WINGS OF DESIRE
A film review by Lon Ponschock
Copyright 1995 Lon Ponschock
Directed by Wim Wenders
Written by Wim Wenders with Peter Handke
Starring Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois,
and Peter Falk
130 mins.
Here is the beginning of the story of Cassiel and Damiel: Guardian Angels. This film from 1988 is, for me, the first major work by Wim Wenders. His previous collaboration with Peter Handke on Handke's play called THE ANXIETY OF THE GOALIE AT THE PENALTY KICK goes back to a period around 1973. This play had become a modern classic in Germany. Okay, in Germany it's a classic. But for me the film treatment was nothing more than 'another bad European film shot on a budget and meant to look like *art*.'
But *here* in Wenders' original 'voice' both in language and film technique, *here* is a wonderful little film. To do so much with city streets, suggestions of costuming, and poetic dialogue is the art of the master or the genius, who can say which for sure? I've seen Wenders' work when it was really BAD too. An item called NOTEBOOK ON CITIES AND CLOTHES is still on the current rack at one of the vid shops around town.
The camera turns in WINGS do not have the flourish of the more recent companion piece which is called FAR AWAY SO CLOSE, but here the director can turn a simple building and it's shape into a place of magic and wonder. Observe the library sequences in WINGS to see what I mean.
The subject is angels--Guardian Angels--a subject which has come into vogue over the past two years in America. There is something very touching about this. It tells us that in our heart of hearts we yearn to not be alone. It is a belief that we want to cherish even though this is a simple work of fiction. Because the mind has conceived of it, it has become it's own reality. The spirits which the mind conjures become beliefs or, at the very least, wishes.
So WINGS OF DESIRE like all the angel shows before it, plays to these feelings.
And it works.
With a simple detail like a ponytail tied with a string, Wenders tells us here are the angels ... they see each other when no one else can and we see them too.
And there is this: a man is shown in despair. An angel embraces him. Then his inner voice gives him the strength to go on with his life. The embrace of the angel ends. The man sits up and continues on his journey.
So much with so little.
WINGS OF DESIRE is categorized as a comedy, like it was some sort of HEAVEN KNOWS MR. ALLISON or HEAVEN CAN WAIT and other such fluff. There are moments of humor in WINGS to be sure. But the film is so much more than that. So when you see it displayed do not be put off as I was *for months* because of a judgement that didn't relate to the work itself.
Get WINGS OF DESIRE and FAR AWAY SO CLOSE together if at all possible. WINGS OF DESIRE is only available at WorldWide Video on College Avenue in the Marketplace. FAR AWAY is probably in wider circulation.
I'll conclude this rave-up with a small quotation from the film. Wenders' work is poetic and he speaks to our hearts:
Damiel: "I want to conquer a history for myself
I want to turn what I have learned
from my timeless downward-watching
into sustaining a hasty glance,
a short shout, an acrid smell.
I've been outside long enough,
Absent long enough,
Out of the world long enough.
I'll enter the history of the world,
if only to hold on apple in my hand."
-- lon "I did not know the cure for the disease of images, but I believed in the healing power of words and stories." - Until the End of the World
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