Number 222 on IMDb's Top 250
The story of two angels wandering in a mixture of post-war and modern Berlin. Invisible to humans, they nevertheless give their help and comfort to all the lonely and depressed souls they meet. Finally, after many centuries, one of the angels becomes unhappy with his immortal state and wishes to become human in order to experience the joys of everyday life. He meets a circus acrobat and finds in her the fufillment of all his mortal desires. He also discovers that he is not alone in making this cross over, and that a purely spiritual experience is not enough to satisfy anyone. Hilarity ensues.
Trivia: All of the black & white sequences were shot through a one-of-a-kind filter made from a stocking that belonged to cinematographer Henri Alekan's grandmother. The scene where Otto Sander is shown riding a bus looking morose, with his head in his hands, was shot that way because the actor had developed a large bald spot on the day of shooting and makeup couldn't hide it. (How you you "develop" a large bald spot seemingly over night?).
Is movie was both better and not as good as City of Angels (1998), the American remake. It was better is the vision of the film. The angels' world is in black and white (actually sepia tones), they don't see color, they don't taste, they don't feel things like coldness, the sounds are muted, everything seems to be focused on the humans walking through the world, so the world seems bland, uninteresting. When the angel decides to become human and experience the feelings and desires and stuff inherit in humans, the world fills with vibrant color and sound. The angel finds a former angel who is now human and asks him to tell him all about everything and the former angel says that he has to learn that for himself, that is the fun of it. That former angel is Peter Falk playing himself coming to Berlin to film a movie. Okay now the part where City of Angels is better. It's story is more defined and easier to follow. Things are explained better. For example, the angel in City of Angels has to "fall from grace" to become human and explains why, in Wings of Desire, he just says that he wants to be human and he is. Although City of Angels does change the girl's profession, in this case from circus acrobat to medical doctor (I guess Meg Ryan didn't want to be a trapeze artist.) City of Angels also has a very bittersweet ending that Wings of Desire doesn't have, it just kind of ends when the angel and the acrobat get together.
Next Up: The Celebration, Every family has a secret. This is Dogme #1 (I will explain what Dogme is in the post).
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2 comments:
City of Angels is one of my favorite movies. At first you think it's a love story, but in the end, it's really a story about feelings. So, I'm guessing I'll try to find this movie and see if I like it as well.
hehehe, I was sitting here typing in your blog listening to my ipod through the computer and when I hit post, a son from the "City of Angels" sound track just started playing. How eerie is that. I think I'm going to have to go watch the movie now.
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