Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.5

Anselm 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 14, 2025

It may frankly just be my particularly skewed sense of humor, but it strikes me as maybe just a little funny that both Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders have released features in 3D, as if their "standard 2D" sensibilities somehow weren't quite enough. Herzog's maybe literal nook and cranny of this particular presentational format is his documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D, while Wenders actually has two features in 3D as of the writing of this review, the one currently under discussion and Pina 3D. Anselm and Pina are siblings for reasons other than simply their three dimensional presentations (which were themselves achieved by some similar technologies). Both films are kind of "living portraits" of artists, with Pina paying homage to German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch, and Anselm doing similar service for German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer. Perhaps a bit unexpectedly due to the seemingly (emphasis on seemingly) inherently static aspect of offering a painter and sculptor's work, as opposed to an artistic pursuit involved in movement, Wenders offers a series of stunning images that end up creating a rather weirdly hypnotic ambience, as the camera, well, dances around various pieces by Kiefer.

Anselm is both revelatory but also maybe intentionally obfuscatory in terms of its focal character. That said, the film is so visually audacious and also manages to tell enough of an ostensible "story" that it will at least probably engender interest from viewers in doing further research, which is exactly what the film did for this viewer. I was frankly kind of shocked by some of what I read about Kiefer, since it's completely unaddressed in an admittedly deliberately opaque film that relies as much on totally bizarre quasi-installations that Wenders' camera glides around, as well as putatively more narrative driven moments which might hint at Kiefer getting in touch with his inner child.

Adding to the trance like atmosphere of the visuals is a really interesting if also hallucinatory soundtrack that features some haunting music by Leonard Küßner that sets some writings of Paul Celan, a poet who had a profound impact of Kiefer, something that again may need to be gleaned by "extracurricular" study and not necessarily divulged in the film itself.

Anselm 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Anselm is presented on both 2D and 3D Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion's Janus Contemporaries imprint with AVC (2D) and MVD (3D) encoded 1080p transfers in 1.50:1. Captured with Sony cameras at a source resolution of 6K (according to the IMDb among several other online sources), this is a really stunning looking presentation in either format. The 3D version offers superb dimensionality with really impressive depth of field as Wenders' camera explores both outdoor material where, for example, a foreground tree can help establish depth behind it, or a lot of indoor material, as in the completely gobsmacking first look at Kiefer's gargantuan storage facility, where a camera mounted to his bike travels through an almost insane labyrinth of aisles between art. Even subtle material, as in a scene of the child writing and drawing, can offer surprising depth. I did have some parallax issues when the camera pans, especially far back into the frame, but the most momentarily distracting element came courtesy of the white subtitles for some very brief German language material, which I literally had to close one eye to read. The 2D presentation offers really appealing clarity and exceptional fine detail levels. The palette in both versions is natural looking throughout.

Anselm 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Anselm features a highly expressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that is a "combo platter" of ambient environmental sounds, some gorgeous orchestral and vocal music by Leonard Küßner, and occasional actual spoken material, though that tends to be in almost hallucinatory whispers that kind of weave in and out of the rest of the soundscape. There's consistent engagement of the surround channels for all of the scoring, and the other effects are expertly wafted through the side and rear channels to help achieve a really distinctive listening experience. Optional English subtitles are available, though see my mention of them above in the video section.

Anselm 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Meet the Filmmakers (HD; 15:40) offers Wim Wenders, who talks about both this film and Pina.


• Trailer (HD: 1:52)

A foldout leaflet is also included with writing by Michael Joshua Rowin.

Anselm 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Anselm is an absolutely entrancing experience, even if it by design doesn't offer a clear biographical portrait of its subject. Technical merits are first rate on both 2D and 3D discs, and the interview with Wenders is also enjoyable. Highly recommended.