This
Wim Wenders directed film follows a spirit who's tired of the spiritual
and yearns for physical existence. The spirit is an angel named Damiel,
and his journeys with his companion, Cassiel, expose the isolation
inherent in the human condition. But, moreover, Damiel's particular
existential crisis gently urges us to appreciate the little things and
decide for ourselves that life matters.
The
angels can hear people's thoughts, so thinking makes up most of the
film's dialog. I enjoyed Cassiel's going to the library where he finds
other angels listening to books being narrated in people's minds as they
read. There he finds an old man whom he follows, is drawn to perhaps
because the aged traveler is so enduring and purposeful, who
self-identifies as a storyteller, an indispensable part of humanity.
Meanwhile,
Damiel wanders into a low-budget children's circus whose star performer
is a beautiful, unfulfilled trapeze artist named Marion. He falls for
her, lusts for her, and is spellbound by her poetically lonely train of
thought. They share a yearning.
Damiel
brings Cassiel to that night's circus performance, which is to be the
last of the year. But as Damiel absorbs the show, Cassiel sees how
deeply his companion feels the need to live. Afterwards Damiel
confesses as much. Marion, while celebrating at the circus staff's
after-party, pauses and, in her thoughts, appreciates being alive.
Hearing this, Damiel's heart breaks.
So
he resolves to become real, and when an empty piece of body armor
crashes onto his head, Damiel wakes in a vacant lot, apparently knocked
unconscious after being dropped from Heaven--a helicopter hovering
overhead. To be human is to be vulnerable, so he pawns his rickety old
armor and finds Marion at a night club. There, they each taste of the
wine from the bar and she asks him to join her in a life of consequence,
to live as if they are setting new precedents for future generations.
The
story inverts the usual paradigm: instead of man imagining and
chronicling heaven as the grand but remote paradise, the angels imagine
and chronicle man as the simple and immediate body, and they
do so in ways that elevate man without pretending he’s a miracle. This
inversion is sacrilegious, but it does no harm.
The viewing audience watches the angels watch the people. When a
scene calls for your sympathy and you feel that sympathy, you feel the
sympathy of the angels, you see Earth through the angels’ eyes. For
example, in one scene we peek in on a small family and find a young man
alone in his bedroom, sulking and brooding over how nobody knows he’s
alive, but then we learn his dad is sitting alone in front of the TV and
worrying about his son’s future while mom sits alone in the kitchen
doing the same.
Notes
- Peter Falk of course is really charming in this, single-handedly keeping a good chunk of the film interesting. ("Columbo" is one of the best series ever.)
- Cassiel urges someone to his shoes correctly--using a double knot.
