Review of Wings of Desire (1987) by Lauren P — 05 Oct 2014

There is nothing more intriguing than a story of romance, sadness, and the fragility of time, with all three happening at once. If you can get past the German and pay close attention to the subtitles, Wings of Desire is a must-see movie. It consists of two angels who are not haunted by time, but by eternity. These angels go through town unable to participate in the everyday life of humans, but they are able to hear the thoughts of sadness, worry, and stress of the people around them. Occasionally they will go to someone who is troubled and make them think a little clearer, although some can't seem to be helped. The movie was set in 1987 in Berlin during a very rough time when the Berlin Wall was still present. The Berlin Wall is shown in the movie multiple times, and it is used to imply that even though the cities are split, the sky where the angels are is not. The sky is the only thing that connects us to the rest of the world and it cannot be divided.

The movie was directed by Wim Wenders. The cast includes Bruno Ganz, who plays Damiel, one of the two angels that wanders throughout the city and wishes constantly that he was human. The second angel, Cassiel, played by Otto Sander, is a little more comfortable about the idea of remaining an angel and is not as persistent as Damiel about experiencing mortal life. The major reason Damiel wants to become human, in my opinion, is to be with Marion, an extremely lonely trapeze artist that he is in love with. Marion is played by Solveig Dommartin. Although Marion cannot see him physically, she longs to find the man that she sees in her dreams; Damiel. When she first sees him in person, once he becomes human and finds her in a bar, she spills her heart out to him about how she finally found the one she has been missing and that she wants things to now become serious. She also says that she finally has a story, and encourages that others should create a story for themselves as well.

One main characteristic of this movie that makes it stand out amongst others is how the majority is in black and white, but occasionally it will switch to color to show only the human world. This is important in the movie because without it, it would be easy to get confused about whose point of view is being expressed and who the audience is supposed to be focusing on. Another major aspect is how the cameras zoom in closely on a character's face while he/she is talking. This is meant to imply that the character in the movie is speaking directly to the audience. This gives a more personal feel to the movie, as though the director wanted you to leave the theater with a changed perspective on life. Throughout the movie, a poem called "Song of Childhood" is being read in the background. This poem is a very important to the theme of the movie because it expresses that people should appreciate the little things in life, as children do. The poem says that when we are young, we are hopeful, innocent, and curious about the way life works. We possess no habits and we take life one day at a time. As we age, we still possess the same likes and dislikes that we had as a child, but we are not as hopeful and appreciative of the world. We just follow routine and the world is only a place where we live and where we occupy space. It is no longer a place of curiosity, just a place of habit. The dying man in the movie, who was in a motorcycle accident, is sitting on the side of the road thinking about everything he should've done but probably won't get the chance to. Once Damiel approaches him and puts a hand on him, he starts thinking about the little things in life like the sun, the first drops of rain, and the horizon. The angels encourage others to be more appreciative and more present in the world, because that is what they long for but cannot do as angels. The story-teller, played by Curt Bois, is a poet who appears occasionally in the movie and talks about how he wants things back to their original way, when people were curious and they wanted to hear stories. He says that people will come looking for him because they need him more than ever. People need a story because without your story, who are you? The story-teller dreams of an "epic of peace", which is exactly what Wings of Desire is. This movie has won a well-deserved award for Best Director in 1987 at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, and the Grand Prix award in 1988 from the Belgian Film Critics Association.