Wim Wenders has been having quite the renaissance in the last year or so 2015 was all about his retrospectives, with MOMA, the IFC Center and many art houses around the country playing pristine 4K restorations from the German auteur’s oeuvre. And this year, Janus and the Criterion Collection are releasing those same underloved, but cinema-classic titles — “Alice In The Cities,” “The American Friend,” “Until The End Of The World”— on Blu-Ray and DVD. So Wenders’ heat index, even on a small cinephile level, is arguably as high as its ever been at least in North America. Wenders was even nominated for an Oscar in 2015 for his excellent documentary, “The Salt Of The Earth,” so the filmmaker seems to really be on the upswing.
However, there’s arguably an opposite narrative that runs parallel to all this excellent documentary and legacy success. The last time Wenders made a great narrative drama was a long time ago and perhaps this is why his dramatic work has been infrequent in the last 10 years. His last picture, the 3D drama “Every Thing Will Be Fine” with James Franco and Charlotte Rampling was widely panned, “Palermo Shooting” in 2008 was so cooly received it didn’t even receive a proper North American release. 2006’s “Don’t Come Knocking” wasn’t very well-loved either.
But Wenders is trying his hand at another narrative work regardless. His upcoming film, “Submergence” has quite the cast in the very-in-demand Alicia Vikander and “X-Men” star James McAvoy. A romantic drama based based on J.M. Ledgard’s novel of the same name, “Submergence” centers on two lovers, facing life-or-death situations and separated by thousands of miles, who find solace in memories of their romance. One is held captive by jihadist fighters in Somalia while the other is exploring the greatest depths of the ocean floor from her submersible.
So lovers-at-a-distance engaged in their own personal traumas reflecting back on each other. It sounds like a tricky one, but one should never count Wenders out — especially if can carry the magic of recent documentaries over onto his dramas. There’s no word on when the picture will come out; it will likely hit the film festival circuit first — Venice or Toronto seem like good bets at this point —but a first look of the movie has arrived — check it out below.
