Pauline Kael Wings of Desire New Yorker Review
A Remarkable Achievement
A visually beautiful film, which boasts one of the most poetic and literary scripts ever- the dreamlike poesy of the dialogue fits seamlessly in with the overpowering visuals. The acting is of very high callibre too, with Peter Falk calculation a very welcome dimension to the film and Bruno Ganz proving a main at acting via expression and nuance. The storyline is nice and simple and is given much boosted poignancy and depth by the way Wenders directed, Henri Alekan photographed and the option of music for sure scenes- the utilize of Nick Cave's "The Carney" is peculiarly perfect for the scene in which information technology was used, every bit was the music during the main scene where we get to see Marion'due south Trapeze act- the music, visual mastery and the human action itself combine to stunningly entrancing effect. That 100 people have given this motion picture a 1/ten marker is almost beyond belief, as it is an absolute joy from get-go to cease. Rating:- ***** (out of *****)
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Our Town for the Cold State of war Generation
If my grandchildren always ask me what it was like back in the Cold War, I'll tell them to watch this flick. Information technology is both frighteningly bleak and lyrically cute. It captures the spirit of the times (Western civilization immediately before the fall of the Berlin Wall) better than any movie I've e'er seen. And information technology manages to exist a honey alphabetic character to those times while too showing the identify and fourth dimension in all its inescapable ugliness.
The overall plot moves forward pretty nicely for a motion-picture show where plot doesn't seem to matter all that much, and there are some beautiful vignettes, beautifully photographed, acted, and directed. I'yard non certain how anyone tin make information technology through the movie without falling in love with Bruno Ganz's angel. I recall the movie'southward lyricism holds up well on multiple viewing -- as long as y'all liked it the get-go time. If the self-consciously art-house grade bugs you, however, or you find the screenplay's "poetry" to be besides facile, you'll probably find this movie grating. I, however, have never seen people reading silently in a public library without thinking of this movie . . . .
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One of the greatest movies of the late 20th century
There are so many comments written about this moving-picture show, I well-nigh don't want to write annihilation - simply hither I am anyway :)
Though everyone is entitled to their own opinion, information technology disturbs me to read negative comments that WOD is 'besides slow' or that Wenders should have been a still life lensman. I think that some people are missing the point of this movie. Wenders filmed this after having been part of the Hollywood machine for several years, and had grown sick of the cookie cutter films that were (and still are) being made in that tradition to produce ticket sales. Yeah, this moving picture doesn't have loads of action and motorcar chase scenes and guns and sexual activity. It does offering some interesting perspectives. The consequent 3rd person view and 'objectification' of the viewer is ane aspect. Watching WOD, yous don't feel the typical describe into the movie as so frequently is the case, but rather are a bystander, looking through a window, with your own thoughts and ideas a part of the pic, not the other mode around. WOD doesn't let you to get a subjective role of the film; it 'pushes' you away from empathizing. Even the photographic camera angles and shots motivate this sentiment. The goal and direction of the moving-picture show are presented without struggle or thought; you know that Damiel wants to be with Marion. He tells Cassiel this, and the only question is - how volition he attain this goal?
WOD belies a sense of traditional film-making. Peter Falk is presented as maybe the 'idea' of history as fans call out 'Colombo!' The angels are bound to Berlin, existing in a purgatory neither sky or hell, unable to communicate. The trapeze artist from a traveling circus representing liberty - not only liberty from an everyday lifestyle, but also the key to Damiel's freedom. This movie contains so many interesting ideas and perspectives, that when watched with an open, curious heed, it is fascinating, mesmerizing, calming and inspirational. Filmed entirely in Berlin, the urban center is not a traditional definition of beautiful. Simply the industrial, modernist, post WW Two reconstructed Berlin is stunning and diverse, providing the perfect background for this modern classic. I cannot recommend this movie enough. Just delight lookout man it with open up optics. In the same sense you cannot mind to the music of Schoenberg or Stravinsky as yous would Mozart, yous cannot watch Wings of Desire as you would a Spielberg movie.
