Wim Wenders has premiered his new 3D documentary, From Inside Out: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor, at the Venice Film Festival, turning his camera on the work of the 83-year-old Swiss architect. The film marks Wenders' fourth outing in the 3D format, following his dance tribute Pina, his career retrospective on artist Anselm Kiefer titled Anselm, and the less well-received Every Thing Will Be Fine.
The documentary takes viewers to a range of Zumthor's structures, many of them remote or privately owned, including the architect's own home, the Therme Vals spa in Switzerland, the Steilneset Memorial to the Victims of the Witch Trials above the Arctic Circle in Vardo, Norway, and the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel in Wachendorf, Germany. Also featured is the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard — described as one of Zumthor's most recently completed and most complex projects, and one that is more accessible to general audiences than his other sites.
To offset the cold, concrete-heavy aesthetic of Zumthor's buildings, Wenders populates the frame with people moving through the spaces to convey scale, most of them silent figures who wander and smile approvingly. Among them are director Ava DuVernay, novelist Siri Hustvedt and dancer Aoi Yamada. Werner Herzog, described as Wenders' old comrade from the 1970s New German Cinema movement, is given the chance to speak on camera about his impressions of LACMA, with his wife Lena Herzog nodding along beside him.
Interwoven with this footage is material of Zumthor himself, shot over some 14 years on standard 2D stock, in which he discusses aesthetics, construction and design. He comes across as devoted to his late wife and family and attentive to his clients' interests, though he is described as a less engaging screen presence than Kiefer was in Wenders' previous art documentary.
The film's 3D drone photography is highlighted as a technical strength, particularly in sequences that situate the buildings within their broader landscapes.
The documentary's credited participants include Peter Zumthor, Anna Trauffer, Carin Caduff, Tarek Atoui, Karl Schloegel, Suzanne Ziellenbach, David Regehr, Aoi Yamada, Siri Hustvedt, Michael Govan, Pedro Reyes, Reiko Sudo, Mark Bradford, Ava DuVernay, Mariana Castillo Deball, Mark Oliver Everett, Ever Anderson, Tallulah Jane Jones Keeler, Lena Herzog, Werner Herzog and Sophie Hunger.
Photo: Thiago Piccoli, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
