Wim Helsen Quotes

Any film that supports the idea that things can be changed is a great film in my eyes. ~ Wim Wenders

Now it's serious. At last it's becoming serious. So I've grown older. Was I the only one who wasn't serious? Is it our times that are not serious? I was never lonely neither when I was alone, nor with others. But I would have liked to be alone at last. Loneliness means I'm finally whole. Now I can say it as tonight, I'm at last alone. I must put an end to coincidence. The new moon of decision. I don't know if there's destiny but there's a decision. Decide! We are now the times. Not only the whole town - the whole world is taking part in our decision. We two are now more than us two. We incarnate something. We're representing the people now. And the whole place is full of those who are dreaming the same dream. We are deciding everyone's game. I am ready. Now it's your turn. You hold the game in your hand. Now or never. You need me. You will need me. There's no greater story than ours, that of man and woman. It will be a story of giants... invisible... transposable... a story of new ancestors. Look. My eyes. They are the picture of necessity, of the future of everyone in the place. Last night I dreamt of a stranger... of my man. Only with him could I be alone, open up to him, wholly open, wholly for him. Welcome him wholly into me. Surround him with the labyrinth of shared happiness. I know... it's you. ~ Wim Wenders

Images are no longer what they used to be. They can't be trusted any more. We all know that. You know that. When we grew up, images were telling stories and showing them. Now they're all into selling. They've changed under our very eyes. They don't even know how to do it anymore. They've plain forgotten. Images are selling out the world. And at a big discount. ~ Wim Wenders

What is it in the human condition that tries to impose our own view onto others, without the ability, capacity, propensity, to receive somebody else's openly? ~ Wim Wenders

Take opera for example - to go to the opera you have to dress up in a tuxedo and pay lots of money. ~ Wim Wenders

Living with computers gives funny ideas. ~ Wim Crouwel

the more opinions you have, the less you see ~ Wim Wenders

The Cuban people have an amazingly strong and unbroken spirit. ~ Wim Wenders

Entertainment today constantly emphasises the message that things are wonderful the way they are. But there is another kind of cinema, which says that change is possible and necessary and it's up to you. ~ Wim Wenders

The vast majority of people support the idea of an enlightened, modern union of countries demonstrating solidarity. Film director Wim Wenders recently summed up the problem to me very well. He said the idea of Europe has become an administration, and now people think that the administration is the idea. But that doesn't mean we should give up on the idea - it means we should change the administration. ~ Martin Schulz

Film is a very, very powerful medium. It can either confirm the idea that things are wonderful the way they are, or it can reinforce the conception that things can be changed. ~ Wim Wenders

Photographs put time into such a perspective. They humble us and our selfish memories. ~ Wim Wenders

I go back to many films that I really love. Some Bresson, some Godard of the early times, the Cassavetes of those years I love. And the early Wim Wenders. But my own films I don't watch, unless I need them. ~ Agnes Varda

Every photo, every 'ONCE' in time is also the beginning of a story starting 'once upon a time ... ' Every photo is the first frame of a movie. ~ Wim Wenders

I'm getting a little bored by the juxtaposition of American and other cinema. I no longer think this division is as true as it might have been in the 1980s, or the early part of the 90s. ~ Wim Wenders

This is what we've been waiting for: finally, an unprecedented critical analysis of the history of Dutch design. Mienke Simon Thomas's Dutch Design is a book to have and to read: an important and richly detailed study of the cultural, economical and social-political context of twentieth-century design in the Netherlands. ~ Wim Crouwel

The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface, and that is why we loved Helvetica very much. ~ Wim Crouwel

I dislike the manipulation that's necessary to press all the images of a
film into one story; it's very harmful for the images because it tends to
drain them of their 'life'. In the relationship between story and image, I
see the story as a kind of vampire, trying to suck all the blood from an
image. Images are acutely sensitive; like snails they shrink back when you
touch their horns. They don't have it in them to be carthorses: carrying
and transporting messages or significance or intention or a moral. But
that's precisely what a story wants from them. ~ Wim Wenders

In the late 1980s the amount of German films was down to four or five percent of the market, and the remaining 95 percent were American. It is now 20 to 30 percent German productions. ~ Wim Wenders

Without dreams, there can be no courage. And without courage, there can be no action. ~ Wim Wenders

The grid is like the lines on a football field. You can play a great game in the grid or a lousy game. But the goal is to play a really fine game. ~ Wim Crouwel

For me, black and white is more
realistic than colour. Black and white can be colourful, and colour can be
very black and white. ~ Wim Wenders

It's very hard to find critics or a magazine today that will publish material that is genuinely independent and written without any concern about being cut off some distributor's list or not be invited or flown into screenings. ~ Wim Wenders

Film entertains with different angles, quick moves, like a commercial. But filmmakers like [Wim] Wenders allow themselves to observe a subject for a long time without changing an angle, and allow you to do that along with them. ~ Andrey Zvyagintsev

