On 26 January, an interactive exhibition dedicated to the works of one of the most important American painters of the 20th century, Edward Hopper, opened at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel.
The exhibition, realized in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, which after the closure caused by the health emergency can finally be revisited, focuses on the representations of rural and urban passages typical of the painter, an aspect that is rarely brought to the attention of most people despite it is one of the fundamental elements of his art.
And for this occasion, the German director Wim Wenders wanted to make a 3D short film as a tribute to Hopper’s works: “Two or Three Things I Know about Edward Hopper“, produced by Road Movies.
With this work, made during a road trip across the United States, the director, already author of films such as “Wings of Desire”, “Paris, Texas” and “Pina”, has succeeded in immersing the viewer in Hopper’s works, allowing him to live an experience at the limit of what is possible.
The thing that strikes me most about Hopper’s painting is that when you look at his paintings it always seems that something has to happen that never happens in the end. It is precisely this tension that the viewer has to interpret is the strength of Hopper’s work. His paintings attract towards infinity and I have tried to reproduce this feeling with the 3D shots
The final result is a micro-series that takes place within some of the most iconic paintings of the American painter, in which the emotions of the characters are expressed without the use of words and where the action, the protagonist out of all the artist’s paintings, can only be imagined.
An encounter between painting, cinema and 3D technology, which seems almost natural given the relationship that Hopper has always had with the seventh art, from which he allowed himself to be influenced by framing and light, but which he has also influenced.
Just think of Hitchcock, who was inspired by “House by the Railroad” for “Psycho” but also “Windows at night” for “Rear Window”.
House by the Railroad Night Windows
The short film is not yet available but here we leave you the trailer and the interview with director Wim Wenders recorded during the press conference for the Fondation Beyeler exhibition that will extend its opening until July 2020.
