kolo-5 I just saw the movie in International Film Festival of Durrës, eager as I was for another Wim Wenders experience. And I left the theater with mixed feelings. Images were so good, bur the story was so cheap. The apology of Death at the end of the movie was awful, as if written by a 15 years scholar. So was the dialogue with the shepherd. Cheap and cliché ideas about death and life. The presence in the story of G. Mezzogiorno was senseless and not justified at all. The story of a photographer that takes a shoot of Death, is not bad, whatsoever. But it surely didn't to be treated as in child books, with death coming towards you and moralizing about life and death. And above all, the pregnant Milla, pretending deeper art in VIP Photo shooting, gave a sense of pity. No worth seeing it twice.

acg_Pangea Since I saw "Der Himmel über Berlin" approximately 3 years ago I've become a valid Vim Venders fan. After that day, I always thought, Wim Wenders had something original to say. Palermo Shooting hasn't changed my verdict, well... Almost. The Thing about Palermo Shooting that I guess, this movie tells the well known story with different methods. The methods that little bit um, shall we say cheesy? Of course, this doesn't mean that it's not a enjoyable movie. It's very "warm" movie after all. But despite all this "warmness", you think in somewhere, something/things is/are missing in this movie. Still, it's worth to watching.

fucyeah So let's sum up what this movie is about: a guy that "has a failed life"(it isn't really shown how his life is out of place they could at least made him a crack addict) that is not in touch with the world around him and goes to a small but charming(...not) Italian town and finds love, good food, old painting...and the meaning of life.So what can I say? Did I enjoy it? No. Will you enjoy it? Only if you have not seen more than 2 films in your life: one being The Princess Bride and the other being Space Jam. If so the film will strike you with it's dark images and "themes" and will leave you magnified by it's depth. Palermo Shooting was a real disaster for me so it's hard to chose where to start. The acting was pretty bad. Dennis Hopper was too lame in it. Let's not forget that this was the role that predated his performance in An American Carol so this is not exactly rock bottom. Mr. Campino (when I first heard his name I thought he was an Italian designer but now that I know that he is fronting a famous German rock band I know that he is really hip) reminds me of Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone but with cool tattoos and a nice camera. Milla Jovovich wanted to mix with THE art crowd so she decided to come and show her "magnificent belly". The others just are not worth mentioning. The story was cliché. It is a mix of The Seventh Seal, the Disney adaptation of A Christmas Carol and maybe something "wiered" like Eternal Sunshine... in the visuals(mostly the dream sequences). I watched it in a cinema and it was loud. When the film reached the point when the photographer meets the girl and she says she understands him I thought the movie will turn in to a Indiana Jones type of story and she will go on and tell him about the secret Palermo treasure guarded by the death. Such a shame it did not turn that way... The music is out of place and I must admit there are some hip tunes but they are not at all in tone with the movie.

richard_sleboe This is easily Wim Wender's most pretentious movie to date, and that's saying a lot given that Wenders is perhaps the most pretentious director of his generation. There is so much symbolic Mumbo-Jumbo I don't know where to begin: Dungeons. Coffins. Dead people. Ghosts. Including Lou Reed as a black-and-white specter of himself. Flocks of sheep. A shape-shifting city skyline. Hooded strangers, shooting arrows and causing crashes. All of which I have seen before, and with more panache: In "Dark City", in Cronenberg's "Crash", Paul Auster's "Lulu on the Bridge", Tom Tykwer's "Winter Sleepers", even in TV's "Lost". I'm not even mentioning "The Devil's Advocate". At the height of his self-importance, Wenders has Dennis Hopper, in the part of Death himself, make a speech about the merits of analog photography. Sounds ridiculous? Go figure. But the weakest link is Wender's choice of Campino as photographer Finn Gilbert, the lead character. Campino, a German rock star in his day job, may be photogenic in an aging toy boy way, but an actor he sure is not. Anything he says sounds like a line from a script, and the script is weak enough to begin with. Wenders asks too much of him, and too little of his co-lead Giovanna Mezzogiornio, a fine actress restricted to sleepy smiles and sullen glances in this movie. Charming guest appearances by Jana Pallaske as a feisty arts student, Inga Busch as a sexy swimming instructor in Ugg boots and a bathing suit, and by the divine Milla Jovovich as her glamorous self. Nice enough soundtrack, featuring Bonnie Prince Billy, Nick Cave, and The Velvet Underground. Watch with your eyes closed.