Wim Wenders directs "Lisbon Story", a not quite successful film with an interesting concept.
The plot: a film sound technician visits Lisbon. Enamoured by the city, he journeys throughout its many alleys, buildings and causeways, capturing subtle sounds with his equipment and eavesdropping on snippets of noise, culture and conversation. The film is a love letter to the minutiae, to Lisbon and its people, but also a light parody of Wenders' increasingly bloated and ambitious road movies (we assume the sound man is recording sounds for previous and future Wenders features).
At its best, "Lisbon" story is a pleasantly relaxing film, which invites us to be enamoured by Wenders' loving shots of spaces, buildings and architecture. It's another moody film by the director. Unfortunately the film's cast lacks the naturalism such a project requires. The film's many interrupted "narratives" or "subplots" destroy what should be a relaxing, slice-of-life non-narrative, and the film's aesthetics are simply not seductive enough for a project devoted to the aesthetic pleasures of life. Some good came out of this project, though. See Antonioni's "Beyond The Clouds", a masterpiece which Wenders contributed to, and of which "Lisbon Story" serves as a template. Both films are about investing images and sounds with content, conjuring art out of absence, though Antonioni's film goes further.
7.9/10 – See "In The City of Sylvia" and "Beyond The Clouds".
The plot: a film sound technician visits Lisbon. Enamoured by the city, he journeys throughout its many alleys, buildings and causeways, capturing subtle sounds with his equipment and eavesdropping on snippets of noise, culture and conversation. The film is a love letter to the minutiae, to Lisbon and its people, but also a light parody of Wenders' increasingly bloated and ambitious road movies (we assume the sound man is recording sounds for previous and future Wenders features).
At its best, "Lisbon" story is a pleasantly relaxing film, which invites us to be enamoured by Wenders' loving shots of spaces, buildings and architecture. It's another moody film by the director. Unfortunately the film's cast lacks the naturalism such a project requires. The film's many interrupted "narratives" or "subplots" destroy what should be a relaxing, slice-of-life non-narrative, and the film's aesthetics are simply not seductive enough for a project devoted to the aesthetic pleasures of life. Some good came out of this project, though. See Antonioni's "Beyond The Clouds", a masterpiece which Wenders contributed to, and of which "Lisbon Story" serves as a template. Both films are about investing images and sounds with content, conjuring art out of absence, though Antonioni's film goes further.
7.9/10 – See "In The City of Sylvia" and "Beyond The Clouds".