Wings of Desire played this weekend as part of the Moisture Festival, a celebration of vaudeville & burlesque whose name gives me the heebie-jeebies. Apparently they named it that because they thought it was funny. It mostly reminds me of that scene in The Impostors where Campbell Scott leers at Lili Taylor, saying, “The danger of the chase has made you perspire. It has made me also… moist.” Ewwww.
But anyway, the practical effect of the partnership was that the screening was prefaced by an acrobatic performance by two members of Circus Contraption, and that was very cool.
The film itself I’d never seen on the big screen before, and, I am not sure if you’ve noticed, but I am a big fan of seeing things in the theater. For meditative films like this, it focuses and intensifies the experience, and of course there’s nothing like those gorgeous visuals — aerial shots of Berlin, the library, the circus, the concerts — up large. Also, more so than a lot of other films, it made me wish I knew the original language. I read fast enough that subtitles aren’t a hindrance, but with some works (this, probably everything by Wong Kar-wai, for example) I particularly feel that I’m losing things in translation. (Often that fear is justified.)
Now perhaps I will check out the sequel.
wicked jaws 