Wings of Desire

Today I watched this film with C. It is one of my favorites and I wanted to show it to her. There are many things that I enjoy about the film I love how it encourages, almost demands, that we celebrate life in all its forms. The angels serve as witnesses to everything around them, never touching, never changing for eternity. One angel begins to desire the things that we take for granted, to come home tired from work and feed his cat, to read a newspaper and get ink on his hands. These are things that we can do but they aren't special to us. Why not?

I love the way people speak, so poetic. In fact, part of the naration is a poem by Peter Handke.

When the child was a child,
It was the time for these questions:
Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?
When did time begin, and where does space end?
Is life under the sun not just a dream?
Is what I see and hear and smell
not just an illusion of a world before the world?
Given the facts of evil and people.
does evil really exist?
How can it be that I, who I am,
didn't exist before I came to be,
and that, someday, I, who I am,
will no longer be who I am?

excerpted from Song of Childhood
By Peter Handke

I love the grace and beauty of Marion, the trapeze artist. After watching Marion and knowing her thoughts, her strength to each day defy gravity and her fears to feel the joy of flying, Damiel falls in love. Then finally the desire to be human is strong enough.

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Wings of Desire
(*****)