Shadow Word (3): Angel Jumps to "Under the Berlin Sky"

Gregorio 2022-04-20 09:01:50

The way people see the world in the virtual age is actually very similar to the angels in Der Himmel über Berlin. They look at human beings from a high place through colors and smells, and hear many voices of the world.

The film has two visions of color, and the black and white of the human voice is left after the color is removed. This is Berlin in the sky, and the pain in the human heart under the skin of the hue emerges. How indifferent is the angel's perspective on this Berlin, this height is different from the image that has always been portrayed by humans as caring for the world. Hearing one voice after another, and knowing one story after another, the angels did not help the desolation that these human beings felt, especially in that Germany, which was still in a period of division, how people experienced life. The alienation caused by a pair of cold eyes makes the audience feel doubly desolate, because he also participates in being one of such bystanders, with the same color blindness and distance.

The story arranges two angels with different personalities, highlighting the gap between the two types of looking at the world. The indifferent Cassirer refused the invitation of the human to reach out and kept a distance with restraint; on the contrary, Danmir, who always sat next to the human , try to make all kinds of encouragement that humans cannot feel, and at the same time be willing to reach out to accept the invitation of human beings, and finally reincarnate into human beings. The world of human beings is full of color and confusion, and because they cannot hear the hidden voices, they will be deceived. Angels must learn to be human from it. The director who used to be an angel told Damier to feel it for himself, so that he can have his own human experience, which is far different from listening to others. When the love of an angel descends into the world, he must also be involved in it, so that he can be aware of it and help the human beings he cares about. This is something that cannot be given to human beings by the identity of an angel. The skylight of human beings must ultimately be opened by the love of human beings from heaven, and it is opened with human hands. This is the way out for human beings. The two states of bystander and action are demonstrated very wonderfully here.

Without caring eyes, that is always standing aside. No matter what you think in this position, you do nothing, unlike the position where you sit next to others and touch everything. The library in the movie is a scene full of Ukiyo-e paintings. An old man who cares about the world and what a scholar who was once admired thinks and can do has been ignored. Why did you choose the library as a scene where angels often haunt? It is probably what the library contains, and it is all about human beings. It is often a place where people go to solve problems. It also shows the limitations of human beings in understanding the world and contacting the world, contacting the world through books, and the angels who contact human beings through colors. The same, or can know something, but helpless to do something. This distance, in addition to entering the real world, there is no other way to narrow it. Only when thoughts and actions are in sync can they truly match the movement of the world.

This is my favorite movie I've ever seen. It's a way for the audience to get in touch with the world and feel the care for human beings that the director wants to show. Although it is twenty-five years late, it is better than never seeing it.

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Extended Reading
  • Christop 2022-03-25 09:01:10

    The world seen by angels is black and white, while the eyes of humans (human nature) see it in color. Then the angels envy everything in the world, envy the hands of human beings that can be soiled by newspapers, and then choose to give up the identity of angels and fall into the world. After thinking about it for a few days, I still feel that this sensual and blunt, "human-friendly" design is somewhat artificial and unnatural. The most romantic is the group of angels flying over the Berlin Wall that has not been knocked down. They represent onlookers and observations, instead of the audience projecting the humanistic care and political war torture of the "suffering" Berlin city. This combination of sensibility and rationality in the film, the symbolism it establishes, and the way of mixing experimental avant-garde films with romantic love films makes me feel very contradictory and complicated. That's when I read Michael Atkinson's comparison of "angels" to "fans," and it makes sense that angels (fans) look forward to moving from a black-and-white world (cinema) to a world of color (real life). Wenders does still love American movies (road movies), both from the fact that he created the character of the American actor, to the romance of the movie at the end.

  • Alta 2022-03-25 09:01:10

    Angel?? One star if it wasn't for the nick cave's music. Very nonsensical film. boring

Wings of Desire quotes

  • Peter Falk: But, you're not here. I'm here. I wish you were here! I wish you could talk to me. 'Cause, I'm a friend. Compañero.

  • Damiel: It happened once... It happened once, and so it will be forever.