As a philistine, I have never heard of Anselm Kiefer and this film made me embarrassed about it. Ostensibly a documentary by Wim Wenders about the contemporary German painter and sculptor, but it is a work of art in its own right. With no narration and only brief snippets of Kiefer being interviewed, the film mostly lets his artwork speak for itself. Accompanied by music and readings from the poetry that inspired Kiefer, watching this is a mind-bending experience. The breadth of Kiefer’s talent, the vividness of the worlds he creates and of course the incredible scale of his works boggles the mind. This is probably the best art film I’ve ever seen and nothing else comes close.

The opening shots are of wedding dresses posed as sculptures in the middle of nature. The fabric isn’t pristine yet the stains and creases only add detail and richness to the composition. Instead of heads, there are instead abstract shapes. There is no commentary except for sometimes an indication of the name of the work, a pattern that holds throughout the film. Next we see what looks more like rows and rows of traditional paintings stacked together. Except that the scale isn’t immediately apparent until we see the artist himself Anselm Kiefer weaving through the paintings on a bicycle. His studio is huge, closer in size to something like an aircraft hangar, and his paintings, thickly crusted with melted metal, plant material and other objects, are so huge that he needs elevated platforms to work on them. This is the only the beginning of an incredible visual experience that words are unable to do justice to. In some scenes, actors are called on to represent Kiefer at younger ages to show us his developing thoughts and emotions. Central to the themes he often revisits in his art are the poetry of Paul Celan and so there are repeated references German history and the horrors of World War 2. Tracing the course of his career, we see the wide diversity of materials and styles with which he has worked and how his vision grows larger and larger.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a film as beautiful as this and I’m flabbergasted that this is only a 2D version of a work that Wim Wenders intended to be experienced in 3D. You can see that in how the camera zooms in to follow the creases of the wedding dresses and how Kiefer is shown balancing a tightrope with a photograph of the destruction of the World War 2 as the backdrop. The intent appears to be to create a new form of art by both Wenders and Kiefer working collaboratively. I’d say they succeed brilliantly and it’s difficult to imagine how else some of these large art installations could be experienced. Many pieces are too huge to be moved or tightly integrated into the space they occupy. In some cases the art is the entire space itself setup like a cavern or a concrete depression in the ground. While it would no doubt be amazing to be able to visit these places in person, it seems to me that any form of tourism done at scale would ruin the effect. Filming the artist himself walking through these spaces, shot by a maestro of cinema who understands exactly how best it should be seen and accompanied with exactly the right music, does seem like a great way of appreciating Kiefer’s work. This format even lets you in on the process of Kiefer and his assistants creating the work, melting metal, running a flamethrower over the surface, etc. before seeing it in its completed form.

This being an art film that rather than a more conventional documentary, it does convey frustratingly little information on Kiefer the man and his life. I’ve noticed that a lot of reporting about art of note focus on how much they sold for because the reporter doesn’t know how else to convey its significance. This film not only omits any mention of money, it doesn’t state if the artworks can even be sold. It’s a brilliant decision to highlight the art itself but over time I did find myself burning with curiosity wondering how Kiefer could afford the ever larger studios he builds and the staff who work for him. So this film presents one aspect of Kiefer as he no doubt wants to be seen and remembered for, but we can also infer that he must be a very astute businessman. Similarly it leaves out details of his personal life, including his marriages and his children. Perhaps that is none of our business, yet he does want us to know that his art has been shaped by his experiences, his growing up in the aftermath of World War 2, the tension he feels with German guilt and so on. It’s cute and affecting that he wants to seen together with his child-self side by side. But it, like everything else, is still a curated image that he wants to present.

None of that detracts from the fact that this a superlative film that showcases the greatest works of an extremely talented artist in the best possible light. It is sublimely beautiful at times and a fantastic example of a collaboration between a filmmaker and his subject to create something that neither alone could have achieved. Though Wenders himself is not seen it, his fingerprints are everywhere and it even ends with a shot that I’m certain directly references Wings of Desire. Every time I watch one of Wenders’ films, I come away thinking that I really should watch more of them. The pattern holds true here as well.