In addition to paying an homage to iconoclastic film director Samuel Fuller, Wim Wenders (who directed Fuller in four films) also plays with English-language semantics. Via The Guardian:
"Rereading [Fuller's novel] The Dark Page, I hear Sam's voice, very clearly, as if he was talking to me, intense, excited, passionate, honest. I never met anybody else who would actually talk the same way he would write, let alone anybody who would also make movies with that very same impetus and attitude. For most authors, these are very different waters to swim in, talking, writing, or directing. For Sam it was just one and the same element: storytelling.
"I always laugh when I read that line on front of a movie: 'Based on a true story.' It's either such a contradiction in terms or so unnecessary to point out. Who would ever announce his film as 'based on a false story,' anyway? Well, I guess it's because we do not associate 'stories' with 'truth,' and not with lying, either. (Unless it's when we hear the formula 'true story.' Then we know we're being cheated.) The storyteller has a license to imagine, to embellish, to amplify and even to trick us and play with our expectations."
THE NAKED KISS by Samuel Fuller
NYC NOIR: Film Noir in New York City
Richard Widmark to Receive Career Achievement Award
Weird. I can't see Samuel Fuller in any of the Wim Wenders's films that I've seen.