UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD
A film review by G M Heinrich
Copyright 1992 G M Heinrich
Review: UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD. Directed Wim Wenders (WINGS OF DESIRE) Lots of actors, including William Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, Sam Neill, Max Von Syndow and Ernie Dingo.
The Australian release of UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD is roughly three hours long, cut down from an original length that's rumoured to be between five and seven hours long. Even so, there's more than one movie in the edited length of World: there's at least three distinct sections, and enough stuffing -- in terms of ideas and incomplete, possibly edited-out character development -- to make a few more movies again. Ambitious, in this case, is an understatement.
UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD has three basic sections. The first hour is an ordinary chase movie through Europe and the US. The action then moves to Coober Pedy for the final two "acts." Hurt's mother is blind. His father has invented a camera for the blind. Hurt was travelling around the world to film images for his mother. (The scene where Hurt films his sister and her daughter is my favourite of the movie: the daughter tells the camera how she misses her mother, and wishes the mother were there to meet the granddaughter. It's simple and moving, with superbly restrained emotional impact.)
The film Hurt makes -- and it's effect on the mother -- is the centre of the second section. And the final third concerns "the disease of images." The father goes one step further with his camera, and records the dreams of Hurt and Dommartin, who become addicted.
UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD is co-written by Peter Carey (the narration is reminiscent of Illywacker). It's filmed in 10 countries -- Wenders has said, in interviews, that "the constant crew...were...completely wasted and out of their heads." In some ways, this shows. There was too much material for one movie -- it's disjointed and obviously heavily edited. But for a director like Wenders, severe editing is a plus. And the constant introduction of new themes and plots (and the way once-important plotlines are just forgotten) doesn't distract from the dazzling ideas of the script.
Very much worth seeing. Inventive, affecting and more interesting than most of the movies showing now.
(That review was followed up by a friend of mine, who said UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD was "good, but dull in places." But he's not good with long movies.)
--- G M Heinrich ( leroy@socs.uts.edu.au )
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