Wim Wenders: Wings of Desire (1987)

Who might guess that this oddly constructed film about angels in Berlin could be so incredibly moving, a piece of cinema that is a poem at every level. Wim Wenders, unlike many auteurs both before and after him seems to realize that cinema communicates through all of sounds, words and imagery - in Wings of Desire these components are so meticulously constructed and intricately woven with each other that even the mere simpleton can for a moment experience synaesthesia.

The most notable scenes are those where we drift through public spaces able to hear the innermost thoughts of Berlin's citizens in all their mundanity, isolation and beauty - a collection of unrelated simultaneously occurring inner dialogues, filmed using a continuous take. At some point in time, you realize that this must also be what human consciousness is like - a million simple anonymous thoughts that coexist, unbroken in time.



This film is truly magic.