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Warning! This articles reveals significant plot details of the films Wings of Desire, Faraway, So Close, and City of Angels. Do not read if you do not wish to learn the endings of these films. Fallen Angels What would it be like if an angel could give up existence as he knows it and become human? What would cause him to want to do this? Would it be worth it if he did? Both Wings of Desire and its American remake City of Angels seek to answer these questions. And although they generally arrive at the same conclusion, they take different paths and worldviews to get there. A note: Both films use the term "fall" to mean an angel giving up angelhood to become human. As a Christian, I believe that fallen angels are not in any way humans, but demons. But, for the sake of ease and clarity, I will use the term "fall" as the films do. WINGS OF DESIRE Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, quickly emerge as the main characters. They walk around Berlin, listening to people's thoughts and studying their way of life. As they do so, it becomes apparent that they, in a certain way, actually wish to be human; to do the things humans do. Damiel becomes infatuated with Marion, a beautiful circus performer. She has just lost her job and feels as though nothing matters. Before very long, Damiel can't stand it anymore, and tells Cassiel that he's made the decision to jump. In doing this, he "falls" and becomes human. The first few days are both wonderful and agonizing, as he discovers blood, color, pain, pleasure, warmth, touch, smell, taste, rain and evil. The first thing he does is look for Marion. He finds her, they see each other, and they know immediately they are supposed to be together. At the end of the movie, Damiel is helping Marion with her trapeze, telling us in a voice-over that now that he knows about man and woman, he knows what it is to be human (that is, humanity is at its fullest in the relationship between a man and a woman) and he knows what no angel knows. Wings of Desire was made in 1988, before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breaking up of the Berlin Wall. That mentality is very present in the film. Cassiel makes the comment that each German citizen is a private state, enclosing themselves away from each other. This thought is carried on in Wim Wenders's sequel, Faraway, So Close, made in 1993, after the collapse. Wenders uses several Biblical allusions that contain angels, basically intimating that all the things that angels did in the Bible-- wrestling with Jacob, eating and drinking, etc.--were only pretenses, not the real thing. Wenders's angels want to actually do the things they see humans do; from trivial things such as coming home from work and feeding the cat to unpleasant things such as having fevers. God is almost completely non-existent in Wings of Desire. Cassiel and Damiel discuss the creation, but not the Creator. Their account of creation sounds almost evolutionary. Page last updated 8/1/04. |
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