Until the End of the World
Short description
Until the End of the World is set in 1999, as the world awaits the possible consequences of an out-of-control Indian nuclear satellite. Claire Tourneur is preoccupied with other matters. After a car crash brings her into contact with two bank robbers, she agrees to carry their stolen money to Paris. Along the way she picks up Trevor McPhee, an enigmatic American who takes the money and vanishes. Intrigued and drawn to him, Claire follows, helped by her lover Eugene and the detective Phillip Winter. Trevor is being pursued by the CIA, which wants an invention belonging to his father: a device that can record dreams and visions. Wim Wenders directed, and wrote the screenplay with Solveig Dommartin and Michael Almereyda. It was his seventh film as director, following Wings of Desire and preceding Faraway, So Close!
Dommartin plays Claire, with William Hurt as Trevor, Sam Neill as Eugene, Rüdiger Vogler as Winter, and Max von Sydow and Jeanne Moreau as Trevor's parents, Henry and Edith. The production was made across Germany, Australia and France on a budget of 23 million USD, with Warner Bros. Pictures among the companies behind it. The film runs 158 minutes. On IMDb it holds 6.8/10 from around 12,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7/10 from 251 votes, so audience opinion has settled at a moderate level. A critics' rating of 6.8/10 from 18 reviews places professional assessment in much the same range as the audience response.
What's left behind the scenes
- The footage showing brain impulses was shot in high resolution. Wim Wenders and specialists from NHK (as high-resolution video could only be played there at the time due to the availability of the necessary equipment) worked with these shots for six weeks. They specifically adjusted the settings to create unusual video effects. They often recorded the image while fast-forwarding and then played the resulting footage back at normal speed.
- Initially, the director's cut of the film, shot by Wim Wenders, ran for 20 hours.
- As it happened, Wim Wenders filmed his movie on every continent except Africa and South America; in fact, he had intended to film in Africa, but the producers convinced him not to.
- Wim Wenders presented his ideas to Australian writer Peter Carey in hopes of convincing him to make changes to the script. His story lasted 6 hours.
- It took Wim Wenders 14 years of his life and $23 million to bring his vision to the screen. Filming had to be organized in 15 cities across 7 different countries on 4 continents.
- Solveig Dommartin (1961-2007) and the cinematographer secretly filmed all the "Chinese" scenes on their own, without consulting anyone.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
