Wings of Desire: The Angels Among Us

This 43-minute featurette details the unusual production of Wim Wenders' acclaimed WINGS OF DESIRE (1987). I own the Anchor Bay UK R2 DVD, but it's missing this documentary found on MGM's R1 edition (which I rented so that I could check it out). The director (whom I saw at a Press Conference during the 2004 Venice Film Festival for his latest work, LAND OF PLENTY) remembers that, after having lived in the U.S. for 8 years, he wanted to make a renewed acquaintance with Berlin (his favorite city) through a film.

He wasn't quite sure how to go about it, so he approached his frequent screen writing collaborator Peter Handke - who came up with a number of introspective, even poetic monologues but no definite storyline. At one point, Wenders hit upon the idea of having guardian angels for his lead characters and immediately thought of actors Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander for the roles; Damiel (played by Ganz) eventually wishes to become human, having fallen in love with trapeze artiste Solveig Dommartin (then Wenders' girlfriend, she passed away recently!). Eventually, they started shooting without a proper script - but felt that something crucial was still missing: a sense of humor; this was ultimately supplied by American star Peter Falk (in what he himself deemed the most unusual role he ever played, as an ex-angel who advices Damiel in his new 'life').

While I'm sure that Wenders' Audio Commentary (included on both DVDs) - and which I listened to back when I watched the film - touches upon most of the points discussed in the documentary, the latter does provide the opportunity for the other major contributors to have their say: Handke, composer Jurgen Knieper (who, again, had to resort to improvisation), Ganz, Sander, even Falk (who appears to have appreciated the experience). They also pay tribute to the film's renowned cinematographer Henri Alekan (who, at 80, was coerced out of retirement to lend to the film the same kind of ethereal black-and-white quality he had brought to BEAUTY AND THE BEAST [1946], which Wenders considers to be the most beautiful ever shot!) and character actor Curt Bois (who appears in the film and had, some years earlier, been the subject of a documentary co-directed by Ganz and Sander!).

Why shouldn't we fall in love?

Our hearts are made of it Let's take a chance, why be afraid of it?

By: Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler

The basic story is of an angel that after recording life falls in love with life, not just the trapezes artist that he eventually wants to meet in the flesh. We get to follow his transition blow by blow, as he attempts to follow his desire.

Peter Falk as Der Filmstar is a catalyst and the glue to the story. I even mention that Colombo did not have a hat.

The film started unscripted, and the directors and writers had to punt. You may notice this as the story improves. There was a partial start script from Paris Texas.

I took a German class actually several classes about the time of this film. Therefore, some of the film languages are natural, some, I recognize after the subtitles, and some are new. No one slurs the words so this would be a great training film. However, I never made it there so this is as close as I will ever get to 1987 Berlin.

Filmed in: Berlin, Germany Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche, Berlin, Germany Potsdamer Platz, Mitte, Berlin, Germany Siegessäule, Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany Staatsbibliothek, Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany

The DVD has a great commentary by director Wim Wenders and Peter Falk, which lets you see what is attempted in the film. So, did they accomplish what they set out to do?

Watch Berlin: Berlino - sinfonia di una grande città (1927) as a contrast.

Also, do not miss what touts as a sequel but as a standalone revision of this film.

Così lontano così vicino (1993) with Nastassja Kinski.

The angels here - draped in trench coats, walking through libraries and ruins - aren't saviors. They're archivists of human sorrow. They walk the postwar world like archivists of empire, carrying the soft weight of forgotten dreams. And then one of them dares to fall. To feel. To taste. To bleed.

It's the most punk act imaginable: to give up immortality for love, for touch, for coffee, for circus music, for gravity.

The film's black-and-white photography isn't nostalgia - it's grief. It's the color of ruins. The moment color arrives, it's like breath after drowning. It's like mango on the tongue after years of ash. The circus, the café, the poem - suddenly, the world is not abstract. It is urgent.