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human life has value
In the commencement scenes after the opening credits, nosotros see an aerial view of Berlin, simply this is a Berlin that doesn't exist anymore. Information technology's a city divided, betwixt East and West, that still bears the scars of the second Earth War, and tin can't rebuild where the Wall stands in the way. At that place is a vast vacant lot where the cultural heart of pre-war Berlin stood, with the facade of an onetime station, and nearby stands a bomb-shelter and the belfry of a bombed-out church building.
Information technology is from this church where an affections stands looking out over the metropolis, and so we see the people going about their daily lives. All this is shot in black and white, and we realize that we are seeing the earth through the angel's eyes, seeing the same colorless earth and hearing the same thoughts of the people around. As the story goes on, nosotros realize that this is not just one angel in Berlin, for he goes to a machine showroom, and compares observations with another angel. So we become to the library, which is filled with angels.
The kickoff library scene is my favorite scene of the whole movie. It is here where we encounter many unlike people studying, and their thoughts reverberate around the space until they are only a murmur, which becomes music. Because there are so few distinct voices, it doesn't thing that they are in German language, which I don't empathise. Notwithstanding, in that location was one fellow studying the creation story of Genesis in Hebrew, which ties in with a later on point where the two lead angels are discussing how they witnessed creation. First they saw the glacier recede, then fish and animals appear. They laughed when they saw the first biped, someone who shared their image, merely they stopped laughing when the people learned how to make state of war.
Equally idyllic equally the angels' lives are, it is through the pain nosotros humans endure that know we are fully alive. And this is what the angels miss, to see colors, to touch, to taste, to odour, the ability to dear and affect others' lives. The children tin meet them, merely the adults may at times just feel some vague presence. They lay hands on people's shoulders, to try to understand their feelings beyond mere words. This is illustrated by a scene on a rooftop, where a homo is nearly to commit suicide; as he sits on the ledge, an angel lays a hand on him as if holding him dorsum, and when he jumps, the angel shouts `no!' For these angels are observers, spending their time being a presence among the living, not just to primarily serve every bit ushers to the afterlife (where I was sorely disappointed after watching "City of Angels," the American re-brand). They are not harbingers of doom, but benign symbols of a creator's concern for humans.
Don't exist turned off by the fact that information technology's in blackness and white, because one thing that actually makes an impact is that information technology's only through viewing as an angel is it in monochrome, because when humans see the world, it'southward in colour. A poem continues throughout the movie and ties everything together, repeating "When the child was a child..." and we realize that humans are the children, the ones younger than angels, simply learning and enjoying life. The music adds a lot to the film, since this film is more visual than verbal, which means that subtitles don't get in the way. I can't say enough near this moving picture–it's wonderful!
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The most emotionally and spiritually moving picture show of all fourth dimension
A note to those of you who accept only seen the banal, woefully wrong-hearted and half-assed "Metropolis of Angels", an unnecessary Americanization of this modern archetype: this film leaves Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan in the dust. Co-author/director Wim Wenders spins a visually stunning tale of angels living in Berlin before the wall came downwardly. As they float through the lives of all they run into, one of them falls in love with a beautiful and alone trapeze artist. He soon must cull whether or non information technology is worth sacrificing the countless grace of being an globe-bound affections to know what it is like to exist homo, to "see at heart level."
Afterward having seen this motion picture eight times or and then, I can safely say that it is my favorite movie of all fourth dimension. I have to watch it at least once a year and every time I do, I notice a new particular, while still beingness enchanted by the things that made me love this film in the first identify. Although leisurely paced, every scene makes a valuable point about how our lives are touched by divinity every day.
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Never actually takes flight
Many reviewers here fawn over this film and dismiss anyone who does not share their worship as being juvenile or a philistine. I've watched plenty films to know whether a film is truly profound or whether it is pretentious. Wings of Desire sways towards the latter.
