Twenty Years Ago...

It is hard to believe that Himmel Uber Berlin, aka Wings of Desire is twenty years old (although by the time it got to Sacramento, I think it was 1988, so it was already a year old). It remains my all-time favorite film, mostly because it appeals to the lyrical/musical sense (images carefully moving in time) much more than the rhetorical sense (plot). What narratives there are twist together in beautifully subtle and interesting ways.

As far as angelology goes, there are a couple of questionable things, but in terms of a Catholic film, Wings of Desire takes first place, even though the director is not Catholic. Obviously there is the joy of the created world (even in Damiel's first human experience, which was getting clunked in the head with the armor), but more than that is the narrative around the old man (Homer), who is constantly searching for an epic of peace.

His search for an epic of peace against the history of warfare is something the angels contemplate, and is something that goes through the minds of the WWII survivors as they drive through areas that spark memories of the tragedy of that era. And we have to wait until the very end of the film to find the epic of peace, which is the story of procreation.

And, like the old cruise ship, getting there is half the fun in this mostly improvised masterpiece. We have Peter Falk playing himself, a couple of great performances by post-punk legend Nick Cave, some wonderfully off-kilter circus music, cinematography by Henri Alekan, and footage of a Berlin that is no more.

Now, keeping in mind that "getting there is half the fun," I am eagerly awaiting (and probably expecting disappointment from - how's that? To expect disappointment. What does that mean that I am expecting?) how this film works as a stage play. Curt Bois, who played Homer, is dead, the Berlin of the 1980's is gone (and that city really was a character in the drama), and they seem to be doing something different with it. They would have to. My question is how it will relate to the film. I am assuming that it will find its way to the Bay Area. I hope so, since I am currently boycotting both New York (Governor Spitzer?!? Ffft. Phteh. Blech.) and Massachussetts (yes, partly 1630's era grievances, but also to do with having a governor who actively practices the Mormon lifestyle), and will not see it in either of those states.

Anyway, here is an interesting PR piece from the theater company in Cambridge that is doing it, in conjunction with a Dutch company: