Der Stand der Dinge (1982) Reviews

• A masterpiece of early Wenders and 1980s Los Angeles

  jsmog2003-12-01

  From the first time I saw it, this film resonated strongly on two levels; first, it is an excellent example of Wenders at his best: an almost dreamy progression of exactingly composed images, mysterious characters, a "story" which comes as close as film can to "truth", and for the cineastes in the audience, a complex dialogue with films of the past. But my second reason for loving this film is far more personal. As a teenager growing up in Hollywood during the early 1980s, I knew nothing about Wim Wenders or film history, but friends guided me to this film because of the soundtrack and the images at the end, inside an RV wandering aimlessly in Hollywood. This is, as far as I know, the first film to use either X or Joe Ely in the soundtrack. It also captures a lost city with amazing precision; almost every shot at the end contains some nostalgic element, from Tiny Naylor's drive-in to the Parisian Room, from Schwab's Pharmacy to the white smog in Laurel Canyon. This is a great film, but for Los Angelenos of my generation, it's a treasure-trove.

• waiting for the end of the virtual world

  batzi8m11999-11-08

  Between commercial successes like Paris Texas and Angels over Berlin, Wenders still manages to make the kind of seemingly irrelevant road movies such as Santiago and State of Things, that have made him the cult hero he is. Here a cheesy scifi B-movie is interrupted at a climatic scene to follow people just hanging around talking. Which is more cinematic is a question that comes back over and over again. Actively pursuing a life, no matter how mundane or screwed up, seems to be more rewarding than passively waiting to have someone else fulfill your fantasies, or so this film seems to hint. Good film for those still in love with non virtual reality.

• Wender's One Off

  neguinho2001-11-18

  This film was shot by Wenders while he was waiting for Coppola to get the financing to complete Hammett and his frustrations with that experience are clearly expressed here. It is a very personal film and, as such, I think one of his best. The end sequence in LA is classic. Shot in beautiful black and white, this is really a must see for any fan of the 'art film' in general and of Wenders' work in particular.

• stories only happen in stories

  BERSERKERpoetry2010-06-27

  The thing about a film like "The State of Things", much like Wenders' earlier film "The Wrong Movement", is how too much introspection can really start to drag one down over time. Both pictures have the unfortunate distinction of talking themselves to death. This is not a film that gives you insight into life so much as insight into its specific characters. The value of this tends to decrease in the face of the fact that we never really get to know the characters in the first place. So this story seems to play like an ever-extending observation into enigmas, where each answer is really a question, like the cinematic equivalent of the "Jeopardy!" game show. There are moments of true beauty, there's no denying that. But the beauty comes in the cinematography, the silences - not in the dialogue. The multiple cinematographers create a nice feel together, a fantastic series of images. "The State of Things" is almost always worth looking at, just not always engaging to fully experience. The ending is somewhat of a curiosity. Neither particularly disastrous nor completely convincing. It feels more like an artistic statement. And not one of great depth or meaning, either.

• the essence of things

  magnadoodle6662007-08-23

  This is not a movie that's easy to understand, yet it easily makes you think. It smells of nostalgia and of things past and fading. The film that the film crew is shooting about survivors to a nuclear holocaust is a parallel to the director's own journey to collect money from his LA producer in order to continue the film. The movie is visually beautiful, full of the magic of black and white photography. It's also a movie that constantly speaks about itself, about the hardships of shooting black and white, and about the need for "a story" which the film itself seems to lack. It tries not to be a film, but to film life. Yet, in the ordinary and particular of everyday life it conveys the eternal and universal.