Wings of DesireDoes anyone above hear our most private thoughts? And if they did, what would they make of it, the poetry of our souls? Wings of Desire is a movie about angels who watch the lives of people in Berlin. They overhear the hopes and dreams of the human beings--their inner thoughts are inadvertent prayers for someone to listen. It is the story of an angel named Damiel (Bruno Ganz), who has grown weary of merely listening and documenting the events since the beginning of time, along with his friend, Cassiel (Otto Sander). After becoming attracted to a lovely trapeze artist named Marion (Solveig Dommartin), Damiel begins to question his future in that role.
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The idea of guardian angels as invisible divine emissaries and watchers can be linked to the Old Testament, including the book of Job. The angels in Wings of Desire belong in the role of observers, occasionally interceding out of benevolent intent, with their actions being attributed to, as Damiel puts it, a "pretense" of coincidence. Damiel, however, isn't looking for credit for his actions; on the contrary, he is wistful that humanity gets to enjoy tangible things, and he desires to feel what they do. His passion is stirred by Marion; her sadness and vulnerability evokes something protective in him, a spirit of love and affection. Wings of Desire is mostly a black and white film, but like an inverse of The Wizard of Oz, Wings of Desire alternates into vibrant scenes of color not when the perspective is of an other world--that of the angel's--but ours, which in the eyes of angels like Damiel, is the more real and vibrant one. When Damiel comes to visit Berlin as a human being, even he tries to make sense of the newfound colors, asking a passerby to identify them for him via graffiti on the Berlin Wall. Damiel is an angel who is curious about life as a child is, and frequently refers to a poetic refrain about "when the child was a child", describing the newfound experiences with wonder and amazement. Damiel likes children; not only do they occasionally see him in their innocent eyes, but they embody the same curiosity he shares about life. It's never implied that Damiel doesn't relish doing good things for people, but that he longs to be closer to those same people he's come to love. There are few moments as uplifting and restorative of faith than when Damiel puts his hand on the shoulder of a depressed man on a train, and the previously crestfallen man is bolstered with newfound faith in himself--a moment which Damiel is able to cultivate because of his genuine sympathy, something Cassiel seems to struggle with by no fault of his own in a similar moment later.
Along with Damiel's pursuit of attaining humanity, Wings of Desire also follows his friend Cassiel and his observations of a elderly poet referred to as "Homer" (Curt Bois). There is also the story of the film star coming to Berlin to make a World War II movie; that film star is Peter Falk playing "himself". Wings of Desire is a German film, but a significant amount of dialogue alternates between German, French, English, and many more, making the Berlin of the film a bit of a melting pot and collection of peoples and cultures, and thus also a good place for angels to observe humanity. Peter Falk spends his time between shoots sketching people, drawing their likenesses for reasons which become apparent later in the film. Wings of Desire is a film about understanding humanity through observation--learning about people. The angels appear to make their headquarters at a library, which itself is a collective of human achievement in literature and philosophy, the records of dreams. Alternately, Damiel and Cassiel frequently overlook the city from an angelic statue on high, seeing Berlin from a bird's eye view, documenting and scouting. The Berlin of Wings of Desire is one still divided by the Berlin Wall, and it is evident how that structure cripples the welfare of the city. There is obvious economic downturn; the circus Marion works at is a travelling one, set up in an field surrounded by industrial buildings, with stray abandoned cars in the background here and there. The Berlin of the film also belongs to a Germany still feeling the memory of its shameful past under Adolf Hitler in the Third Reich, evidenced by Peter Falk's film and the Berlin Wall as well, not to mention Homer's own recollections of the past, flashbacks to the end of the war and the nation left in rubble. The angels of Wings of Desire all share similar visual motifs--they all wear the same kind of long winter coat and keep their hair in a pony tail, elements which--when absent--also signify that Damiel has made his move into the realm of humanity, in addition to the transition to color. It is a stylistic trait which Kevin Smith would adopt for his own movie about angels observing and interacting with humanity, Dogma.
