Wings of Desire and Far Away, So Close: A Comparative Essay

By Sarah R. Barnes

The concept behind Wim Wenders’ movies about life, love, angels, Berlin , music and poetry is fascinating: allow the camera to not be confined to the world of everyday people or the grey world of the messengers. Show us the world as seen by angels. Show us the world as seen by those living in it. Show us what happens when the border dividing those worlds is transcended.

Wings of Desire (1987) and its successor Far Away, So Close! (1993) are similar in that they both take place in Berlin and have many of the same characters, but there is where the similarities end.

The dissimilarities do not detract from the fact that they are both good films, but it seems a stretch to say that Far Away, So Close! is really a sequel to Wings of Desire. Winders has said as much since the movie came out, “‘Wings of Desire was the story of Damiel, an angel who becomes mortal at the end of the movie. Damiel’s story was just the beginning, so we said, ‘To be continued.’ But (the phrase referred to) Damiel’s story, not the film.’” (Desnews.com 2)

With that in mind one can see what he meant and how the films compare and contrast with each other.

Wings of Desire tells the story of Damiel(Bruno Ganz)an angel who wishes to experience the world as a mortal. He wants to appreciate the small things that most people take for granted.

His desire is very eloquently stated to Cassiel (Otto Sander), while they compare notes on their observations of everyday human activities. “But sometimes I get fed up with my spiritual existence. Instead of forever hovering above, I’d like to feel there’s some weight to me, to end my eternity and bind me to the earth. At each step, each gust of wind, I’d like to say ‘Now…and now and now,’ and no longer say ‘since always’ and ‘forever.’ To sit in the empty seat at the card table and be greeted, if only by a word…Not that I want to begat a child or plant a tree right away, but it would be quite something to come home after a long day like Philip Marlowe and feed the cat.”

Damiel’s desire to become mortal is then compounded by his interest in a French trapeze artist Marion (Solveg Dommartin). He decides to “take the plunge” and becomes mortal. We watch with excitement while he experiences color for the first time and can finally converse with people on the street.

With Far Away, So Close! the thrust of the story takes a different path. Cassiel, Damiel’s immortal pal is accidentally given mortality when he tries to save a little girl from falling to her death. He is stunned and for the first few minutes cannot even believe she is talking to him. Since this was an accident (or we assume this is the reason) he becomes the target of misfortune brought about by Emit Flesti or “Time Itself” (Willem Defoe). The reason for this is never fully explained.

Nevertheless, Mr. Flesti sets out to make Cassiel’s new life difficult. He has him thrown in jail the first night. After calling Damiel for help, Cassiel decides this is his chance to actually do something about the evil in the world he bore witness to as an angel. He begins to make changes, but Flesti has other plans. He turns the innocent Cassiel into an alcoholic which begins Cassiel decent into the darkest recesses of human existence. He doesn’t go back to stay with Damiel; he holds up a liquor store for booze with a gun he had intended to throw away in the hopes that it would prevent violence. Eventually, with a little help from Lou Reed, he realizes that he can clean himself up and begins again to try and fix the problems of post-Cold War Berlin . He involves himself with the dealings of gangsters and looking out for the well being of a family that had been separated at the end of the Second World War.

The role of children in both movies is, as in most Wenders movies, an important element to the stories. Children, as opposed to adults can see the angels. Damiel and Cassiel are both childlike in their naivete. Throughout Wings of Desire a continuation of the opening narrative “Wenn das Kind Kind war” (When the child was still a child) is spoken throughout the film. Children are also among the first to talk to Damiel after his becoming mortal. In Far Away, So Close! a child is the reason Cassiel becomes human and Damiel and Marion have a daughter with whom Damiel has a close relationship ( Marion even comments at one point that they are practically the same person). Children are never far away in either film.

Where Wings of Desire’s main theme concerned itself with the love of life and the city of Berlin – its history and its current state, which at that time involved the city being divided, Far Away, So Close! is almost fully about the state of post-Cold War Berlin . In Wings of Desire, Damiel expounds upon being fascinated by the human condition; however, in Far Away, So Close!, Wenders tends to be much more “preachy” with the story. Cassiel wanders about trying to fix the things he sees as wrong – and usually fails.

