Wings of Desire (1987)

I've passed over Wings of Desire many times. Just one of those films that never seemed like it would interest me. So, my well-versed-in-the-cinematic-arts pal, Luke, tells me that Wings of Desire is "amazing, on an almost spiritual level" and I'm kind of baffled, because I never paid much attention to it before. Then again, same thing happened with L'Avventura. Heck, I even did the same thing with Beck's video for "Loser" many years ago. So, I checked it out, and I don't quite have the boundless enthusiasm for it that Luke did, but I'll agree it's a great film.

In some ways, Wings of Desire strikes me as a kind of moden-day folk tale. Two angels observe human behavior all day long and lament that they'll never experience such things. Instead, they spend their time reading peoples' thoughts and relaying the events to one another. While we're looking at things from the angels' point of view, we hear the thoughts of the residents of Berlin. This is the film's biggest flaw. These people have some real chatty minds. In fact, they go on and on. It does establish atmosphere well, but it kind of bored me in spots.

Most of the film is shot in hazy black-and-white, and some parts in vivid color. While looking at things from the angels' point of view, the camera glides around, careening effortlessly through Berlin. It's really beautiful camerawork. For the scenes in color, those viewed through the eyes of mere mortals, the camerawork is pretty stationary, flat and uninteresting. Also, the differences are evident in sound design as well. Most of the time, we hear only the thoughts of the people. But, once we look through the eyes of humans, the city is full of chatter and background noise.

The film is very effective on an emotional and spiritual level. It's likely to raise a lot of questions among the viewers themselves, wondering what they'd do in such a situation, for example. It's due in large part to the exquisite, floating camerawork and the somber, hushed dialogue.

I think I'll have to let it sink in, or watch it again to realize its amazingness. Not that I didn't like it, I thought it was great actually. But, it seems so much deeper than I realize.

Pepe le Moko (1936)

Pepe le Moko strikes me as a more Hollywood kind of film. Maybe the blame can be put on films like Casablanca and Morocco for spoiling the whole 'tough guy hiding out in a run-down European city' subgenre for me. But, all that said, there's not much really I can say about Pepe le Moko itself. I really liked it, for what it is. Pepe himself is a pretty interesting character. But the star of the film is the setting of the Casbah itself. It's teeming with life and richly detailed.

I didn't really buy his romance with the girl, but that's just me. Maybe she just didn't do it for me, heh. The rest of the characters just seemed like standard fodder, just occupying their cookie-cutter roles. Gabin is great, as usual. He really brings just the right amout of smarminess and debonaire to the role, while making it believable that he'd be able to let a beautiful girl be his downfall.

Criterion's given the whole thing a brand new coat of paint. There were a few noticable moments of softness in the picture, but for a nealy-70-year-old print, it looks damn fine.