Usage of Sound in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire
Wings Of Desire is a 1987 film by the German director Wim Wenders. It original German title is Der Himmel über Berlin, which can be translated as The Heavens Over Berlin.
Wenders has been a part of the New German Cinema. Prior to cinema, he was a professional photographer which probably explains his extreme attention to framing. If one has to categorise Wender's movies broadly, we can probably say that his movies are generally about hope, reflection, vision and desire. Poignancy abounds in his movies, but the influence of rock and roll cannot be discounted. Wenders may have quoted to preferring sax and violins over sex and violence, but his rock and roll roots cannot be ignored. Rock and roll tends to play a major role in almost all his movies, and in fact, the director has had a long association with U2, having directed music videos for them over a span of almost two decades.
While watching Wings of Desire, one couldn't help comparing it to other works by Wenders, especially Faraway So Close and Until The End Of The World. On a simplistic level, the film is a straightforward narrative bereft of too many complexities. Set in Berlin in the late 80s, the film showcases two angels as they hover over the city. Most of the film is shot in the angels' perspective, with them observing the lives and travails of ordinary mortals. In that sense, angels are not dramatic saviors here; they are not the agents of magic and miraculous action. They are active, but in a non-participatory manner as they seep in all they hear from the intermingling lives of Berliners. One of the angels Damiel falls in love with a trapeze artiste and yearns for mortality. In a beautifully etched intermingling of spirituality and mortality, of divine and real, Damiel shrugs off his divinity and wears the mortal cloak. The rest of the film takes us through his journey into the mortal world as a physical entity, which he was, until then, not.
This, of course, is the plot on a very simplistic
Wenders has been a part of the New German Cinema. Prior to cinema, he was a professional photographer which probably explains his extreme attention to framing. If one has to categorise Wender's movies broadly, we can probably say that his movies are generally about hope, reflection, vision and desire. Poignancy abounds in his movies, but the influence of rock and roll cannot be discounted. Wenders may have quoted to preferring sax and violins over sex and violence, but his rock and roll roots cannot be ignored. Rock and roll tends to play a major role in almost all his movies, and in fact, the director has had a long association with U2, having directed music videos for them over a span of almost two decades.
While watching Wings of Desire, one couldn't help comparing it to other works by Wenders, especially Faraway So Close and Until The End Of The World. On a simplistic level, the film is a straightforward narrative bereft of too many complexities. Set in Berlin in the late 80s, the film showcases two angels as they hover over the city. Most of the film is shot in the angels' perspective, with them observing the lives and travails of ordinary mortals. In that sense, angels are not dramatic saviors here; they are not the agents of magic and miraculous action. They are active, but in a non-participatory manner as they seep in all they hear from the intermingling lives of Berliners. One of the angels Damiel falls in love with a trapeze artiste and yearns for mortality. In a beautifully etched intermingling of spirituality and mortality, of divine and real, Damiel shrugs off his divinity and wears the mortal cloak. The rest of the film takes us through his journey into the mortal world as a physical entity, which he was, until then, not.
This, of course, is the plot on a very simplistic