Until the End of the World artwork

I wanted to include this as part of yesterday's musing on the British Thief poster, but it proved too awkward a fit, so it gets its own post today. Presenting the original artwork for the 1992 UK Entertainment In Video VHS edition of Until the End of the World, Wim Wenders' globe-trotting science fiction adventure.... I speculated yesterday that Thief's lukewarm performance in the US might have been due to the artwork designed for the US one-sheet poster, which gives the impression the film is more a science fiction thriller than a tough urban crime film, and as I was putting the post together, the artwork for EIV's VHS edition of Until the End of the World came to mind. I remember renting this tape out in 1992 and being disappointed the film didn't deliver on the promise of the beautiful nebulous airbrush painted sleeve which has a Cyberpunk/William Gibson feel to it, quite unlike the actual film. I'm thinking back now to those formative film watching years, and Until the End of the World was most likely my first Wim Wenders, and what an inauspicious introduction it was: EIV's tape contained the vastly cut down 151min version of the film, and no wonder I thought the film a confusing and alienating experience. In the subsequent years I discovered much greater riches with Wim Wenders' German films, plus his two finest films, Paris Texas and Wings of Desire, and with those under my belt, I was intrigued enough to revisit Until the End of the World in 2005, when Studio Canal put out the complete 287min cut (4 continents, 4 DVDs). Over the years my fondness for the film has grown considerably, and I now consider it one of the more interesting and rewarding films of the 90's.