What I Learned Working with Wim Wenders

A few years ago, when I was still a film editor, I had the pleasure of working with Wim Wenders on a short film featuring Ronaldo and Zidane for the United Nations Development Programme.

Ronaldo and Zidane each went out separately to meet ordinary people, to thank them on behalf of the UNDP. They only crossed paths briefly at the end, one going up an escalator, the other coming down.

During the edit work with Wim Wenders, two things were confirmed.

The first is that genuinely talented people are open, curious, available, generous, and focused. They are never aggressive, because they know their talent cannot be taken away from them. They do not feel in competition, because they know they are not threatened, and they are never loudmouths. It is always a great pleasure to work with people like this, whether they are famous or not. Wim Wenders clearly belongs to this category.

The second is that when you work for an advertising or communication agency, even if your name is Wim Wenders, final cut is not guaranteed (nb: this was in France, where final cut for the director is standard)

During editing, we knew that the magic lay in the surprised, amazed, joyful smiles of the people being thanked (all the more so because the thanks were genuine, the shoot had been somewhat guerrilla-style). In terms of rhythm and editing choices, we therefore lingered more on these faces than on those of Ronaldo and Zidane. That is how we managed to suspend time, and to generate that sense of surprise and wonder in the viewer too, so he felt thanked too.

And when Ronaldo and Zidane crossed paths on an escalator at the end, each moving in the opposite direction, they shared the same moment of surprise on recognising one another, wanting to say hello, probably to talk, but it was too late… It was precisely that pause, that sense of frustration, that aligned us with them.

That was our story, and that was what we were telling.

However, when I saw the broadcast version of the film, I discovered that the agency had re-edited it without asking or even informing us (as almost systematically happens — see my first point for a likely explanation ?). Zidane and Ronaldo were stars, so the agency assumed they were the stars of the film (whereas the film deliberately overturned that perspective). They therefore extended the shots of Ronaldo and Zidane, added more close-ups of their faces, and stretched out the escalator moment so we could see them for longer. Of course it was at the expense of everything else, and of the story, since the overall duration had to remain the same. There was more Ronaldo and Zidane. And less magic. Which means less impact. It shocked me, and frustrated me.

All the more regrettable given that they were not selling anything. They did not need to be in “advertising mode”.

Anyway.

Long live cinema ✨

What I Learned Working with Wim Wenders