Review of Wings of Desire (1987) by Tom B — 21 Dec 2009
If Rainer Maria Rilke made a movie, this one would be it. Clearly the Duino Elegies were a prime inspiration for the story of angels yearning to be human in order to sample time, and love. A.O.Scott points out prophetic nature of story, seeming to herald the coming down of the Berlin wall.
Quite so! And the lovingly lofty ambition that love can show us the way to tomorrow: "You and I are now time itself. Not just the city, the whole world is taking part in our decision. We're more than just the two of us now.
We embody something. We are sitting in the people's square, and it's full of people with the same dream as ours. We define the game for all. I'm ready." The Sky Above Berlin. This film has moved me since I first saw it in 1990, the year my son was born.
I saw it on VHS on a small tv. Now Criterion has released a restored blu-ray and on a widescreen plasma in hi def it's like seeing a new film. There is something unique about this film. It almost shouldn't have worked, but it did.
Whether it's the 1940s look of the angels or the lilting rhythm of the story, it is and isn't an "arthouse" picture. It is and isn't a non-narrative narrative. It is and isn't a European film, although I guess it really is.
It is like a poem. Bruno Ganz is other-worldly. My first reaction when I first saw the film was that this really was an angel. Years later he played Hitler like no one else had ever done. Peter Falk, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois.
In the course of watching over the years they are familiar images of characters preserved in the transcript of the shared imagination. I guess I will always love watching this film with it's haunting soundtrack and diverse imagery.
An urban fantasy, yet real, too real not to believe on some level, for it catches us in life. Lovely.
This review of Wings of Desire (1987) was written by Tom B on 21 Dec 2009.
Wings of Desire has generally received very positive reviews.
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