Connection to the past is an ever present theme in both films. In Wings of Desire, Homer, an old man who spends his time looking at old pictures, brings us to Potzdamer Platz to tell us how it once used to be is the connection with Berlin’s history. He tells us in the shadow of the Wall, that the square used to be filled with shops and people bustling about. In Far Away, So Close!, this connection comes in the form of an old chauffeur for a Nazi doctor who escaped to the U.S. When the doctor’s wife refused to go with he and her son, the chauffeur drives them away and we learn that he later took care of them.

A big difference in the two movies is the difference in writing and storytelling styles. Wings of Desire was written by Wenders and Peter Handke. Its scenes are much more like poems than parts of a story. One can’t help but be inspired by Damiel’s thoughts on what he considers to be wonderful about being human. Peter Falk, playing himself, makes us aware of the beauty of simple things like rubbing your hands together when they are cold and drinking a cup of coffee. Handke’s involvement in Wings of Desire made the film’s story a postmodern masterpiece. That which isn’t fully explained is still understood, interpreted and accepted.

Far Away, So Close! is very different. It is told in a much more linear fashion, like the average Hollywood tale. When Cassiel employs the assistance of the Cirkus Alekan to help him steal the gangster’s stash of illegal firearms, it seems much more like a typical action flick than a movie about angels, Berlin , or even a commentary on the violence that seems to be pervading the city. Since the story seems to want to follow a linear narrative style, it is even more apparent when information is left out. We never find out what happens to the chauffeur. Cassiel tells him that the son of the Doctor is again in Berlin and looking for his sister and the old man wants to be taken to him. After that we see him no more. We do see, however, the woman in question and her daughter (the same girl Cassiel saved when he became mortal) with the Doctor’s son (who also happens to be the gangster for which Cassiel has been working) together at the end of the film on a boat with Marion ’s Circus troupe. Nothing is explained about their reunion or why they are even on the boat. We also never come to understand why Cassiel wants to steal the guns. Cassiel ends up blowing up the gangster’s illegal porno distribution center, but takes the guns. An ironic move for a director whose 1995 film, The End of Violence is his commentary on violence in American film.

To say that the cinematography in both films is provided by talented individuals is honestly an understatement, but the styles are very different. Wings of Desire was filmed by the great Henri Alekan. His talent is so subtly brilliant that to fully appreciate it, you almost need to watch the film without sound. Each shot is
so elegantly composed that you feel like you are one of the angels wandering around Berlin with Damiel and Cassiel. Children look up at you with their huge eyes and smile. Your gaze drifts from room to room listening in on the thoughts of each person you encounter. You gaze at Marion with Damiel and feel his distress when he cannot reach out to her. Alekan plays with light fabulously. Take for example the scene in which Damiel and Cassiel are sitting and discussing their observations. Alekan uses the reflection of the fluorescent lights above in the car dealership to hide Damiel’s face before he starts talking and moves the camera around to reveal him sitting there almost like a stage entrance. He performs the same camera trick with Cassiel seconds later. The cinematographer for Far Away, So Close! was Jürgen Jürges who also filmed Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Effie Briest (1974), and Germany , Pale Mother (1980) to name a few. His style incorporates the black and white world of the angels which was introduced in Wings of Desire, but the majority of the film is in color since it deals with the new life of Cassiel. His style seems a little more conventional, but he seems to have a talent for filming the trapeze artists. When Cassiel takes a turn on the Bungee-style practice “ride,” the camera goes right along with him. Not quite as exhilarating as the real thing, but a fun shot, nonetheless.

Both movies are welcome additions to anyone’s film experience, but it is, perhaps, best to follow Wenders’ “advice” and not to look at them the same story.

Works Cited
Desnews.com Movie Review February 11, 1994 http://www.desnews.com/movies/reviews/ip0u46pl.htm