Talent campus - BERLINALE

The soul of a man (2003) - by Wolfgang Kick

"The soul of a man" is another music documentary by Wim Wenders. He tells us the story of three of his favourite blues musicians: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir, singers that have widely been forgotten. Wenders mixes different kinds of shootage to show us these musicians: he recreated Skip James’ life in silent movie style, used a documentary about J. B. Lenoir that had never been shown in public before, interviewed its creators, and recorded contemporary artists, such as Beck, Lou Reed or Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, covering the old blues songs in a studio.

Often he first plays the original and then the cover version, trying to tell us how much of an impact these musicians had on today’s music. Since their life stories are told quite fast, there is a lot of music in this documentary, more than a documentary could bear. One wonders why Wenders extended the film to about one and half hours.