Wings of Desire


For the film, Wings of Desire, I wanted to focus on the visual elements in the film. The film is centered around two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, who go through the streets of Berlin observing the population and providing rays of hope to people who are in distress without interrupting their daily life or even interacting with them. Along the way, Damiel falls in love and wants to experience the physical world eventually being guided to the idea that he could take human form if the love is strong enough.

One visual element of the film is that the angels are unseen throughout the whole film. The fact that they are invisible, unable to engage with human beings, yet they quietly watch over everyone and occasionally offer aid to people in distress is very crucial to the plot of the film. Wenders, the director, drifts the camera angles around which depicts the detached position that the angels have yet they are still so intimate with the people in the film.

Another visual element of the film is that there is a sense of love like I said between Damiel and a mortal. With this being said, there are parts of the film that are black and white and there are parts of the film that give way to color eventually. This shows that as Damiel accepts that he wants to leave immortality behind and follow the woman of his dreams, not only does the black and white fade but his immortality had the potential to. This brings the color to his life and in the future could bring the human light to his life too.

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