220. Wings Of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin); movie review

 

WINGS OF DESIRE (DER HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN)

Cert 12A

127 mins

BBFC advice: Contains images of real dead bodies, suicide, domestic abuse, strong language

If Wings Of Desire had been set in any other city, would it have resonated with me so much? I doubt it.

Berlin first made an impression on me when I was on my student year abroad in West Germany in the early 1980s.

The state subsidised a few days so they could emphasise to us how much more progressive the West was than the East.

We went to a few lectures but mainly had lots to drink with other Brits and Americans in pubs and clubs of the West, with one day spent via Checkpoint Charlie in the drab East where we could find nothing on which to spend our money.

This Berlin of the 80s is the backdrop for Wim Wenders' highly acclaimed but unashamedly slow and arty movie.

Nothing is straightforward in Wings Of Desire but it touches on the city's wartime past and the infamous wall built by the Soviets.

The sometimes mundane and occasionally dramatic thoughts of its citizens are read by two invisible angels (Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander) who move around Berlin's less attractive haunts.

Eventually they alight upon an old man (Curt Bois) who has suffered and seen much, a trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin) who is desperate for love and actors working on the production of a new movie.

These include Peter Falk who seems to have a sixth sense which picks up the presence of the angels.The film becomes progressively weirder, flicking between crisp black and white gaudy colours and  I have to confess that, by its end, I was lost on what director Wim Wenders was trying to achieve.

For me there were wisps of Terence Davies's style in his Liverpool documentary Of Time And The City or even Mark Cousins' I Am Belfast.

But, in truth, Wings Of Desire goes down a road that no movies have been before or since.

Reasons to watch: A poetic and unique ode to Berlin

Reasons to avoid: It will be too arty for many

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: Very briefly

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? Filming the actual Berlin Wall was prohibited from the East, so a replica of the wall twice had to be built close to the original. The first fake wall warped in the rain because the contractor cheated the producers and built it from wood.

The final word. Wim Wenders: "The idea strictly came from wandering around Berlin and feeling inspired to make a film that would tell the story of a city that had seen hell, and that was now a very unique place on Earth, an island city divided by a wall. A film that would show as many aspects of this city as possible, and that would also go diagonally through its history." Filmmaker

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