I wanna tell you 'bout a...

...film, not a girl. Though a girl will play a part in it and also the song from which's introduction the header for today's post is taken...
Most of my friends from Germany (not necessarily my friends who are german citizens) probably know by now about my obsession with the film "der Himmel über Berlin" (Wings of Desire in english), so they may safely skip this entry.
Unless of course they want to find out about one of the best films ever made.

The story is told in a few seconds and - to be honest - is not so important.

In the Berlin of the 80es, angels walk amongst humans, but are unable to interact with them. They can hear our thoughts and feel echoes of our emotions, yet are insubstantial.
Children sometimes notice them, but grown-ups have lost this ability.
Through the monocrome city, two angels, Cassiel (Bruno Ganz) and Damiel (Otto Sander) walk. They fullfill their role as celestial archivists, giving testimony to the lives of humans and nature alike. They have done so for billions of years, since the beginning of the world.
Now they grow ever more weary of their existance and ever more curious for the sensations of human life. Just knowing what it must be like to come home to feed the cat or for once not knowing everything has become an attractive prospect.
Then one day, Cassiel falls in love with Marion, a trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin) in a small circus.
With the help from a stragne american filmstar (Peter Falk, basicly playing himself), who seems to know the angels are around him, even though he is long grown up, Damiel crosses over into the mortal world and eventually finds Marion at a Nick-Cave-Concert (now we have returned to the words in the header). The end.

Sounds vaguely familiar? Well, there was an american remake in the 90es, city of angels. That was a revolting piece of sugary romance and I will not lose any more words on it.

So what makes Wings of Desire into such a great film?

Firstly, it is not an easy film to get into at first. The first 20 minutes or so go on without any plot-progression at all, it is just a sort of meditation.
But the pictures!
The camera is controlled by Henri Alekan, the grand seigneur of the camera and he shot some of the best shots ever done in cinema.
As long as we follow the viewpoint of the angels, the picture is in monocrome, showing how detached the angels are from the world.
Only when the point of view switches to humans and after Cassiel "falls", the film goes over to colour.
Add to that the superb music (some of the best contemporary music ever written for the cello) and the composition is unbeatable.

A big part of the dialogue was improvised and the rest was mostly done by playwright Peter Handke (this was before he went completely Bananas).

Peter Falk plays himself as a former angel, celebrating the little wonders of life. "To smoke, and have coffee - and if you do it together, it's fantastic." Even if you disagree with smoking, it does not change the point...

Alltogether this is a very poetic piece of cinema.

To those of you you care for this stuff: the film is rated PG-13...

And now three little videos to give you an impression of the look and feel of the film:



The official trailer



the man on the bridge - right from the middle of the film



The scene at the Nick Cave concert, once again we return to the header of this posting

And now, go get this film and watch it!

PS: there is a sequel, Farawy so close, which is a lot more standard fare when it comes to storytelling and not as good as the first one, but still quite OK.