Review of Wings of Desire (1987) by Mattdinovo — 22 Oct 2018

Matthew DiNovo.

The movie, Wings of Desire, is a 1987 classic fantasy romance German film from Wim Wenders. This movie is not anywhere close to a decent film for multiple reasons. Wings of Desire is about angels, and who would have portrayed angels as boring, depressed men in everyday clothes other than the director Wim Wenders. Other famous movies of his include Pope Francis a Man of His Word, Pina, The Salt of the Earth, and Until the End of the World, which also can’t be much better basing my judgement off Wings of Desire. The slow, confusing, and what seems to be missing plot mixes well with the black and white cinematography and three languages spoken in the movie to create a two-hour disaster. If there was one movie to receive a negative rating, it would be Wings of Desire.

Initially, one would think of an angel as someone who is happy, heavenly, and actively helps people. This, unfortunately, is not the case in Wings of Desire. The two main characters, Damiel and Cassiel, are both angels who aimlessly roam about Berlin in search of pretty much nothing. It appears as if they have no purpose for being where they are, and both seem to hate being angels as well. It becomes so awful that Damiel eventually wants to become a human himself.

Damiel and Cassiel do not have any other features humans do such as the senses of touch, smell, taste, the desire for love and lust. This explains why a good portion of the movie is in black and white to show the plainness of these angels. Damiel struggles with this the most because he begins to envy Marion, who can experience everything he cannot. Marion ends up being the reason Damiel wants to become mortal. As previously stated, both Damiel and Cassiel cannot be seen by people, except children. This fact is next to useless because the children in Wings of Desire need no intervention from these ‘divine’ creatures. Angels are supposed to help people, right? Not the case in this movie. There is a scene in which a man is contemplating suicide by jumping off a skyscraper and Cassiel is next to the man listening to his thoughts. Instead of doing the angelic act and saving the man from killing himself, Cassiel just passively stands by and makes no real attempt to stop the man. Allowing someone to commit suicide does not sound godlike. Another agonizing aspect of Wings of Desire is the painfully long scenes that serve no purpose other than to make the movie longer, which is not a good thing. The band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is also featured in the movie, but they have no impact at all. There are two scenes where they fully play the songs The Carny and From Her to Eternity, which is coupled with the corny dancing of Solveig Dommartin and the other extras to yield one of the most cringy movie scenes ever seen. Wim Wenders made the poor decision to make these scenes way too long does not help the already boring film. Marion (Solveig Dommartin) also has a way-too-long trapeze act scene during her circus days. The most disappointing aspect of these scenes is that they have no purpose. If they were cut out, the movie would be the same, and equally as bad. Marion also has a seven-minute monologue in a bar with Damiel. This scene has some significance because it depicts Marion and Damiel finally being together, but once again it is agonizing to watch. Both angels appear to have the ability to read people thoughts. Of course, Wim Wenders completely fails at making this interesting because of even more long, useless scenes. Damiel and Cassiel are seen walking down streets or in a library reading the random thoughts of people. These merely add to the disappointment Wings of Desire gives its audience. The biggest part of Wings of Desire, and quite possibly the worst, is the ‘big surprise’ ending. This section of the review does contain a spoiler, but rest assured there is nothing to be upset about. Throughout the movie Damiel has an internal conflict because he is an angel, but somehow falls in love with a human woman Marion. This love he has for her drives him to enter the river and transform into a mortal. Damiel’s change from angel to mortal for a girl he has never met makes no sense, and the way he and Marion meet is even more strange. Marion finds herself sitting alone in a bar and guess who she is sitting next to. Yes, you are right, its Damiel. How did this happen? No one will ever understand the basic, one dimensional way that Damiel and Marion meet, and somehow Marion ends up giving a speech to Damiel. This leads to them kissing in the bar and the movie ends. The ending is the dagger this film needed to make it one of the worst movies ever made. There is no resolution to Damiel’s minor internal conflict, and there surely is no explanation for anything else in the movie either.