in Criterion Month

Wings of Desire (1987)

Wings of Desire is a low-key metaphysical meditation on urban loneliness that kept surprising me. Not because of its novel storytelling or its “stunning tapestry of sounds and images” (thanks official Criterion description) but little funny things that I probably should have known about going in. For instance, Peter Falk is in this as himself. An actor shows up on a movie set in Berlin and people call him Colombo and yep, that’s Peter Falk. Later, we find out that Peter Falk, the real human actor who lived in our world from 1927 to 2011, is a former angel who decided to become a mortal man. That’s a big swing! And just one more thing, Wings of Desire ends on a “To be continued.” Did you know this? I’ve always known there was an America remake that inexplicably pairs up Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, but somehow I never noticed that Wim Wenders made a sequel in 1993 called Faraway, So Close! We live in a joyous world full of discoveries to make.

Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel who wanders the streets and perches high atop buildings in West Berlin. Damiel, like all angels, can hear the thoughts of the people he encounters, as it is the responsibility of angels to witness reality. It’s a job he’s been doing since before there was a Berlin or before there were even people. Also all angels wear big overcoats and tiny ponytails because they’re German, I guess. But Damiel is growing weary of being unable to actually interact with the world, especially after a young circus trapeze artist named Marion (Solveig Dommartin) catches his eye. Marion is heartbroken that her circus is shutting down and she’ll have to give up on her dream. But mostly she’s just lonely. Damiel is drawn to her, visiting her multiple times and even appearing to her in a dream (I think, that part wasn’t as clear) and eventually decides he wants to forgo his angelic nature and become a real boy.

As real human man who lived actually in our world Peter Falk could tell us, it’s actually not that big a deal for angels to become human. In fact, Colombo encourages them to do it. Nonetheless, Damiel’s angel friend, Cassiel (Otto Sander) doesn’t seem thrilled about Damiel’s decision and the movie juxtaposes Damiel’s journey with Cassiel’s continued dedication to their job. Through Cassiel’s eyes we follow many lonely Berliners, some of whom he tries to provide a sliver of hope too. While Damiel is busy falling in love, Cassiel follows an old man who feels out of place in the modern world, a young prostitute, and most tragically, a man about to commit suicide. And so we see a stark spectrum of what it is to be a person: hope and despair, love and loneliness, life and death.

I had an interesting weekend watching Wings of Desire and As Tears Go By, as I couldn’t help but see similarities between the works of directors Wim Wenders and Wong Kar-wai. Both of them were at this time making very moody movies about cities that were on the verge of profound change — Berlin was about to be reunified with the fall of the Berlin Wall shortly after Wings of Desire‘s release and the handover of Hong Kong looms over so many of Wong’s movies. So naturally the city becomes a character in these movies, a permanent record of how it felt to live in a particular place and time. And those vibes come through especially in the visuals, which in this case is accentuated by Wenders’ decision to depict the angels’ point of view in black and white and people’s perspective in color. Not an easy directive, so I’m sure plenty of credit is also due to legendary cinematographer Henri Alekan.

In conclusion, here’s some more things I learned: Solveig Dommartin was Wenders’ girlfriend and not at all an acrobat when she was cast. Nonetheless, she learned all her trapeze choreography in eight weeks and performed all the stunts herself without a double. That’s crazy! Also apparently there was a day during production that Peter Falk went missing and the police were called to look for him but he had just been exploring the city and was found at a cafe. Maybe he really was an angel? The closing titles state the film is “dedicated to all the former angels, but especially to Yasujiro, François and Andrej.” That refers to filmmakers Yasujirō Ozu, François Truffaut, and Andrei Tarkovsky all of whom were featured in the very first Criterion Month. I’ve always said our taste is divine.