p.o.v.

Number 8, December 1999   [PDF]

CONTENTS

Wim Wenders's WINGS OF DESIRE

Introduction

  1. INTERVIEWS

    Richard Raskin: "It's Images You Can Trust Less and Less."
    An Interview with Wim Wenders on     Wings of Desire

    RR: "If There Is Such a Thing as Real Angels."
    An Interview with Henri Alekan on     Wings of Desire

    RR: "Bringing Images to Life."
    An Interview with Agnès Godard on     Wings of Desire

    RR: "Wenders Invents the Film While Shooting."
    An Interview with Bruno Ganz on    Wings of Desire

    RR: "To See with a Child's Heart."
    An Interview with Solveig Dommartin on    Wings of Desire


  2. ARTICLES

    Bodil Marie Thomsen: The Interim of Sense

    Morten Kyndrup: Like a Film, Like a Child.
    Knowledge and Being in     Wings of Desire

    Darrell Varga: The City Is More Than Skin Deep.
    On Translating Wenders in America

    Edvin Kau: "Warum bin ich hier und nicht dort?"
    A view on a vision in Wenders's Der Himmel über Berlin

    Søren Kolstrup: Space, Memory and Identity

    Marc Chatelain: Le cadre et le sens dans Les ailes du désir

    Sara Irene Rosenbaum: Grief and Invisibility.
    How     Wings of Desire Saved My Life

    Richard Raskin: What is Peter Falk Doing in Wings of Desire?

    Richard Raskin: Camera Movement in the Dying Man Scene in Wings of Desire

    Richard Raskin: A Bibliography on Wings of Desire
    Wenders Filmography









    Introduction

    		to the top of the page
    It is possible to distinguish between two very different kinds of storytelling in film.

    One makes of the film experience its own raison d'être. Scorsese, Coppola and Tarantino are among the contemporary masters of this kind of storytelling, which is totally self-contained and aims at neither more nor less than providing the viewer a powerful and moving experience. These are films which take us on a roller-coaster ride, alternately lifting us to heights of pure cinematic fun and pulling us down into gory fascination with the basest human instincts. The best of these films are made by pioneering directors who bring consummate skill to their filmmaking, and contribute to the renewal and vitality of the medium.

    They fall short, nevertheless, of a kind of storytelling which aims even higher by calling upon the viewer to live his or her life more fully. Wings of Desire is the purest example we have of a film that does just that, while at the same time providing a cinematic experience unequalled in its originality and beauty. It is a film that makes great demands on the viewer, requiring a degree of sustained attentiveness to which we are generally unaccustomed. But no other film has its magic, and those of us who are responsive to that magic consider Wings of Desire a landmark in our lives.

    The present issue of p.o.v. is respectfully dedicated to Wim Wenders.

    Richard Raskin to the top of the page