UTEOTW / Summer Kisses, Winter Tears

UTEOTW

:Summer Kisses, Winter Tears
The Strange Case of Private Detective Phillip Winter

Interestingly enough, the existence of Philip Winter is the most fantastic element of science fiction in Until the End of the World. As any Wim Wenders fan will tell you, Philip Winter died six years previous to Until the End of the World, which took place in 1999, in Wenders's film, Far Away, So Close! , which took place in 1993! After both these films, Ruediger Vogler went on to play Phillip Winter again in Wenders's 1994 film, Lisbon Story. What makes this conundrum most ironic is the fact that Winter's death in Far Away, So Close! is brought about, literally, by Time's arrow.

But, the story doesn't end (or begin) there. Ruediger Vogler also played a Phillip Winter in Wenders's Alice in the Cities (1973), and then played Bruno Winter in Kings of the Road (1975). With the possible exception of Bruno in Kings of the Road, all of these characters have the same sense of borrowed will:

In Until the End of the World, Winter is like Sam Farber in that he has the problem of being a character with no desire of his own. All his actions have to do with carrying out the will of others. And why shouldn't they? He's a detective.
In Alice in the Cities, Winter becomes the keeper of a young girl (the eponymous Alice) after her mother abandons her. This happens only after he finds himself unmotivated to complete a photography excitement. He wanders aimlessly around the US and accidentally becomes involved in the lives of young Alice and her mother.
In Faraway, So Close! Phillip Winter is (surprise!) a detective in Berlin.
In Lisbon Story (which I haven't seen and was never released in the States), he is a sound engineer called to record the sound of an unfished film in Lisbon. When he arrives, the director has apparently disappeared.

Benjamin Ellison suggested in an e-mail to me that Winter is a psuedonym and Dutch/German homonym for Wenders himself, and could very well be the director's alter-ego. An interesting proof of this theory is Winter's pronounced hatred of guns in UTEOTW, which parallels Wenders's distaste for violence in movies (i.e The End of Violence, Faraway, So Close).

This page last modified on Saturday, December 27, 1997, at 21:36
Please send comments and criticisms to Archie Harris (archii@panix.com).
Copyright© 1997 Archie Harris.
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