It has a great premise- angels (not winged creatures but men in cool black coats, like to the portrayal of the expressionless in Orphee) watch over tardily eighties Berlin, observing the humans they see around them. One angel (Bruno Ganz) falls in dearest with a mortal trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin). You would retrieve that this would exist a winning formula and therefore a bright film. I was disappointed to find out that although it may not exist a bad picture show, information technology is past no means a brilliant one.
The cinematography is peachy, although the monochrome angels and technicolour humans had already been washed 40 years previously. We get some great shots of urban Berlin, which gives the moving-picture show an interesting cultural context. Information technology almost acts as a time capsule, and had Wenders full-bodied on this aspect of the film, the motion picture would not seem every bit unfocused and vague as it does.
The worst role of the film is the dialogue, which is pseudo-philosophical naval gazing. I don't listen introspective dialogue just when every sentence is some vague existential musing, I tend to melody out, which is fatal for this film as the action is essentially in their internal monologues. The trapeze creative person'due south final monologue could have worked had the whole picture show not been equanimous in that manner merely the monologue is basically a repetition of what has been constantly repeated throughout the film. Some arty types might forgive this because they see information technology as some universal truth merely for most, it is only repetitive to the signal at which it becomes meaningless.
I forgot the dear story! Seems that Wenders did that likewise because it only makes an appearance in the last half-hour or so of the movie, although at that place were tiny hints earlier on. Because the romance is so unprominent for most of the movie, when information technology finally comes to information technology, you wonder why the film was two hours long and not one hour. Apart from the misjudged monologue by the trapeze artist, it is quite a romantic scene. Her dress is stunning.
Potentially a great thought-provoking flick but cocky-indulgence on the director's/writers' part causes the picture to feel unfocused and vague. The film tries to deny its artificiality past calculation in lots of 'profound' dialogue just there are many points in the film where information technology comes off every bit very superficial. It's a flake similar a New Romantic pop video.
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Stunning Expressionist Poem
Just iii years subsequently the unforgettable "Paris, Texas" (1984), Wim Wenders presented u.s.a. with some other masterpiece: "Wings of Desire" (or "The Sky In a higher place Berlin" in the original German championship), a mesmerizing film nigh the joy of life, partially inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke'due south (1875-1926) verse.
The story of the angel Damiel (the fantabulous Bruno Ganz, who'd play Adolf Hitler 17 years later in the Oscar-nominated "Downfall"), who falls in love with a mortal circus acrobat, Marion (Solveig Dommartin, Wenders's then-girlfriend, who died last Jan) and wishes to become homo is told by breathtaking images (cinematographer Henri Alekan's courtesy - he worked on Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bête") - the angels come across in blackness and white, humans see in colors; philosophical, analytical observations about human life (and expiry); scenes of beauty in the simplest things in a masterful fashion that never becomes corny or boring. More than than a motion-picture show director, Wim Wenders is a film poet; his films are fabled intersections of image and audio (dialogue, music) crafted in a style that merely some other masters achieved.
"Dedicated to all the former angels, only especially to Yasujiro, François and Andrej", "Wings of Desire" is a gorgeous celebration of life who should be seen past people aged 8 to 80. My vote: 10/10.
P.S.: Avoid at all costs the ridiculous Hollywood remake, "City of Angels" (1998), with Nicolas Muzzle and Million Ryan.
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poetry in motion
Compelling, ponderous, exasperating, enigmatic, enervating and beautiful: Wim Wenders' rediscovery of his native Germany from its most symbolic city is all this and more than. His spellbinding portrait of Berlin, past and present, is verse in move: a haunting, hypnotic masterpiece that lingers in the memory long after its last image fades from the screen.
From the opening aerial shots to the last (admittedly long-winded) soliloquy, the film is a provocative expect at a world that has long since lost its innocence, as witnessed by a pair of chivalrous guardian angels invisibly cataloguing human being daydreams and emotions, and occasionally offering mute comfort in moments of private spiritual crisis. In the divided city of Berlin what they most oftentimes overhear are poetic expressions of longing and despair, but it isn't enough to stop one empathetic angel from trading in his wings for a adventure to experience all the mundane, earthbound luxuries of mortal life, from something every bit simple every bit a loving cup of hot java to something as complicated as falling in love.
