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My second Wim Wenders film after Paris, Texas which i love. Didn't have a clue going in that this was about angels, felt like a bit of an idiot that i hadn't considered it could be or at least considered that the wings in the title were literal. I thought it was probably metaphorical, it made a nice surprise in the first shot with the little girl spotting one on top of a building at least. Odd start to this, i was half expecting there to be a scattered pieced together plot from the angel listening to peoples thoughts that it would take you 12 watches to figure out haha. Honestly would be interested in seeing that. One thing i was wondering is do people really think like this? Some of them were pretty spot on but others i thought were thinking a little too much, by that i mean if you could read my thoughts at a random time of the day i'm sure it wouldn't make much sense because there'd be no context; it's not as if i need to remind myself of what the exact event i'm thinking about is or who the characters are or exactly why they did something. It would be more like me saying "i wonder what made him do that", "that was hilarious", etc; while having a mental picture of whatever was hilarious. This is me rambling nonsense haha, i kinda know what i mean at least and i'm not saying this was a problem i'm just saying it made me think about how i think which is pretty mindblowing
Loved the dialogue, i could see it annoying people but all it reminded me of was the same mood the film George Washington put me in except this actually had some substance/purpose for the most part. One thing i thought which i never think about foreign language films is that i'd really love to know and watch this in German. Don't think it would improve my experience i just think it is the perfect sort of film to watch when you are tired though, it's really calm and meditative and alot of it is soft-spoken lying back and half watching/half listening to this would be so relaxing i feel. Love these types of films. No doubt it had a creepy vibe too, certain parts of the score the first time i thought that was in the scene in the library; it's pretty surreal he's walking around while loads of people are thinking at once and the music for the first time was intense instead of calm. Then there's just the idea of him listening to peoples thoughts in the first place especially Marions. Observing peoples deepest thoughts, their worries and troubles without any intention of interfering is such a dark concept. There was a 10 minute or so stretch in particular that got right under my skin, Cassiel following the old guy about listening to him then stopping for a moment while passing by to listen to a clearly distressed girl; don't think it was explicitly said but i took it that she was supposed to be a prostitute, either way it was so chilling, such a cold scene especially thanks to Otto Sanders emotionless expression. Think cold is a good description of the tone here except not normally the way i use it, there was plenty of emotion on display here but the Angels purpose and the voiceover never allowed the film to stray too far from this feeling. This is not a complaint, cold as i normally use it is usually but i don't mean the same thing i just can't think of the right word. Of course this was largely Cassiel's part with Damiel observing the happier parts of life, it was a nice contrast seeing both explored. My only complaint really is i'm not so sure about Damiel and Marion meeting, not really anything specific about it but it didn't sit that well with me. Oh well we got Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds during the 1980's even out of that at least.
Not sure what to say about the visuals; it was beautifully photographed and the camera movement was outstanding. Loved the shots from above and how it followed people at varying speeds. My biggest surprise was definitely the switches to colour though, jesus, the first thing i thought of was that it had a similar effect on me as seeing Ida's hair in er...Ida. Getting a response from something completely mundane mostly because it has been kept from us, the combination of how beautiful it had looked in black in white and the scene choice with Marion slowly standing up and colour being restored to her beautiful hair, surroundings, etc made it work. Think it would be fair to call it a bit gimmicky but i don't care i liked it. Even though it was probably obvious to everyone else i'm also proud of myself for figuring out its signifigance the moment it happened haha, as it happens the moment Damiel left the room. All good performances, don't think the acting is all that important to this film as long as it isn't bad but everyone did their job. And special shoutout to Columbo, almost dies when i saw "special appearence by Peter Falk" haha. It took me longer than it should've to figure out that he was an ex-angel.
Anyway i liked this alot and will need to think quite hard about where to place it when we're finished as it's not like anything else. It's not an easy watch i don't think, there's so much meandering and quiet, contemplative scenes that even if you're into it like i was it can be a bit of a struggle. Really glad you went with this Cosmic as i don't think i'd have liked the other one you were thinking about nominating as much.
The Hunt next for me probably tomorrow since it looks like Titu is out.
