WINGS OF DESIRE (1987)

Being an uneducated dummy who enjoys arthouse cinema has its fair share of problems. One issue is I’m not smart enough to properly express my feelings about the films I watch. Another is I most likely miss details while watching the movies because I’m too stupid to notice them. But luckily nobody reads this shit, so I'll just plow ahead anyway! Yaaay! Duuuurrrr.

Two (male) angels hang around Berlin, Germany all day and night listening to people’s thoughts and trying to comfort them. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don’t. These two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, have been alive for millennia, but they cannot actually touch things, feel weather or be seen. As the film progresses, one of the angels, Damiel, begins to have thoughts that he wants to become a human so he can experience all the horrible, shitty, wretched aspects of being a human. Here’s a free piece of advice: don’t do it, being a human fucking suuuuuuuucks.

WINGS OF DESIRE is a fascinating trip back to 1980’s arthouse. I love the look of the film, it’s absolutely gorgeous and maybe even constructed to be a love letter to Berlin, kinda like those scenes in MANHATTAN and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS are love letters to New York City, but what do I know? The other highlight of the film is the way it presents humans’ inner dialogues. As the angels walk among groups of people, the spoken dialogue shifts non-stop all over the place, it’s very well made and honestly sounds like it would be hell to experience. Film-making aspects aside, another great thing about WINGS OF DESIRE is all of the thoughts and questions it conjures up in the viewer’s mind. I’ve seen WOD a few times over the years and every time I’m left for days thinking about what exactly it is to be a human and my place in humanity as a whole. I'm also curious about the angel beings in this film universe because all of the ones in this movie seem to be white adult males. So can there be angels of other races? Overweight angels? Trans angels? Bulimic angels? Angels with missing limbs? I'm just curious.

Deliberately slow pace, absolutely gorgeous camerawork, a Nick Cave sighting, awesome use of colours and lack of colours, 1986’s LEGAL EAGLES on a movie theater marquee, strong acting, a Suicidal Tendencies t-shirt, a runtime that maybe went a little long. Overall, WINGS OF DESIRE is an above average film, but it's lost some of its emotional power since its original release in 1987. Still, it's worth checking out for those curious.

Part 2 - Faraway, So Close! (1993)
Remake - City of Angels (1998)