In less sensitive easily the idea might never have gone beyond a simple romantic fantasy (as in the inevitable Hollywood remake, starring Nicholas Cage), but Wenders and co-writer Peter Handke are more interested in making the film a vicarious tour of the man status, overheard in passing: an baby's first joyous observations; the final thoughts of an machine blow victim; the calm resignation of a man on the brink of suicide; and the recollections of an role player (Peter Falk, playing himself, but with a whimsical twist) on location during the making of a war movie.
Wenders' typically moody soul searches aren't always like shooting fish in a barrel to sit through, simply the unexpected element of fantasy lifts the film completely out of the ordinary, and the soaring imagery (shot mostly in luminous black and white) goes a long way toward balancing the occasional ataxia of repetitive prose-poetry during the sometimes protracted interior monologues. Viewers may discover it either exhilarating or abrasive, but backside all the angst and breach is a stubborn, almost childlike faith in the benignancy of human nature.
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Disappointing
I really wanted to like this movie. I dear "Paris, Texas", so realise that Wim Wenders' movies take some patience, merely offer keen rewards.
However, I only couldn't become into Wings of Desire. Simply found it besides slow-moving, and dull. Also establish it visually unappealing.
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A Poet re-discovers life, dear and dazzler
It'due south amazing that any non-High german speakers can even appreciate this film. True the basic story is universal and beautiful, but it's Peter Handke's poetry that makes it breathtaking. Wenders had done other Handke works in picture show - Alice in the Cities, The Lefthanded Woman, The Goalie's fearfulness of the Penalization- but this 1 is very different.
This movie is about giving up the ethereal life of the observer and actually living information technology. Handke had lived as a hermit after his married woman'due south suicide and raised their child solitary for 10 years - challenge all he needs of a woman is a practiced prostitute every so frequently. This picture show script marks his turn to the pure love of life that this dreary Goth never really displayed, fifty-fifty in his youthful writings. It's the wonder of the child within discovering life in all it'south beauty -- in even the nigh mundane and everyday things.
************ PLOT SPOILER Alert ***********
The job the angels that nobody seems to have noted here is this: They can exist in all times flowing through ane spot (Berlin) and must record instances of Humans
expressing "Spirit".
A damned rare thing, it'south true, but they must tape it whenever they can.
Hollywood chose to leave that notion completely out of that horrible Nicolas Muzzle/One thousand thousand Ryan "Vehicle" remake.
(Worth it for the Nick Cavern and the Bad Seeds and Mick Harvey'south Crime and the Urban center Solution alone)
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Beautiful, poetic, stimulating
A at-home and wonderful fantasy with such a simple vision that makes yous want to believe in angels. Maybe they are there... whenever my mood changes, seemingly unprompted, I always wonder.
Hijacked and debased by people who don't know any better (even U2, I'yard afraid, and the American remake must be avoided at all costs - ideally information technology should be wiped from the tape and the memories of all who saw it) this film has become iconic and has infected the imaginations of countless filmmakers. Await carefully and you will run into its influence in the almost unexpected places.
I always thought that one masterpiece is all that anyone tin aspire to in life. Wim Wenders has made several merely for me this one stands out to a higher place all others. My favourite film.
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Amazing
I only saw this movie for the starting time time. This film is but amazing. So subtley powerful. The climaxing scene at the bar, is like seeing the world in a grain of sand. In that location, just now. Did yous see information technology? At that place it is again. And again, over there. You lot didn't see information technology? Sentry and yous'll see. This picture has just fabricated #1 on my favorite films of all time. The manner they apply Peter Faulk to trancend the boundry between art and life, or possibly erase the line all together, wonderfully creative. We are guided gently in to a world full of fallen angels, and then brought full circle back abode again. This is just a must see movie. I observe it hard to imagine anyone non getting something out of this moving picture.
