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This week we continue our education on the mysterious ways of angels and what they're supposedly up to on Earth, this time by checking out a classic from one of the great film masters, Wim Wenders. What quickly becomes clear is that nearly everything we think we know about angels, whether in highbrow film or lowbrow TV, somehow circles back to TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, the definitive compilation of contemporary angel lore. WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) is contemporary but predates TBAA, yet it's remarkable how many similarities these works share despite occupying different cultural zones. For all the ways storytellers have tried to mix angels and humans, modern takes tend to rely on the same handful of ideas, treating them like biblical canon even though they're mostly invented. It's fascinating how much angel mythology comes from movies and TV rather than ancient texts, even when it feels old and authoritative. WINGS OF DESIRE is a gorgeously shot film that looks beautiful both in black and white, representing a guardian angel's professional distance, and in color, representing the human world. Its images of angels silently hovering around their charges feel like both a love letter to Berlin and a meditation on angels. The film centers on two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, who independently long for the authenticity of human experience as an escape from their impartial immortality. That longing deepens for Damiel when he falls in love with a mortal circus performer named Marion. An unlikely bridge between worlds appears in Peter Falk, playing himself in an inventive twist on the angel myth. A former angel who gave up immortality to become an actor, Falk communicates with Damiel and Cassiel about mortal life. Will they follow his lead? At Boys' Bible Study, we appreciate the film's inventive addition to the trope: former angels living extraordinary lives on Earth. Using a recognizable name like Peter Falk makes the idea land harder for a celebrity-obsessed audience, pushing the fantasy of angels longing for humanity even further.
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