the element of surprise

A few years ago, there was a film starring Meg Ryan and Nic Cage where he got to subtly underact again. It was called CITY OF ANGELS and it felt exceptionally contrived. It seemed that someone that it would be a great idea to remake a fairly recent German film and essentially cop off an already explored idea. Tonight, Sandra and I watched WINGS OF DESIRE, the original enchilada. And though we found that CITY OF ANGELS boiled down the essentials of WINGS OF DESIRE to a solid 5 five minutes, I still respect the intention of the OG version better.

Basically, WINGS explores the "lives" of guardian angels hanging out in Berlin. With a touch or a hover, they brighten someone's day, or encourage them to change their depressing lives. Which, having been filmed in 1987 with the Berlin Wall up and all, everyone seemed a bit depressed in Germany. Finally, one of the angels decides to give up his wings and become human.

In his plea to be human, he brought up an interesting point by saying how much he would love to have an element of surprise in his life. In fact, he feels, he knows everything. There is never an "oh!" or an "ah!" or "hey!" in his life, to paraphrase.

I never thought of this as a gift, but it is! The fact that we don't know what will happen is a rare and beautiful element, and it makes life kind of fun. I wonder if God is just up there thinking, how will I surprise my kids now? He must have good fun.

When he re-emerges as a human, the film finally picks up a bit. To see him asking what each color is called, to see him taste the wonders of coffee, to see him have love for a woman and to be able to have DESIRE, was an interesting journey.

Its not for everyone, though, guys. I consider myself to have a very long attention span (5 hour film classes helped out), but I still found my knitting much more interesting while watching WINGS, although it is an exceptionally beautiful film to look at.