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First Experience with Wim Wenders
This is a touching, quiet motion picture most the mode people waste matter the greatest gift they have, their lives. As the 2 angels wait at the pain in the world, they are powerless to actually stop it. They as well are bored and see that while they accept eternity, the don't have the passion and joy that comes from occasional suffering. As they attempt to find a way to bring love into the world, they tin can't really experience. When they see joyfulness in the young lady, they run across her equally having made the all-time of a bad situation and one of them desires to be man (which he does). The idea of angels is i of those myths (I'm sorry) that people created to connect with what they cannot fathom, the thought of a God. These guys are the intermediaries. They put human course to the spiritual. When we survive a difficult time or nosotros proceeds some sort of favor or accomplishment, it'due south easy to place our reward in the hands of an angel. He is the states but non us. The film is ethereal and sad. Funny and tragic. It'south quite well done in that European mode: stark images, magical black and white contrasts, and subtle presentation. I hope to see that sequel soon.
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perfection
I can never be a picture-maker because of Wings of Want. It is such a stunning work, I know I could never match it, much less exceed information technology. I have never seen a movie that spans such great heights (pardon the pun) of the spiritual, the social, emotional, political and existential. It'due south the most gorgeous love story I have ever encountered and its anguish and exilaration is unparallel. But enough of the Critic-Speak. This motion picture shows the loneliness and wonder of being alive and if you remain unmoved past it, you must have no soul.
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German meditation
In West Berlin, Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are angels who wonder the globe observing and providing comfort. Damiel wants to exist more than man. He starts to fall for trapeze creative person Marion (Solveig Dommartin) at a rundown circus. There is besides the elderly Homer who recalls the Berlin of onetime. Another is Peter Falk who is shooting a motion-picture show taking place in the Nazi by simply he's also hiding a underground from his own past.
The best way to describe this is a German meditation. It'south earthworks into the Nazi past in an artistic way. I personally don't encounter anything compelling nigh that. It is so dull and Damiel is so passive. It infuriated me more than appealed to me. Of course, everybody in the world loves information technology only all the inner monologues and the unemotional interim bored me.
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Past the time it gets a trivial total of itself, you are so mesmerized and nonplussed information technology doesn't matter
Wings of Desire (1987)
The swooping, gorgeous photography (almost all of it blackness and white) and the feeling of move throughout is enough to make this moving picture utterly memorable. It could work as a silent pic, no words, only a stunning look at 1980s Berlin and some of its people.
The words, luckily, are something rare, too. They are overtly poetic and profound, bordering on pompous, just uplifted and augmented by the photography and then beautifully, you go forth with all the deep thoughts, which are really layered and subtle and interesting. Add yet again what you might telephone call a plot--the visiting by angels and their listening in on the human status, and indeed their questioning their own dilemma as eternal beings without the weight of beingness truly alive--and you have a scenario that matters. This isn't merely an artistic tour-de-strength. It actually matters, and it puts the signal well, making the dogmatic ordinary.
And that, for two hours, is the pic. For me, I was mesmerized through the first one-half. Just when it might get repetitive, a twist occurs, like the moving picture inside the film (briefly), or the Peter Falk equally Peter Falk element that recurs. In one case or twice, color scorches the screen in a beautiful surprise, and eventually the meaning of the colour (suspected early on on) is confirmed. Past the last one-half hour, there are times when the words, extended into long monologues, make you itchy. The movie seems a little long. Only y'all accept been then engrossed earlier, you don't completely mind, merely sentry information technology through, and see an ending that might, in a weird way, be disappointing on purpose.
Yous'll have to see it to become what I mean. A completely original special film.
