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Fallen Angels prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | next As far as the production goes, City of Angels is well-thought out, well-directed, and well-produced. There couldn't have been better casting choices than Meg Ryan as Maggie and Nicolas Cage as Seth. Cage portrays the difference between Seth as an angel and Seth as a human with seemingly no change in appearance. The cinematography choices are excellent. The whole thing is in colour, but in the falling sequence, the shots of Seth falling are intercut with black and white images of those things he has seen in his travels as an angel. Before his fall, colours are muted and rather dark. After, there are bright reds and oranges and yellows. Also, before he falls, there is little background noise; generally all that is heard is the dialogue of those in close proximity to the camera. After the fall, all sorts of traffic and airplane and construction sounds are heard. Obviously, although Seth could see and hear as angel, his sight and hearing were selective. Several images stand out, mostly after Seth's fall: the light on Maggie's face after she helps save a baby's life; Seth's fall itself; Maggie "flying" home on her bicycle before she hits a truck (the highway accident); Seth floating in the waves of the Pacific. SYNTHESIS The German version contains many more scenes of the angels merely observing and listening to people, whereas in City of Angels, this angelic funcion is established in the opening scenes, then hardly referred to again. Damiel is more desirous of all human qualities as opposed to a certain part of humanity, that is, love. Seth wants total humanity too, of course, but he is mostly interested in being able to love Maggie as humans love each other. There are several instances, including the one above, that I believe illustrate the cultural differences between Germany and America. Although both movies told basically the same story, the entire mood and tone was different in each one. The German film is Post-Modern in its thought: Marion has completely given up on her own abilities to do things and needs Damiel to give her something to live for. The American version is firmly back in a Modernist ideology: Maggie believes that she can do it all herself, and needs Seth to let her know that she can't. Although the world as a whole has moved even past Post-Modernism in the 1990s, the United States through history has lagged behind Europe in its philosophy. The philosophy of City of Angels is perhaps an illustration of that lagging. The German film doesn't spend any time at all on the philosophical questions mentioned in City of Angels, and doesn't mention God in any way, shape or form. City of Angels gets very close to God sometimes, but never quite makes it. It is interesting that, as far from Christianity that America has gotten, the Europeans have gone even farther, at least in their art forms. Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall wasn't a very pleasant place to be; an atmosphere of doom and entrapment pervades the film (much of this is gone in Faraway, So Close, made after the break-up of the Soviet Union). Although some might argue that Los Angeles isn't a pleasant place either, it's certainly preferable to the dingy, dirty Berlin shown in Wings of Desire. Wings of Desire is romantic only in its cinematography and in the longing of Damiel to be human. There is no "romance" between Damiel and Marion. They are obviously going to be together for the rest of their lives, but it is not a "romantic" relationship. In the American film, however, the romance is the main idea. prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | next Page last updated 8/1/04. |
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