Wings of Desire displays the different paths of “fallen angels”. The film refers to
these angels as “fallen” when they leave their existence as an angel to become
human. I will show how certain film techniques and
"The Song of Childhood" are used to tell these religious stories.
Wings of Desire, produced by Wim Wender, uses black and white versus color to
display freedom. Each black and white scene either has an angel in it, or is
from the angel’s point of view. The color is presented when freedom is
mentioned or felt by an angel. The first time color is used in this film is
when Marion is holding onto trap with one arm and foot. Since Marion is almost
letting go, the color represents a type of freedom from letting go.
Another example is when the protagonist angel is colorized in the
film for a few moments because he decides to “fall” and become human. Color is
given to scenes that show a significant change in the view or life of an angel,
such as one that is going to enter life as a human. We see this take place when
Damiel is deciding to fall. Damiel is shown in black-and-white to sepia to
color; therefore, the black-and-white represents his life as an angel, the
sepia represents his decision to fall, and the color represents his new life as
a human. This allows the use of color to be successful in displaying the
transition of a fallen angel.
A film technique that stood out to me in Wings of Desire was the use of repetition. For example, the lyrical
melody “When the child was a child/that was the time of these questions” is
repeated from Peter Handke’s “Song of Childhood”. We also see the repetition of
boundaries through the use of walls in the film. There is a scene where the
angels pass through a wall to show that they are not held back by these
boundaries.
Wings of Desire is a visual poem
because it introduces the idea of childhood and time from two dimensions shown
between Damiel, becoming more human-like, and Marion, becoming more angel-like.
He uses the “Song of Childhood” to show that Damiel is very childlike after he
falls. On page 129 of Sacred and Profane
Beauty by Gerardus Leeuw, he describes the use of poetry as a transitional
phenomenon that we can apply to the film and Peter Handke’s “Song of
Childhood”.
In Walking on Water by
Madeleine L’Engle, she says, “This questioning of the meaning of being, and dying, and being, is
behind the telling of stories around tribal fires at night; behind the drawing
of animals on the walls of caves; the singing of melodies of love in spring,
and of the death of green in autumn. It is part of the deepest longing of the
human psyche, and recurrent ache in the hearts of all of God’s creatures” (13).
This excerpt from L’Engle supports the presence of the lyrical melody of “Song
of Childhood” when it is introduced when questions arise throughout the film.
It is also significant in the transition of the angel to becoming human.
Leeuw, Gerardus van der.
(2006). Sacred and Profane Beauty (David E. Green,
Trans.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
L’Engle, Medeleine. Walking on Water.
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