Wings of Desire
My second Wim Wenders film after Paris, Texas which i love. Didn't have a clue going in that this was about angels, felt like a bit of an idiot that i hadn't considered it could be or at least considered that the wings in the title were literal. I thought it was probably metaphorical, it made a nice surprise in the first shot with the little girl spotting one on top of a building at least. Odd start to this, i was half expecting there to be a scattered pieced together plot from the angel listening to peoples thoughts that it would take you 12 watches to figure out haha. Honestly would be interested in seeing that. One thing i was wondering is do people really think like this? Some of them were pretty spot on but others i thought were thinking a little too much, by that i mean if you could read my thoughts at a random time of the day i'm sure it wouldn't make much sense because there'd be no context; it's not as if i need to remind myself of what the exact event i'm thinking about is or who the characters are or exactly why they did something. It would be more like me saying "i wonder what made him do that", "that was hilarious", etc; while having a mental picture of whatever was hilarious. This is me rambling nonsense haha, i kinda know what i mean at least and i'm not saying this was a problem i'm just saying it made me think about how i think which is pretty mindblowing
Loved the dialogue, i could see it annoying people but all it reminded me of was the same mood the film George Washington put me in except this actually had some substance/purpose for the most part. One thing i thought which i never think about foreign language films is that i'd really love to know and watch this in German. Don't think it would improve my experience i just think it is the perfect sort of film to watch when you are tired though, it's really calm and meditative and alot of it is soft-spoken lying back and half watching/half listening to this would be so relaxing i feel. Love these types of films. No doubt it had a creepy vibe too, certain parts of the score the first time i thought that was in the scene in the library; it's pretty surreal he's walking around while loads of people are thinking at once and the music for the first time was intense instead of calm. Then there's just the idea of him listening to peoples thoughts in the first place especially Marions. Observing peoples deepest thoughts, their worries and troubles without any intention of interfering is such a dark concept. There was a 10 minute or so stretch in particular that got right under my skin, Cassiel following the old guy about listening to him then stopping for a moment while passing by to listen to a clearly distressed girl; don't think it was explicitly said but i took it that she was supposed to be a prostitute, either way it was so chilling, such a cold scene especially thanks to Otto Sanders emotionless expression. Think cold is a good description of the tone here except not normally the way i use it, there was plenty of emotion on display here but the Angels purpose and the voiceover never allowed the film to stray too far from this feeling. This is not a complaint, cold as i normally use it is usually but i don't mean the same thing i just can't think of the right word. Of course this was largely Cassiel's part with Damiel observing the happier parts of life, it was a nice contrast seeing both explored. My only complaint really is i'm not so sure about Damiel and Marion meeting, not really anything specific about it but it didn't sit that well with me. Oh well we got Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds during the 1980's even out of that at least.
Not sure what to say about the visuals; it was beautifully photographed and the camera movement was outstanding. Loved the shots from above and how it followed people at varying speeds. My biggest surprise was definitely the switches to colour though, jesus, the first thing i thought of was that it had a similar effect on me as seeing Ida's hair in er...Ida. Getting a response from something completely mundane mostly because it has been kept from us, the combination of how beautiful it had looked in black in white and the scene choice with Marion slowly standing up and colour being restored to her beautiful hair, surroundings, etc made it work. Think it would be fair to call it a bit gimmicky but i don't care i liked it. Even though it was probably obvious to everyone else i'm also proud of myself for figuring out its signifigance the moment it happened haha, as it happens the moment Damiel left the room. All good performances, don't think the acting is all that important to this film as long as it isn't bad but everyone did their job. And special shoutout to Columbo, almost dies when i saw "special appearence by Peter Falk" haha. It took me longer than it should've to figure out that he was an ex-angel.
Anyway i liked this alot and will need to think quite hard about where to place it when we're finished as it's not like anything else. It's not an easy watch i don't think, there's so much meandering and quiet, contemplative scenes that even if you're into it like i was it can be a bit of a struggle. Really glad you went with this Cosmic as i don't think i'd have liked the other one you were thinking about nominating as much.
The Hunt next for me probably tomorrow since it looks like Titu is out.