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Magnificent
Such a lovely film. It's ethereal, celestial, and simply beautiful. Information technology gives us a view of humanity every bit if from above, from a distance, and through a long view of history, and withal information technology'southward also incredibly intimate, probing into the thoughts of various people and reflecting their loneliness, longing, and struggle. It's touched with pathos and even so grace. The childlike questions that recur are elementary and notwithstanding and so profound, revealing the randomness of not only who we're with in life, but our own identities as well. The oneness of all beings is so beautifully put in the line "No mortal child was conceived, only an immortal shared image," and yet our ultimate isolation is reflected the line correct before it, "Who in the earth tin can claim that he was ever truly together with some other being?" These opposites and contrasts seem to and then perfectly capture the human being condition.
It'due south not a film that'due south heavy on plot, and in what we practice see, there is a skilful deal of symbolism. On the motion picture set, where actors play out the roles of historical people, it could be seen as representing how real people play their roles on the stage of life. In the trapeze creative person in the circus, who gracefully executes an human activity that is precariously high higher up her audition, it could exist seen as our own anxiety-inducing performances in life at times. To take all this with the footage of mankind's atrocities during the state of war and the backdrop Berlin Wall all the same in place, graffiti covered and overlooking desolate lots and construction sites ... it's merely extraordinary. Director Wim Wenders, cinematographer Henri Alekan, and actors Bruno Ganz and Solveig Dommartin are all brilliant, and the soundtrack fits the mood of the motion-picture show perfectly. The dedication to Ozu, Truffaut, and Tarkovsky at the end was a overnice bear on too. This is i with several goosebump inducing moments, and I couldn't recommend it more highly.
One more quote: "No more roaming back and forth through the centuries equally in the by. At present I can but call back from one mean solar day to the next. My heroes are no longer warriors and kings, just the things of peace, one just as practiced as the side by side. The drying onions as good every bit the tree body that crosses the marsh. Simply no one has thus far succeeded in singing an epic almost peace. What is information technology virtually peace that its inspiration is not enduring? Why is its story then hard to tell?"
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**** Scenic
Bil-iii 17 Feb 2000
No uncertainty those of you who have seen Brad Silberling'due south City of Angels with Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage will want to go dorsum and lookout this original High german version, directed with visceral style by Wim Wenders. Those who enjoyed the articulate narrative style of the American estimation will be jarred to find the original to exist very different in tone and storyline than its descendant. Bruno Ganz plays a wistful affections named Damiel who wanders Berlin attending to the spiritual needs of people whose souls need a lift, all the while wishing he was human himself. Wenders' direction is admittedly breathtaking, with gorgeous black-and-white photography, poetic dialogue that is never too overdone and a score that is haunting to say the very least. The library scene is my personal favourite (and is copied very well in City of Angels). Subsequently you lot've seen Wings, hire the excellent sequel Faraway, So Close with Nastassja Kinski and Willem Dafoe. >
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Pointless, Plot less, Pretentious
A couple of angels wander around Berlin listening to the thoughts of ordinary people. It turns out nearly people appoint in profound, existential thoughts all day long rather than thinking virtually things like work or what to take for dinner. Listening to random thoughts is somewhat interesting for a while but so comes the frightening realization that the whole film is simply that...listening to the thoughts of one person after some other after another...and no one thinks about annihilation even remotely amusing. Most of information technology is filmed in black and white, randomly condign color now and then. This self-indulgent nonsense is unbelievably boring. And what is Columbo doing here?
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Completely Unique and Fascinating
Der Himmel uber Berlin has unsurpassed moments of verse and clarity. It also demands a lot of attention and patience on the part of the viewer. Even afterwards seeing information technology a number of times I detect new, interesting and moving things in the picture.
Some vignettes from the picture show astound me equally I see inside someone's experience or encounter things freshly through them. The framing poem by Peter Handke gives meaning to the whole movie. It'southward one of the things that I respond to most strongly.
There are very pocket-size choices in movie that I call up could have been made differently, simply at the same time they do not significantly backbite from my enjoyment. Wim Wenders gives a lot of screen fourth dimension to Solveig Dommartin equally she works the trapeze and thinks to herself in her trailer. She certainly needs time to get audience's sympathy and attending among all the other characters, but some of her screen time seems a little indulgent. Also, some short glimpses into people's lives are non as constructive equally others--especially the later more non-specific "dissonance of humanity" sequences. The dissonance of humanity is well established in the library scenes and other sequences towards the first of the movie and the later less concrete vignettes practise less for me than the before ones.
