Wim Wenders’ Use of Space in The Million Dollar Hotel

Abstract

Wim Wenders has been quoted as saying, of his own development as a filmmaker, that he is “a painter of space engaged on a quest for time” (qtd. in Graf, 2002, p.63). This paper offers a systematic assessment of the way Wenders creates the filmic space of The Million Dollar Hotel (Wenders, 1999) from a place existing in downtown Los Angeles: the Frontier Hotel on East 5th St., LA (with its companion hotel, the Rosslyn, just across the street). This study considers both place and space as filmic effects, which operate on a continuum from documentary to fantasy.