a plum pudding? Until the end of the world is certainly rich and much too heavy to digest as a second course. Why did Wim Wenders try to roll two movies in one? Wenders' brainchild starts as an exciting road movie with computer technology. Claire (Solveig Dommartin) escapes the tedium of home to chase Sam Farber (William Hurt), who is a fugitive for and because of his father -- played by Max von Sydow. Father Max has invented a camera to make his blind wife (Jeanne Moreau) see, and the government wants it. They travel through 10 countries and come to a momentary halt at the end of the world, namely Australia. Hot on their heels is a bounty hunter (Ruediger Vogler) and an Aboriginal detective (Ernie Dingo) as well as a bank robber (Chick Ortega). For good measure, a nuclear satellite goes out of control, threatening the end of the world, and that brings us to part two of Until the End of the World, although Wenders seems not to be aware of it. The film thrives on beautiful images while the dialogue is cliched and the script lacks grip. That's why I minded the extra length of 2 1/2 hours, even if the masochistic Germans are watching a 3 1/2 hour version. The illustrious crowd of actors did what they could to make the story come alive and so did all those musicians who wrote original soundtracks for it. This is a plum pudding of epic proportions. The magic of the outback is topped only by Jeanne Moreau, all in white, making a final exit which every fashion magazine would approve of. The end of the world has never looked better. But not even the technical wizardry of digital high definition images from Sony can change the fact that we have two stories in one. |
| Home | RSS Newsfeeds | Copyright Info | Contact GLW |