WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Wim Wenders Writers: Peter Handke and Wim Wenders Starring: Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander, Solveig Dommartin, Peter Falk
Here's the most beautifully lyric, most poignant, and downright sensual film you will probably ever see about the phenomenon known as angels. That's because this is not a glorification of what they are, it's a film that tries to make it feel like you're one of the two angels in this film. It understands that they are the spirits God chose to watch over earth because no one else could witness it. It knows that perhaps children can see them, but adults have lost the abitlity to. And it knows that they try and console those they see in desperation and sadness, but that they cannot directly affect their lives. To them, the world is a black and white world that they know everything and nothing about.
The two angels of the film are named Damiel and Cassiel (Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander), and they are the angels who look after Berlin, back when it was divided by the Berlin Wall. They have been there ever since the days before of Hitler, have witnessed all of World War II, and have seen everything they possibly can see. The first hour and a half are a slow-moving, totally hypnotic trip around Berlin as we see each of them watching people, listening to their inner thoughts like they were stations on the radio, and sometimes staying to see people in need of some help, to which all they can give is a helping hand.
Somewhere in the beginning, Damiel wanders into a carnival, and soon falls in love with an acrobat there, Marion (Solveig Dommartin), who is depressed because the carnival is closing, and she will have to give up the job she loves and take up a waitressing job. It's easy to understand why Damiel loves her: she has deep, sad feelings, something which the angels are not able to really have, except for the giant yearning that Damiel soon has to "take the plunge," as he puts it, and become human so that he can live as the people he has been watching for so long.
Sound familiar? Well, it should because it was recently remade here in America as "City of Angels," with Nicolas Cage as the lead angel, and Meg Ryan as the woman (a heart surgeon in the movie - get it?). Yes, I missed the film (on purpose), but as it looked, that was too obsessed with the love story, which is fine, it's just not "Wings of Desire." This film is not one that would be as successful as "City of Angels" was. It moves slowly, and has no plot and really nowhere to go for most of its running time. It's obsessed with creating the feeling of being either Damiel and Cassiel, not being able to see things the way humans do, and only being able to act as a voyeur, even when they're right in front of the people they're viewing.
"Wings of Desire" is one of the most delicately structured films I have ever seen in my life. It's filled with a heavy amount of sadness and almost jealousy, but it's light as a feather. There is no real feeling of time, and it has no real place to go, just like the angels who inhabit the movie. At around the hour and a half spot, when Damiel becomes human, and the black and white cinematography suddenly shifts to color to show the world of humans (the film shifts a bit every now and then, depending on what the perspective is), the film suddenly has somewhere to go, and the scenes that take place are often more crucial to the "plot" than to the overall feeling. Suddenly, Damiel has the chance to win the heart of Marion, and he better damn well do it!
There's another character in "Wings of Desire" played by American actor Peter Falk, who's playing himself (literally) making a movie over in Berlin. We learn about half way through the film that he cannot really see Damiel, but that he knows he's there, and when he suddenly begins talking to him, Damiel is so moved that he finds he needs to become human right away (and he does). Although he's only in it intermittently, he's a very crucial figure in the film for two reasons: a) he brings up the prospect that many other angels have done what Damiel ends up doing, and b) he's an opposite to the angels: he's the one everyone in the world wants to watch while Damiel and Cassiel are the ones that want to be watched.
What's the film's overall message? There really isn't one, which is actually better. Like "2001: A Space Odyssey," this is a film that doesn't necessarily want to limit itself to one singular definition, but wants to be philosophical while still becoming hypnotic. So many films make the mistake of trying to be too philosophical and forgetting that it's a film and it needs to become an experience. Here's a film that doesn't answer all the questions it brings up, and doesn't even bring up all the questions it could. But for two hours, I guarantee that you will be glued to your television set, and afterwards you can debate the concepts that it touches on.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
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