Wings of Desire: Part I

We the see the concept of “existence as striving” through the poem by Peter Handke. The verses lament the loss of naïveté, innocence, the ability to appreciate beauty and to remember how to play. The film portrays the poem visually by showing that the children still have a keen eye for the spiritual beings. All the young children who can see the angels at their perch stand still and stare up in unabashed curiosity, while the adults push past hurriedly with their eyes toward the ground. Handke’s poem has the recurring line “and it is still that way” to reinforce the idea that these things of childhood which came naturally to us are still available to anyone who will look for them. For example, some of the people are cognizant of the presence of the angels when they visit, whereas others are so consumed with anxiety that they barely register the presence of the divine. Handke’s message is that the eye for beauty, the hunger for good story, and the will to live are natural and unconscious thought processes for children. It is only as we grow up that we lose that ease of access to truth and what is real. From then on, we must choose to see what we want to see. This concept of visual poetry was portrayed as Marion monologues to the changed Angel. Taking the cup, she laments all the past “coincidences” of her life, for these have created a passivity, desensitization to beauty and the sacred, and an unquenchable sense of loneliness about her. She had to strive to get to a place where she overcame the numbness of a passive adulthood and realized she had agency to choose. In that moment, she understands that access is fleeting; if she waited she might forget what it is like to be a child again. She knows that she must make a decision in that moment of clarity. The way she drinks emphasizes this transformation of thought. He helps her hold the cup to her mouth like a parent helping a child not to spill. She takes the cup in both her hands as if it is too big for her newfound childlike hands. The haze of a passive existence has fallen from her completely. Even though the drink appears to be alcoholic, it is not a casual or intoxicating affair. For the first time in her life perhaps, she drinks to be fully aware, to seal the commitment to agency in ancient ritual.