WINGS OF DESIRE
A film review by Michael Sierchio
Copyright 1988 Michael Sierchio
Wim Wenders breaks new ground and travels old roads in his latest cinematic effort, WINGS OF DESIRE, starring Bruno Ganz as an angel who becomes involved in the lives of the Berliners he observes as part of his "work." Privy to the internal dialogue of every human passerby, we see a world that is modern and ancient, personal and public.
Employing a device that could easily have become kitsch, Wenders masterfully switches between a tonally-rich black-and-white and the colored world of human life. Amazingly, he does so without the possibility that this is a cinematic allusion to Oz -- rather, he refreshes what has become cliche.
Peter Falk makes an appearance as "himself," as Peter Falk working on a WWII film in Berlin, and we see Lt. Columbo as a working actor, a careful observer, a passionate man.
As he grows less content with pure attention, with observing the details of human life, Ganz longs for true engagement in the mortal, phenomenal world.
Though the angels of WINGS are more (or less -- certainly other) than human, there is no hint of deity in their work. They provide a small quantum of repose to the dwellers of the city, but refrain from interfering in their volitional acts -- murder, or suicide, or self- abnegation, or acts of kindness.
The movie ends with a beginning, a hopeful gesture that is an affirmation of human life.
Michael Sierchio @ SMALL SYSTEMS SOLUTIONS
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