It's a great lesson in modesty that you realize you're illiterate in a field that you think you're an expert in. ~ Wim Wenders

It's almost scary how stylish things can look if you take the color out - how much more you see the essence of things and how much more something can appear elegant. ~ Wim Wenders

The most political decision you make is where you direct people's eyes. In other words, what you show people, day in and day out, is political ... And the most politically indoctrinating thing you can do to a human being is to show him, every day, that there can be no change. ~ Wim Wenders

The Yanks have colonized our subconscious. ~ Wim Wenders

Filmmakers tell actors to adjust their body language, and the famous presence of the actor is his or her body language. That is what makes them special and a movie star. An actor's capital is his body. ~ Wim Wenders

In 2009 i was nominated for the 'best dutch poetry debute' called 'the buddingh award'. It's supposed to be the most important debut price. However the event proved rather hallucinogenic. It started with my publisher expressing 'great surprise' that 'I still managed to get nominated'. The surprise was out of place, since my book simply got the best reviews of all books that year. I went to Poetry International and noticed only 2 of the 3 jury members where present, and the female one kept looking at me in sort of a guilty fashion. Then the award was granted to Misscha Andriessen, which was sort of weird since his book was not seen as universally the best by critics. 'Too lightweight' one review of an important critic read. Later on I read that jurymember Wim Brands one year prior to the price already made clear that 'he is a big fan of Mischa Andriessen'. I always assumed that they were friends somehow but this morning I solved the mystery: they are from the same little village, so it had nothing to do with poetry, just tribal culture at its best. Kind of a relief to know that. ~ Martijn Benders

Everything is entertainment; criticism is now entertainment and it seems that the French directors have woken up one day and suddenly realised that they were not backed up any more. ~ Wim Wenders

Of course design is about problem solving, but I cannot resist adding
something personal. ~ Wim Crouwel

If you travel a lot, if you like roaming about in order to lose yourself, you can end up in the strangest places. I think it must be a kind of built-in radar, which often takes me to places that are either peculiarly quiet or peculiar in a quiet sort of way. ~ Wim Wenders

To evoke the classic period of Italian cinema in a little film seemed like a great, fun thing to do. I had relations to that period. I had known Fellini and I had known Antonioni. I had made a movie with Antonioni and I had visited Fellini in his studios. So, it seemed like something worthwhile doing. You bring yourself to that mythical cinema. ~ Wim Wenders

Pina Bausch's motto was "Dance, otherwise we are lost." She really meant it, that dance was her answer to life and to the troubles and to the problems that can arise. That was her way to deal with everything, to dance. ~ Wim Wenders

You're always a child of your time,
and you cannot step out of that. ~ Wim Crouwel

Loving photography and wanting to be a painter, it all ended up in the process of filmmaking. It's strange professionally be to connected because it connects you to architecture, it connects you to painting, it connects you to writers, to actors. It connects you to really all of the arts. ~ Wim Wenders

I'm only fifteen. I'm not sure I ever want to get married. I'm neither messing around while waiting nor looking for some "real thing". What I want is much more complicated. I want somebody to talk about books, who would be my friend, and why couldn't we have sex as well if we wanted to? (And used contraception.) I'm not looking for romance. Lord Peter and Harriet would seem a pretty good model to me. I wonder if Wim has read Sayers? ~ Jo Walton

In this age of consumerism film criticism all over the world - in America first but also in Europe - has become something that caters for the movie industry instead of being a counterbalance. ~ Wim Wenders

Of course the French are making very credible movies and it is still one of the greatest nations in terms of world cinema but the real problem is the decay in film criticism. ~ Wim Wenders

Brother Males and Shemales: Are you coming to the Health Bee? It will be the livest Hop-to-it that this busy lil ole planet has ever see. And it's going to be Practical. We'll kiss out on all these glittering generalities and get messages from men as kin talk, so we can lug a think or two (2)home wid us. Luther Botts, the famous community-sing leader, will be there to put Wim an Wigor neverything into the program. John F. Zeisser, M.A., M.D., nail the rest of the alphabet (part your hair Jack and look cute, the ladies will love you) will unlimber a coupla key-notes. (On your tootsies, fellers, thar she blows!) From time to time, if the brakes hold, we will, or shall in the infinitive, hie oursellufs from wherein we are apt to thither, and grab a lunch with Wild Wittles. Do it sound like a good show? It do! Barber, you're next. Let's have those cards saying you're coming. This ~ Sinclair Lewis

Neutrality has its own aesthetics. ~ Wim Crouwel

Filmmaking is really connected to life and all of the expressions that different arts found to allow access to life. Filmmaking touches on all of it. ~ Wim Wenders

Helvetica was a real step from the 19th century typeface ... We were impressed by that because it was more neutral, and neutralism was a word that we loved. It should be neutral. It shouldn't have a meaning in itself. The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface. ~ Wim Crouwel

Cinema is a worldwide phenomenon. ~ Wim Wenders

I think seeing happens partly through the eyes, but not entirely. ~ Wim Wenders