Direction: Wim Wenders

The best movies, series, and documentaries directed by Wim Wenders. Explore exceptional titles that showcase a unique filmmaking vision.


The Salt of the Earth

2014 · Documentary · 100 min. · France

Direction Wim Wenders · Juliano Ribeiro Salgado

Cast Sebastião Salgado

Plot During the last forty years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of...

8.1

9K votes

8.1

9K votes

Paris, Texas

1984 · Movie · 144 min. · Germany - West Germany (FRG)

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Harry Dean Stanton · Nastassja Kinski · Dean Stockwell · Aurore Clément

Plot A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he...

Max

7.8

33K votes

7.8

33K votes

Buena Vista Social Club

1999 · Documentary · 100 min. · United States

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Ry Cooder · Ibrahim Ferrer · Rubén González · Elíades Ochoa

Plot A group of legendary Cuban musicians, some as old as their nineties, were brought together by Ry Cooder to record a CD. In this film, we see and hear some...

Max

7.7

7K votes

7.7

7K votes

Alice in the Cities

1974 · Movie · 110 min. · Germany - West Germany (FRG)

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Rüdiger Vogler · Yella Rottländer · Lisa Kreuzer · Edda Köchl

Plot Felix, a German journalist travels around United States trying to find inspiration for his next book. The trip, paid for by his editor, proves fruitles: not one idea, not one...

7.7

4K votes

7.7

4K votes

Pina

2011 · Documentary · 100 min. · Germany

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Pina Bausch

Plot A Wim Wenders documentary about legendary German choreographer Pina Bausch using the testimony of her collaborators.

7.6

4K votes

7.6

4K votes

Perfect Days

2023 · Movie · 124 min. · Japan

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Kôji Yakusho · Arisa Nakano · Tokio Emoto · Yumi Asou

Plot Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for...

7.5

6K votes

7.5

6K votes

Kings of the Road

1976 · Movie · 176 min. · Germany - West Germany (FRG)

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Rüdiger Vogler · Hanns Zischler · Lisa Kreuzer · Rudolf Schündler

Plot In this road movie drama, Vogler and Zischler travel along the desolate towns of the east-west German border.

7.5

1K votes

7.5

1K votes

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - The Soul of a Man

2003 · Documentary · 103 min. · United States

Direction Wim Wenders

Plot Director Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club; Wings of Desire; Paris, Texas ) explores the lives of his favorite blues artists — Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, and J. B....

7.5

817 votes

7.5

817 votes

Wings of Desire

1987 · Movie · 128 min. · Germany - West Germany (FRG)

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Bruno Ganz · Peter Falk · Solveig Dommartin · Otto Sander

Plot The sky over Wenders' war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trenchcoated angels who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One, Damiel (Bruno Ganz), wishes...

Max

7.4

14K votes

7.4

14K votes

The American Friend

1977 · Movie · 121 min. · Germany - West Germany (FRG)

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Bruno Ganz · Dennis Hopper · Lisa Kreuzer · Gérard Blain

Plot Jonathan Zimmermann, a picture framer in Hamburg is diagnosed as having leu leukemia. Ripley, an American art dealer dealing in forgeries, uses this fact to arrange for a mob associate...

7.2

9K votes

7.2

9K votes

Tokyo-Ga

1985 · Documentary · 89 min. · Germany - West Germany (FRG)

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Chishu Ryu · Werner Herzog · Yuuharu Atsuta · Chris Marker

Plot Wim Wenders travels to Japan in search of the Tokyo seen in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. Ozu's own "Tokyo monogatari (1953)" is a helpful pre-requisite to seeing Tokyo-Ga (1985).

7.2

849 votes

7.2

849 votes

A Trick of Light

1995 · Documentary · 76 min. · Germany

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Udo Kier · Otto Kuhnle · Nadine Buettner · Lucie Hürtgen-Skladanowsky

Plot A rare gem of cinematic storytelling that weaves docudrama, fictional reenactment, and experimental photography into a powerful, reflective work on the early days of German cinema. The film tells the...

7.0

115 votes

7.0

115 votes

Lisbon Story

1995 · Movie · 100 min. · Portugal

6.9

1K votes

6.9

1K votes

Invisibles

2007 · Documentary · 100 min. · Spain

Direction Isabel Coixet · Wim Wenders · Fernando León de Aranoa · Mariano Barroso

Plot The 'invisibles' are all those we refuse to see - people who seldom garner the attention of the West's media - as well as those who nevertheless refuse to stop...

6.9

2K votes

6.9

2K votes

Faraway, So Close!

1993 · Movie · 140 min. · Germany

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Otto Sander · Bruno Ganz · Nastassja Kinski · Martin Olbert

Plot A sequel to Wender's Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of desire), it again follows a group of angels in the German capital who look longingly upon the life of humans....

6.9

2K votes

6.9

2K votes

Notebook on Cities and Clothes

1989 · Documentary · 79 min. · Germany - West Germany (FRG)

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Wim Wenders · Yohji Yamamoto

Plot Wim Wenders talks with Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto about the creative process and ponders the relationship between cities, identity and the cinema in the digital age.

6.8

144 votes

6.8

144 votes

Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet

2002 · Movie · 92 min. · Germany

Direction Wim Wenders · Víctor Erice · Werner Herzog · Chen Kaige

Cast Chloë Sevigny · Amber Tamblyn · Ana Sofía Liaño · Pelayo Suárez

Plot Unique in the history of cinema about the most universal of all subjects: Time. Each of the 15 directors has been given exactly ten minutes on the screen for their...

6.8

1K votes

6.8

1K votes

Lightning Over Water

1980 · Documentary · 91 min. · Germany - West Germany (FRG)

Direction Wim Wenders · Nicholas Ray

Cast Nicholas Ray · Wim Wenders · Susan Ray · Tim Ray

Plot Director 'Nicholas Ray' is eager to complete a final film before his imminent death from cancer. Wim Wenders is working on his own film "Hammett" (1983) in Hollywood, but flies...

6.7

996 votes

6.7

996 votes

Anselm

2023 · Documentary · 93 min. · Germany

Direction Wim Wenders

Plot Anselm Kiefer one of the greatest contemporary artists. His past and present are interwoven to diffuse the line between film and painting thus giving unique cinematic experience dives deep into...

6.6

56 votes

6.6

56 votes

The State of Things

1982 · Movie · 117 min. · Germany - West Germany (FRG)

Direction Wim Wenders

Cast Patrick Bauchau · Allen Garfield · Isabelle Weingarten · Geoffrey Carey

Plot A story about a group of film producers making a science fiction movie in the exteriors of Portugal.The black and white movie talks about a world-wide nuclear catastrophe, and instead...

6.6

627 votes

6.6

627 votes