--- Cian O'Connor <cian_oconnor at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> I don't know whether the personal morality of a
> filmmaker matters when they make "moral" films - but
> Wim is morally disgusting, which is something I
> suspected after seeing "Paris, Texas".
>
Well, I dont know much about the personal lives of directors, so I know nothing of Wenders. I try not to
make ad hominem judgements about works of art, philosopy, etc. When I read "Being and Time" a few years ago in a reading group, I didn't start out with the notion that I must trash the book just because the author had been a National Socialist. Does that mean there was no relation between Heidegger's nazi affiliation and his philosophy? Of course not. But that fact does not render all aspects of his philosophy as worthless. Same goes for Wenders.
Picasso was apparently an asshole, too, but I love his early period, especially the "Ochre period" and early cubism. Should I hate his work because he was an asshole, or love all of his work because he was a communist or because he painted such a "progressive" piece such as "Guernica"?
I am not saying you are guilty of this, but I get the idea that a lot of people do embrace completely or abandon completely an artist's works based for such ad hominem reasons.
I can understand how "Wings of Desire" might seem the parody of an "artsy" movie. Nonetheless, at the time, it offered me some real insight into stuff I was thinking about.
BTW, I also loved "Paris, Texas".
-Thomas
===== "The tradition of all the dead generations
weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"
-Karl Marx
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