Director Wim Wenders is one of those directors that delivers a film that is either sheer brilliance or difficult to sit through.  For me, Palermo Shooting is a film that will stay with me, and while it does not reach the kind of brilliant heights we’ve seen before, it is an admirable failure.

The story is fairly simple, Finn (played by German actor and musician Campino) is an arrogant photographer whose work is exhibited in art museums worldwide.  Finn is sought after for his eye when it comes to photography, but his own eyes cannot see the dilemmas he faces in his own life.  During a near fatal car accident, Finn’s camera photographs Death.  Yes, Death.  Yes, the Death, the guy who shows up when you die.  And he is played hauntingly by Dennis Hopper.  Finn is then victim to some very close calls with menacing arrows meant to end it all.  His journey to avoid Death’s arrows takes him to the city of Palermo, oddly, Wim Wenders hometown. It’s there that Finn gets a dose of life lesson 101 when confronted with statements such as, “Take everything seriously, just not yourself.”  And the ever popular, “Live each moment as if it were the last time.”  Of course, no one escapes Mr. Death and the final confrontation is uplifting or “down”-lifting depending on how you look at it.

While you can pick apart the weak story, the cinematography is so pretty, you get lost in it.  And the clever dream sequences that haunt Finn are so lush, they are gallery-worthy.  One thing is certain about Wenders, he uses all the cinematic tools at his disposal to ponder questions of life and death. Any filmmaker with the guts to take the kind of risks Wim Wenders has, should be applauded.

Words by Chris Gore

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPvS-Q9tVsI