Review of Wings of Desire (1987) by Kirsten M — 03 Mar 2010

I enjoyed the movie ?Wings of Desire? (directed by Wim Wenders) because it did not have a prominent plot in the beginning. I felt as if I had to find the plot, sort of like a mystery. The movie was very interesting and hard to figure out until it turned its focus on the main characters of the movie.

Two angels, Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sanders), look down upon the city and people of Berlin. They are not portrayed as typical guardian angels. Rather they look mournful as if the lamentable city of Berlin, before the fall of the wall, was sucking the life from the angels. The two characters travel the streets and visit the homes of the people of Berlin. They are capable of listening to the people thoughts. The angels sometimes lean in close, like a child moving closer to a television to hear, touching the people even though they do not acknowledge the existence of the angels. Damiel and Cassiel try bring hope to those who are hopeless, like a lonely hurt motorcyclist or a suicidal young man. In some circumstances they become attached to certain people and their thoughts. Damiel falls in love with a young trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin) that is down on her luck. Cassiel follows an old storyteller who they call Homer (Curt Bois). Both Cassiel and Damiel follow the actor Peter Falk (playing himself) while he tries to assimilate himself into a role in a movie based on WWII. Damiel gets enticed by the basic human actions. He talks about wanting to open a newspaper and have ink on his fingers. He wants to have feelings of love and longing. Damiel wants to have human interactions and human experiences. He is also in love with a human. This leads to Damiel wanting to ?take the plunge.? This statement is made by Damiel indicating that he would hang up his wings and become a human.

One of the most amazing aspects of this movie is that the movie is mostly in black and white. The movie is black and white when we are looking through the eyes of the angels. When we look through the eyes of a human the scenes are in color. This helps the viewer to distinguish between what the angel sees and what humans see. The affect from the black and white make the movie more interesting. For example, the scenes with Marion on the swings in black and white made it seem more dramatic and breathtaking.

In the movie, ?Wings of Desire? there are some downfalls. The ending of the movie was instant and seemed inconsistent with the rest of the plot. The ending focused mainly on the two main characters and did not seem to conclude the other character?s story. At the beginning of the movie there are some confusing scenes that are very jumpy. The angels follow the thoughts of people from some apartment buildings around Berlin. The thoughts are all jumbled and sometimes undecipherable. These scenes are confusing for a person who has to read and follow the scenes in the movie.

?Wings of Desire? was a very enjoyable movie with some faults. This movie was unique because it was shot in two different color schemes. The plot did not show up until half way through the film, which made it captivating. I would give this movie 3 out of 5 for its charisma. I would recommend this movie for a more mature audience because it can be hard to follow at times.