Wim Wenders’ latest documentary film “Anselm” is as unconventional as you can expect from him. As he did in his previous documentary film “Pina” (2011), Wenders presents the artistry of his human main subject with considerable interest and thoughtfulness, and the documentary thankfully avoids explaining too much to us as simply letting us observe the artistic process and achievement of its human main subject.  

The main human subject of the documentary is Anselm Kiefer, a renowned German artist who has often caused controversies due to his daring artworks boldly confronting the dark and terrible past of his country during the 1930-40s. In case of one particularly photography artwork, he shot the photographs of himself doing the Nazi salute at a number of various locations around Europe, and this rather radical act of art certainly caused a lot of fuss in public to say the least.

However, this and many bold artistic activities throughout Kiefer’s career are not merely sensational publicity stunts at all, and the documentary shows us how deeply personal the themes and subjects of his artworks are to him. After all, he was born not long after the end of the World War II, and young Kiefer surely saw a lot from the devastating aftermath of the World War II in Germany, while also observing how many of his fellow countrymen tended to look away from the horror of the World War II and the Holocaust as trying to rebuild their country during next several years. 

Many of Kiefer’s works were guided by the poems of a Jewish poet named Paul Celan, who incidentally lost his parents to the Holocaust during that grim period. The documentary quotes a number of excerpts from Celan’s poems, and we come to sense more of how much Celan’s poems inspired Keifer’s early artistic period, and that is further emphasized by some of Kiefer’s early works shown in the documentary. In case of one particular artwork of his, Kiefer used a number of prominent real-life figures whose images and ideas were “abused” by Nazi Germany, and, not so surprisingly, this also caused considerable controversy at that time.

Nevertheless, Kiefer’s career continued to rise thanks to his sheer artistry, and it did not take much time for him to be recognized more in not only his country but also many other countries including US. Thanks to the resulting fame and success, he could freely explore more of his artistic creativity, and that led to a bunch of stunning artworks as he kept working in a warehouse located in some rural region in Germany during next several years.      

The documentary just calmly observes Kiefer’s works without much explanation, but these artworks will instantly provoke feelings and thoughts from you. Besides their stylish methods to admire, their artistic expressions on the World War II history of Germany are quite indelible to say the least, and this aspect is further accentuated by the fictionalized scenes showing Keifer as a child and then a young man (They are respectively played by Wenders’ great-nephew Anton Wenders and Kiefer’s son Daniel Kiefer, by the way). 

Meantime, Kiefer willingly shows us how he works on his latest artworks. We watch how he uses a number of various tools and materials including blowtorch and hot liquid metal, and how he carefully and steadily works on a certain big painting took me back to what I recently observed from the artist heroine in Kelly Reichardt’s latest film “Showing Up” (2022). Just like her, he simply works and works, and then there may come inspiration to behold later.

It should be noted that the documentary does not delve much into Kiefer as a human being. In several archival interview clips presented in the documentary, he comes to us as an artist of strong integrity while firmly sticking to his artistic vision and philosophy, but he also looks rather reserved and distant without showing much of himself, and the same thing can be said about his present self, who remains mostly quiet and reticent throughout the documentary without explaining anything about his artistic process.    

Nevertheless, the documentary is still a fascinating visual experience thanks to how Wenders vividly presents some of Kiefer’s works. As a matter of fact, Wenders and his cinematographer Franz Lustig shot his documentary in 3D format, and that is quite evident to me from time to time even though I watched the documentary in 2D early in this morning. There are several certain moments whose sense of perspective can be enhanced to considerable degree by 3D, and I am now really curious about how these interesting moments will actually look in 3D.

In conclusion, “Anselm”, which happened to be premiered along with Wenders’ another acclaimed work “Perfect Days” (2023) at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, did a commendable job of presenting Kiefer’s works with enough care and skill. I wish It could show and tell more about Kiefer’s life and career, but the documentary is still satisfying in the thoughtful presentation of its main human subject, and the result surely reminds us again that Wenders is still one of the most interesting filmmakers of our time.