THIS FILM COURTS ALL THE DANGERS OF MORBID PRURIENCE INHERENT IN ITS SUBJECT—A PORTRAIT OF ONE OF WENDERS’ CINEMATIC HEROES, LEGENDARY AMERICAN DIRECTOR NICHOLAS RAY—AND SOMEHOW EMERGES SAFELY ON THE OTHER SIDE WITH A POSITIVE SENSE OF BOTH ITSELF AND ITS SUBJECT.
Taking time off from his preparation of Hammett, Wenders visits Ray in New York. What he finds is a man on the brink of death, who is nevertheless still worrying over his last unfinished work (We Can’t Go Home Again) and still able to discourse on his favourite theme—the pain of homelessness— when invited to lecture after a screening of his masterpiece The Lusty Men. Wenders follows and films Ray through these activities, confiding his doubts about the possible indignity of what he is doing, and allowing us to see the kind of manipulation and anguished discussion that took place around the filming. What happens in Lightning Over Water is a strange transaction that validates both the relationship between the two film-makers and this death-watching exercise.