Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2016: #82. Wim Wenders’ The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez

The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez

Director: Wim Wenders
Writers: Peter Handke, Wim Wenders

Although we weren’t very enthusiastic about Wenders’ 2015 3D Canadian set narrative Everything Will Be Fine, which premiered at Berlin, the auteur has lined up his next two features already. We’re intrigued about his adaptation of Peter Handke’s play The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez. Wenders has a long collaborative history with Handke (he produced 1978’s The Left Handed Woman, which was Handke’s directorial debut, premiering at Cannes). Handke’s play consists of a dialogue between a man and woman one summer night as they share their feelings on all sorts of subjects. The play has been described as ‘investigating how and what we talk about when we talk about love.” We’re excited to see Alfama Films producing, a production company which usually backs exciting cinema from some of the world’s best auteurs. Here’s hoping this Wenders production feels as inspired as it sounds.

Cast: Reda Kateb, Sophie Semin, Nick Cave

Production Co./Producer: Alfama Films’ Paulo Branco, Neue Road Movies

U.S. Distributor: Rights available. TBD (domestic) Movies Inspired (Italy) Imovision (Brazil) Feelgood Entertainment (Greece)

Release Date: Wenders is one of the few German auteurs to be continually invited to the main competition, appearing nine times (winning in 1984 for Paris, Texas), the last time being with 2008’s Palermo Shooting. If he’s not ready for Berlin, this smaller scale production might get a slot at UCR (where the 2014 doc The Salt of the Earth played).