“Wings Of Desire”
Special to The Colonnade
On Thursday evening, Jan. 21, as part of GC&SU’s Great Cinema Film series, the brilliant German film “Wings of Desire” (Der Himmel ueber Berlin) will be introduced by Dr. Hedwig Fraunhofer at 7 p.m., in 364 Arts & Sciences.
Director and writer Wim Wenders and co-writer Peter Handke anticipate the fall of the Berlin Wall in this 1987 film about wistful, melancholic angels who loom longingly over the then divided city. Damiel and Cassiel, portrayed by the soulful Bruno Ganz and aptly reticent Otto Sander, wander the streets of Berlin, eavesdropping on the quotidian hardships and heartaches of its people, yearning to be more effectual than the ontology of pure spirit allows them. Damiel, attracted to a forlorn trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin) and hungry to be a body, eager to be plagued by desire, perishable, and to know the loneliness, desperation, and elation that comes with being human, drops to earth and embarks on just that journey.
In some of the more charmingly whimsical moments in the film, devotees of the 70s detective series Columbo will be pleased to see Peter Falk make an appearance as himself, who, it turns out, is also a former angel now fallen into flesh (who knew?). And indy rock aficionados will be cheered by a performance by Nick Cave, who also appears in the film as himself.
Washington Post reviewer Desson Howe says of this internationally acclaimed film that “Wings”, like most Heaven-and-Earth movies, ties up its resolution with romantic ribbons but, in Wenders’ eyes, such a conclusion is the crowning union of life’s dual opposites, the sensual and the spiritual, German’s East and West–as well as its Nazi past and occupied and uncertain present . . . It’s also one of the best endings you can hope for in a movie. And “Wings” is one of the best movies you can see.”
“Wings of Desire” is a film about the painful consequences of stark dichotomies and divisions that result from a troubled history and the risks necessary to survive them.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Feb 15 2002. Filed under Features.
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