35 Years Later: Wings of Desire

Director: Wim Wenders
Starring: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander
Running time: 128 minutes

Over the first fifteen years of his career, Wim Wenders had already developed his unique craft of filmmaking. Wenders’ films found a balance of visual artistry without any neglect for storytelling. Much of this ability should be awarded to his resident cinematographer Robby Muller, who provided the lens through which these stories will be forever re-visited. 

Wenders’ stamp on cinema will always be hailed as original, but, as so often affirmed by himself, his work is richly inspired by that of Yasujirō Ozu. Two years prior to the beginnings of Wings of Desire, Wenders arrived in Tokyo to shoot what he described as “a diary of a film”, exploring the work of Ozu whilst contrasting modernising Japanese culture in his observational style. Tokyo-Ga was released in 1985 and is, in itself, a spectacle of beauty. Now, looking at his works chronologically, it makes so much sense that his movie on Ozu was followed by Wings of Desire in 1987; they share so much of the same space in filmmaking, letting the small, human things do the talking. 

Wings of Desire is a dreamy picture. Our angels, ‘Damiel’ and ‘Cassiel’, are our primary characters, guiding us through a dual perspective of both mortals and immortals in a divided Berlin. Unheard and unseen by the human inhabitants they drift from person to person, picking up internal dialogue. Although graced with eternality, Damiel begins to comprehend the beauty of real life and the humanity that he has never truly experienced. “I’d like, at each step, each gust of wind, to be able to say, ‘now’ … and no longer ‘forever’ and ‘for eternity.” He ponders the sacrifice to become human. 

With Robby Muller away shooting Jarmusch’s Down By Law, Wenders made room for new cinematographer Henri Alekan, who shot the movie in both colour and sepia-toned black-and-white- each being respectively used to portray the mortal and immortal perspective. The camera moves with omnipotence; through brick walls and high over the city of West Berlin. Shots of Damiel and Cassiel are grandiose and fantastical. A vast and transcendent feeling is evoked throughout. 

Wenders was not alone in the writing; he employed Austrian novelist Peter Handke to try and capture a style in which the audience could really grasp and concede the epic and absurd nature of the plot. Handke did not feel able to contribute to a complete and succinct way, instead sending ideas in note form, which Wenders and co-contributor Richard Reitinger proceeded to form a more coherent narrative. 

Wings of Desire is a balancing act throughout. Melancholic but hopeful. Epic but intimate. Busy but sparse. Wenders and co capture the rounded picture of life; the otherness that is often so hard to comprehend in our fast moving lives. Wings of Desire invests power and meaning in all of our little stories and tries to help us understand the beauty of being human.

Did you know? Filming the actual Berlin Wall was prohibited, so a replica of the wall twice had to be built close to the original