February 2, 2011

WINGS OF DESIRE

How about the ability to fly?  Have limitless strength and stamina?  Cling to any surface?  Or walk vertically up the side of a building whilst appearing to be entirely horizontal?

Super-human desire is often played out in fantasy movies, very commonly by comic book mutants:  Superman, Spiderman, Batman…  Okay, Batman is not technically a mutant but if you can claim to be an expert in 127 different martial arts, be the worlds best scientist, tactician, detective, and master of disguise then you are not exactly human either. 

One might note that super mutant women are less prolific on the big screen, one can only assume feminine desires go further than just physical powers?

Gender arguments aside, the point is that we often see our physical boundaries as flaws.  By using super powers a character may imagine they can avoid human afflictions - problem solved!  But in fact the subtext often turns out that super powers turn out to be the flaws themselves.  Superman, Spiderman, and Batman alike cannot reveal their mutant identities because they want to be accepted in their communities as humans.  Ultimately they end up using their superior abilities in order to maintain human qualities. 

Physical boundaries are the very things that offer us solace in the end.  There is only so much that can be physically achieved meaning we can allow ourselves realistic expectations.

So rightly Wings of Desire (1987 - Wim Wenders) is a story of an angel - a super-being -  embarking upon a journey to become part of the far more satisfying human race.  It rejects the powers of invisibility, mind reading, and immortality for the simple pleasures of the human senses.  One might call it 'angel suicide'.  If that is not feel good then - heavens above! - I don’t know what is.  One-upmanship for the non believers perhaps.  An angel having had enough of eternal knowledge throws it all away to taste some of the good stuff down here amongst us humble folk.

The beautifully photographed picture draws much further than this.  The film includes a partial biography of a city that has at times required some angels.  The landscape of pre-unified Berlin offers a characterful and relevant back drop.  The search for pleasure in a bleak landscape that on the surface offers little hope - to find light within the darkness.  Wenders uses a provocative mixture of colour and colourless film to symbolise the journey between the sacred and profane worlds, but he also understands that building a wall between these two parallels is not just black and white. 

The sacred can be found within our physical reality.  The previously spiritual being finds what he is looking for in the human form.  The love of another human.

So perhaps the characters physical metamorphosis just represents the inner change - a lost soul finding love. 

Inner change is the route to fulfilment and our physical inabilities enable our thoughts and imaginations to pursue a higher plain of being where there are no limitations.

Wings of Desire was inspired by the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke.  The film inspired a less than desirable Hollywood re-make: City of Angels (1998 – Nicolas Cage & Meg Ryan).

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