Weekend film: Winds of Desire / Der Himmel über Berlin

[alexandral]

It happened once... It happened once, and so it will be forever.

This is a wonderful film. It is a poem of a kind – I wish I could understand German so that I can appreciate it fully. I also wonder if monologues and dialogues had some rhyme in German, it just felt this way. This film isn’t easy to watch (for me) and it is very different from anything else I have seen. But you know, when sometimes you come across something what you have never seen or heard before, something very unique and at the same time so familiar to you?

The story is familiar from the later re-make of this film, “City of angels”: an angel longs for human life with it’s shortness and it’s beauty. I personally liked “City of Angels”, but for me the original “Wings of Desire” is much more then just the beautiful love story “City of Angels” is. “Wings of Desire” makes me want to go and do many, many things : tell people I love them, touch old trees, swim on the early morning in the cold, cold water, eat chocolate éclairs, go in the sledge from the top of the snowy hill all the way down. LIFE IS WONDERFUL!! But this film is not just about it neither. There is a sad and haunting undertone in the film – the history of Berlin, the past destruction of 1940’s and Berlin wall.



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Damien by Bruno Ganz: Not your average angel, but he has such an interesting face:

Marion by Solveig Dommartin: She is so beautiful (unusual style) and very sweet:

Comments

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

I like this movie a lot too! A lot of it takes place in the Stabi (the "Staatsbibliothek") in Berlin, and when I first started doing some reading in there, I kept looking around to see if I saw the angel :P

Bruno Ganz is a great actor (he's actually Swiss, btw). Do you know that he played Hitler in the brilliant film (IMO) called "Der Untergang" (or "Downfall" in English)? It's quite the career-spanning move from angel to very evil man, no?

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

I have wanted to see this film for years and years now - I've always heard it was amazing. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on it - and I love how it inspired you. :) That's the best feeling, when art can evoke strong emotions in you, especially when they are positive feelings.

[lage-nom-ai.livejournal.com]

I lose all film cred because I don't like this film (gasp! I kind of enjoyed the remake, though that could be because U2 helps out the soundtrack). Even knowing the German doesn't make it less tedious for me (or maybe it was watching it in one too many college courses). I prefer my German films to be a little crazier and occasionally violent-while-slow, like Aguirre: der Zorn Gottes/Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Heh.

[ginger001]

Thank you for posting about this movie!!! I have wanted to see it since I watched City of Angels, which I didn't like at all!

I had always heard that this original version was the best and for what you say they were right. I really want to see the original so I can erase the feelings City of Angels left in me. It's one of those movies that I can't just watch again. I know a lot of people love it but I just can't, and I can't actually explain why.

It's just fantastic when a movie makes you feel something... makes you feel alive at the same time that makes you realizes about everything you have around you... That is what Art is about, I think.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

And this movie has Nick Cave, too. :-)