Wings of Desire Imagery

Wings of Desire Imagery

Into Berlin

Wenders uses a gliding camera movement to place us into Berlin atop a building with an angel. The camera movement creates imagery that feels like we are soaring on wings and thus connects us more emotionally to the angelic characters.

Train

Wenders uses a panning shot to show multiple people struggling through their thoughts. We see them as they are seated on a subway car. Some passengers, though stand, and instead of hearing their thoughts we see their hands in a wringing gesture. This imagery allows us to see that each person is afflicted with something inside of their thoughts whether we hear it or not, there are signs everywhere.

Holocaust

Wenders shows footage of the aftermath of the Holocaust and WWII in Berlin. The streets are lined with bodies of the dead. No one is excluded as we see men, women and children, even infants lying cold and without breath in their lungs. The imagery evokes the strong penetration of the truth of the war and how death was brought to Berlin's streets, and the memory has yet to be wiped away, nor can it.

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