Presented Wednesday out of competition, "Anselm" is not a documentary in the strict sense of the term but rather "an experimental object" on the work of his compatriot Anselm Kiefer, one of the stars of contemporary art, he said in an interview with AFP.

As with the choreographer Pina Bausch (2011), Wim Wenders, 77, known for his cinematic experiments since the 1960s, used 3D to carry out his project.

"3D is a means of immersion that allows you to be closer to the person you see on the screen. There is something of the order of emotion, of feeling," he says in almost perfect French.

"We are in the experience, he enthuses. We need that to understand Anselm's works, which are often monumental and featured."

German director Wim Wenders, May 18, 2023 in Cannes © Julie Sebadelha / AFP

In addition to feature films ("Alice in the cities" in 1974, "Wings of desire" in 1987 ...) which made him a legend of world cinema, shooting as well in Hollywood as in Tokyo or Paris, Wim Wenders, crowned on the Croisette in 1984 with "Paris, Texas", has never given up the documentary, making a dozen in total.

"New language"

He answers in the affirmative, when AFP asks him if this genre is the future of cinema. "The future of telling freely because, in storytelling cinema, in fiction cinema, it is always the same recipes, the same formulas. Whereas, in the documentary, I can work freely."

Isn't fiction still more prestigious than documentary? Of his two films presented at Cannes, the one in the running for the Palme d'Or is his Japanese fiction "Perfect days".

German director Wim Wenders, May 18, 2023 in Cannes © Julie Sebadelha / AFP

"The big festivals are putting more and more documentaries in competition even if, for a long time, we wondered how a jury could choose between a fiction and a documentary. It's so different!" he observes.

This year, the Festival de Cannes has chosen to put the documentary "Youth" by Chinese director Wang Bing ("Le fossé", 2012) in competition.

Last September, the one on the scourge of opiates -- "All the beauty and the blood shed" by the American Laura Poitras -- won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. A few months later, the Berlinale followed suit by awarding the Golden Bear to the documentary "Sur l'Adamant" by Frenchman Nicolas Philibert.

"I must say that, for me, documentary is freer than fiction cinema, more adventurous," insists Wim Wenders.

Experimenting, looking for new forms of storytelling: two obsessions that still inhabit him. "I like that every film finds a new language," he says.

"I make films because I don't know how to make them. If I knew how to do them, I would stop. With +Anselm+, I had no idea how to do it but we ended up finding the language for it."

What, then, of a foray into the virtual? "The virtual is ultimately not a language. He is there to show but he does not tell," he says, confident, however, "preparing a science fiction film" where "artificial intelligence will play a big role".

But, he warns, "using artificial intelligence as a means, I do not see the point".

© 2023 AFP