Notebook on Cities and Clothes

Stars: Yohji Yamamoto. German director Wim Wenders (Hammett, Wings of Desire, Until the End of the World) examines the working life of fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto in this visually intriguing high-tech ode. Yamamoto, who surrounds himself with picture books from the past, filled with clothes that were truly useful, is caught between two opposing poles: his job requires him to make a product that is very now but replaceable next year, yet his personal aspiration is to create something that will last. An interesting dilemma which, more than anything, suggests that fashion and philosophy don't mix well. Strangely, it is not the slow-talking, occasionally muddled, Yamamoto that makes Notebook on Cities and Clothes interesting; the real star of the film is Wenders. His voice-over narration talks to the audience about identity, fashion, filmmaking, and the creative process in between clips of Yamamoto talking, and his visual sense is constantly changing the picture in striking ways (Yamamoto is often seen on a miniature monitor being held by a hand (presumably Wenders') in the foreground, while the background is, perhaps, Parisian city streets through the windshield of a moving car). Ironically, some of the ideas that are so poorly articulated in the fictional Until the End of the World are much better expressed in this filmed "notebook." Audience: Mostly for film buffs and lovers of good documentaries.