April Film Club

Hey folks!  Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to see Capote last month in honor of the late, supremely talented, Philip Seymour Hoffman (if you're looking for more of his work, ask me for a list!).  For the month of April, I've decided to show another, somewhat different film.  Don't worry, it's not as challenging as Last Year at Marienbad, but it is hopefully outside what you're normally used to watching.  The film in question is Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (the German title is Der Himmel uber Berlin or The Heavens Over Berlin).

Wings of Desire is a 1987 romantic fantasy film directed by Wim Wenders.  Set in contemporary West Berlin (at the time still enclosed by the Berlin Wall), Wings of Desire follows two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, as they roam the city, unseen and unheard by its human inhabitants, observing and listening to the diverse thoughts of Berliners: a pregnant woman in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, a painter struggling to find inspiration, a broken man who thinks his girlfriend no longer loves him.  Their reason of existence is, as Cassiel says, to "assemble, testify, preserve" reality.  In addition to the story of the two angels, the film is also a meditation on Berlin's past, present and future.  Damiel and Cassiel have always existed as angels; they existed in Berlin before it was a city, and before there were even any humans.  The film is shot in both a rich, sepia-toned black and white and color, with the former being used to represent the world as experienced by the angels.


Come on out and join us for this very poetic and beautiful film, hope to see you there!

Here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18gU7pY0P-Q