The picture is more than of a visual and auditory poem than a traditional plot-driven movie. Plots practise exist, but they are not relentlessly forwarded by everything shown on screen. You'll do a lot of people watching and detect both grimness and despair as well as joy and beauty. It'due south a moving-picture show about experience, humanity, and both the joy and the pain of life. If you view it receptively, there are many entire worlds within the movie that yous'll be able to enter momentarily and maybe get a better view of your ain world.
Sentinel this movie. It can be an amazing experience. You will need free energy to pay attention, patience with the pacing, and a willingness to deal with some confusing aspects of the movie. If y'all don't have these things information technology might be better to come up back to the picture at another fourth dimension when you lot feel more receptive. Information technology is well worth the payoff, though.
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Full of magical elements...
Deliberately slow, meticulous film from Due west High german filmmaker Wim Wenders features Bruno Ganz in a wonderful performance as an affections in 1987 Berlin (before the fall of the Berlin Wall) who becomes enamored with a sensual and sad circus performer and wishes to exist human. Tale of loneliness, heartache and joy has the fervent spirit and imagination of movie magic, but the picture show'due south dazzler is virtually eclipsed by lengthy, wordy sequences and the languid pace. The evocative cinematography is dazzling and the cast (including Peter Falk, playing himself) is very fine. Loosely remade in 1998 as "Urban center of Angels"; followed past a sequel in 1993, "Faraway, So Shut!" *** from ****
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Who Are The Angels?
Warning: Spoilers
Early in the movie we meet what information technology would be like to fly above the city. We float above the autobahn and we see a block of loftier-rise apartment buildings. Suddenly we are in those apartments, globe-trotting through windows and walls, seeing the people who alive there, hearing their thoughts.
This makes articulate one of the things that we unremarkably take for granted about movies- that somehow nosotros seem to be there, watching and listening. If we play dumb about this, or think like a piddling child, we might ask why the people in movies don't discover usa watching them.
A naive answer would be because nosotros are invisible, considering nosotros are angels. Similar the angels in the movie, nosotros are unable to affect events. We are merely able to emphasize with the characters, only able to grinning to each other and compare notes.
Knowing that nosotros, the audience, are among the angels in this motion picture, and that they stand for us, is a skillful place to starting time thinking about how and why this motion-picture show does whatever it is that it does so well.
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A Missing Wing
A pic that was confusing, different (in a good mode), and pretty well played. All of these topics come to mind when thinking near the film "Wings of Desire" directed past Wim Wenders in 1997. This pic was a unique fantasy drama that had a very interesting feel to it. Throughout this picture, Damiel and Cassiel had to exist pretty repose and emotionless as angels. People couldn't see them considering they were angels. They would be in the skies of the city of Berlin watching over the groovy people in the city. The people's feelings and thoughts would draw the angels closer. The angels would try helping the hopeless people by making them feel like they weren't alone, which was actually truthful. The different colors of the backgrounds in this film truly could confuse anyone. After figuring information technology out, the reason behind information technology was pretty interesting. The angels perspective created a black and white colour groundwork. The color switched to normal colors once the movie was in perspective of real life. In that location wasn't much of a plot in this picture show, which made it interesting. The angels would merely go from person to person which fabricated it a little random from time to time, but it wasn't overwhelming. This motion-picture show was ever keeping my attention. It might not be the go-to action motion-picture show, simply it's definitely an interesting and well played out moving picture. The ending with Damiel deciding to take a dip into a real perspective going out of his angel cocky was a big turning bespeak. Seeing Damiel after that merely fabricated you into information technology and fabricated y'all wonder. Some of the scenes drug on for a longer fourth dimension than they needed. Some scenes were just manner as well long that didn't demand to exist like that at all.