Much of the speech in Wings of Desire is delivered not by dialogue between characters, but by the internal monologue of the varied people of Berlin, those personal thoughts and dreams which angels like Damiel appear to be tasked to safeguard and address when needed. There is an irony that angels like Damiel should suffer by not being able to adequately sympathize with their flock, not able to know the sensate experiences humanity possesses, except on faith. Damiel's thoughts drift to those simple pleasures and elements; he shares these when he offers comfort to a man dying in a motorcycle accident, who mutters the seemingly nonsensical collection of words, Damiel's own prayers to experience things as innocent as the "veins in leaves", "hopscotch", and so on. The idea that angels like Damiel would sacrifice their immortality for these things we take for granted is made appreciable by the ghost-like presence and inability to truly affect the world save for very subtle influence. There also that there seems to exist absolutely no dynamic for romance in the realm of angels; even Damiel and Cassiel's friendship is really just a form of work camaraderie. The pain which strikes Damiel, and which possesses him to "take the plunge" as he puts it, is that he has already formed a "heart" in his chest, one which has already committed him to this descent to our world from the very start. There are faint echoes of John Milton's epic poem, "Paradise Lost" here; however Damiel remains, frankly, a good and lovable man, a quality which grows the more he experiences humanity. In essence, his transition to our world is a kind of graduation, a leap of faith, and an "ascendance" into the world in which he belongs--his "afterlife".
Recommended for: Fans of a contemplative and poetic film about guardian angels. Wings of Desire connects with viewers by showing a large cross-section of humanity, and how the thoughts expressed are truly the same kind we feel. The film offers a sense of solace in the idea that even when we feel isolated, someone is listening to our needs, and even sympathizes with them.
Along with Damiel's pursuit of attaining humanity, Wings of Desire also follows his friend Cassiel and his observations of a elderly poet referred to as "Homer" (Curt Bois). There is also the story of the film star coming to Berlin to make a World War II movie; that film star is Peter Falk playing "himself". Wings of Desire is a German film, but a significant amount of dialogue alternates between German, French, English, and many more, making the Berlin of the film a bit of a melting pot and collection of peoples and cultures, and thus also a good place for angels to observe humanity. Peter Falk spends his time between shoots sketching people, drawing their likenesses for reasons which become apparent later in the film. Wings of Desire is a film about understanding humanity through observation--learning about people. The angels appear to make their headquarters at a library, which itself is a collective of human achievement in literature and philosophy, the records of dreams. Alternately, Damiel and Cassiel frequently overlook the city from an angelic statue on high, seeing Berlin from a bird's eye view, documenting and scouting. The Berlin of Wings of Desire is one still divided by the Berlin Wall, and it is evident how that structure cripples the welfare of the city. There is obvious economic downturn; the circus Marion works at is a travelling one, set up in an field surrounded by industrial buildings, with stray abandoned cars in the background here and there. The Berlin of the film also belongs to a Germany still feeling the memory of its shameful past under Adolf Hitler in the Third Reich, evidenced by Peter Falk's film and the Berlin Wall as well, not to mention Homer's own recollections of the past, flashbacks to the end of the war and the nation left in rubble. The angels of Wings of Desire all share similar visual motifs--they all wear the same kind of long winter coat and keep their hair in a pony tail, elements which--when absent--also signify that Damiel has made his move into the realm of humanity, in addition to the transition to color. It is a stylistic trait which Kevin Smith would adopt for his own movie about angels observing and interacting with humanity, Dogma.
Much of the speech in Wings of Desire is delivered not by dialogue between characters, but by the internal monologue of the varied people of Berlin, those personal thoughts and dreams which angels like Damiel appear to be tasked to safeguard and address when needed. There is an irony that angels like Damiel should suffer by not being able to adequately sympathize with their flock, not able to know the sensate experiences humanity possesses, except on faith. Damiel's thoughts drift to those simple pleasures and elements; he shares these when he offers comfort to a man dying in a motorcycle accident, who mutters the seemingly nonsensical collection of words, Damiel's own prayers to experience things as innocent as the "veins in leaves", "hopscotch", and so on. The idea that angels like Damiel would sacrifice their immortality for these things we take for granted is made appreciable by the ghost-like presence and inability to truly affect the world save for very subtle influence. There also that there seems to exist absolutely no dynamic for romance in the realm of angels; even Damiel and Cassiel's friendship is really just a form of work camaraderie. The pain which strikes Damiel, and which possesses him to "take the plunge" as he puts it, is that he has already formed a "heart" in his chest, one which has already committed him to this descent to our world from the very start. There are faint echoes of John Milton's epic poem, "Paradise Lost" here; however Damiel remains, frankly, a good and lovable man, a quality which grows the more he experiences humanity. In essence, his transition to our world is a kind of graduation, a leap of faith, and an "ascendance" into the world in which he belongs--his "afterlife".
Recommended for: Fans of a contemplative and poetic film about guardian angels. Wings of Desire connects with viewers by showing a large cross-section of humanity, and how the thoughts expressed are truly the same kind we feel. The film offers a sense of solace in the idea that even when we feel isolated, someone is listening to our needs, and even sympathizes with them.