The Great Movies: "Wings of Desire"

Wings of Desire
(Der Himmel Uber Berlin)
Wim Wenders, 1986

Previous Contact: Did I watch this one in its original release? I think maybe I did. I think it seemed pretty far out to this small-town boy, but also that I felt kind of proud about being able to more or less like it. Then I took a class in avant garde German cinema, after which it seemed pretty mainstream.

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Wings of Desire is an emotionally detatched German art film shot mostly in black and white, with a bare minimum of narrative and lots of long scenes of people slowly walking around streets and libraries. Its climax is footage of a circus trapeze act. And if that doesn't sell you on it, it culminates in a long, painfully pretentious speech delivered from one character to another in the hushed stillness of a rock club bar. Oh, and it's about angels who want to be human so that they can experience passion.

The strange thing is that, from all of these ingrediants for truly first-class suckage, Wenders crafts a movie that is quite beautiful and surprisingly engrossing. Stunning photography helps; everyone and everything is shot magnificently. Once you figure out the daily rounds of the angels, who wander around listening to human thoughts, you also get the benefit of wish fulfillment; for the length of the movie, you get to read minds. Who hasn't ever wanted to do that? And such narrative as there is isn't too challenging, boiling down to boy-makes-sacrifice-to-get-girl.

A generous infusion of pop culture elements help the movie along, too. Peter Falk, the TV detective "Columbo," plays himself in a major supporting role. A period movie is being filmed, so we see stuntmen practicing their moves while extras dressed as Nazi officers chat genially with extras dressed as holocaust victims. Some quirky rock acts, including a Nick Cave who looks all of twenty, have extended screen time. The murals of the Berlin Wall -- still standing and very formidable when the movie was released -- are often in the background, and occasionally in the foreground. These all make the movie a little more immediately accessible; they aren't what makes it a Great Movie, but they might help keep you around long enough to notice that it's a great movie.

Plot: Well, take your pick. 1) The experience of being human is investigated, the differences between childhood and adulthood are explored and challenged, and an argument is sustained for the importance of conscious living-in-the-world. Or, 2) an angel decides to be human so he can do things like drink coffee and kiss a pretty girl.

Visuals: Mostly black and white, with cameras floating around and above Berlin like, well, angels. Lots of scenes in a library, which I've heard is significant for some reason. Occasional bursts of brilliant color, representing the human rather than the angelic viewpoint.

Dialog: There is relatively little spoken dialog; most of the voices you hear represent people's interior monologues. This raises the question of whether people think in language -- personally, I have my doubts -- but you'd have to use language in the movie in any event, and the film does a reasonable job of approximately representing the daily concerns of real people.

Prognosis: Recommended for any serious movie watcher, or anyone who wants to challenge the breadth of their movie appreciation. Approach it thoughtfully -- don't come to it seeking entirely passive entertainment, and don't talk your date out of watching Jackie Chan so you can watch this instead. Meet it halfway, have some patience, and you're likely to feel rewarded.


The L&TM5K Advent Calendar
December 8


Workshop, circle or follower of Hieronymus Bosch, Adoration of the Magi. ± 1474 or later. Oil on panel, 71.1 × 56.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.