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Thinks very highly of itself
Long (TOO long) story of two angels (dressed in black) walking amid the people of Berlin--hearing their innermost thoughts and desires. Most people can't see them--only children and the young at heart Ane of them falls in love and wants to become human again. Of grade that doesn't happen until 90 MINUTES have elapsed!
Obviously, this film takes information technology'southward sweet time even setting up a plot. For a full 60 minutes and half you see the angels walking around and hearing what they hear. It's all somber and shot in black & white which makes information technology all the more depressing. Later on ninety minutes I was bored and very depressed. As other posters have said it DOES accept some incredible imagery--just it'southward non attractive imagery. Information technology's all bleak and desolate. Likewise the boring pace makes this very difficult to sit through. It seems director Wim Wenders believes a film has to exist ho-hum and dour to be art. Well, that doesn't make information technology art...it makes it slow and bleak! The acting is also pretty bad...but the director is plain more concerned near images than acting. And the nonstop thoughts you hear make fiddling sense and NEVER stop! The only vivid spots are some beautiful colour photography and Peter Falk who is obviously enjoying himself...but damned if I knew what he was doing in this!
I'chiliad giving it a 4--and that's but for the photography. This is basically a very overrated, pretentious film that THINKS it'southward making an artistic statement. The late Pauline Kael nailed it in her review of it in the New Yorker dorsum in 1988--she said a friend of hers didn't want the pic to end...but couldn't wait to become out of the theatre!
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Philosophical, Beguilingly Poetic and Spiritually Significant
Digging deep into the thoughts and dreams of mortals and the angels who look afterward them, WINGS OF DESIRE is a masterfully-made work of fine art and Frg's finest. It matches lavish cinematography, flawless direction past Wim Winders, impressive performances and a simple plot told with such luminescence, symbolism and volition.
The first half of the film resembles more than like a beautifully-painted mosaic or an avant-garde picture show showing empathy for every character brought about by the screen even showing traces of the Nazism era. Here, the idea of supernatural beings that indirectly assist humans in day-to-day life is introduced. The mystifying beings are unseen to anybody except to the immature-at-heart. Hovering atop statues or wandering inside public libraries or apartments, they see and know everything as Winders etches the black-and-white globe of the angels. The story evolves when 1 affections Damiel (Bruno Ganz) wonders what information technology is like to exist human, how it is like to be able to feel, to agree or to be seen. In one case he comes to the aid of bonny trapeze creative person Marion (Solveig Dommartin), he feels a spiritual devotion he has never felt before.
Winders' slow-simply-steady rate gives time for the viewer to contemplate on the questions a child asks ("Why am I me and why not you? Why am I here and non in that location? When did time begin and where did space end?"). He allows the audition members remember what they want to think in a new light instead of manipulating them. The scenario of a ghostly being falling for a human may seem overworked now (GHOST, JUST LIKE HEAVEN) but WINGS OF DESIRE is a fresh, innovative piece of cinema with remarkable photography and unbelievable performances. Henry Alekan's cinematography is both insightful and visually dazzling. Every photographic camera angle takes on a new connotation. Ganz and Dommartin are equally irresistible as ii different "people", who worlds apart from each other; both characters are looking for love, no matter how close Damien is from Marion. Peter Falk, playing himself, is an amusing attribute to the cast beingness "Columbo" in the pop TV show. Being a mysterious character himself, he metaphorically adds a little color to the film amidst all the spellbinding drama and discloses an entertaining revelation that helps the flick progress.
This revolutionary masterpiece of adroitness is considered by many as the greatest not-U.s.a. pic ever and it deserves all of its praise entirely. WINGS OF Desire breaks new ground in romantic and dramatic motion-picture show making. Every scene in this movie offers a chance for hope, agreement and compassion. Unbearably creative, outstanding and poignant, this superbly-made motion motion-picture show is not another fine art-house flick. Phenomenal.
WINGS OF DESIRE was remade in Hollywood as the sleek yet disappointing Metropolis OF ANGELS(1997).
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093191/reviews