Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Faraway, so close (1993)In this lesser follow up to great classic Wings of Desire (Der Himmel uber Berlin) the second Angel, Cassiel (Otto Sander) decides to sacrifice his immortality.Movie is heavily flawed. Overlong for its content, inconclusively mixing various genres and losing central point. Meditation on Time, Life and its true values is much less revealing and Cassiel's path fuzzy, with hard-to-buy elements. His transitions from ''zero point'' down and back are dramatically and emotionally uncovered. Sander is not nearly good in this role as Bruno Ganz was.Unnecessary Williem Dafoe's character adds much to the dispersion of the film and the touches of banality. You'll get a very few clever and ''to think'' observations in 2 and a half hours of mostly uninspiring, less ethereal and much less original ''version of'' its predecessor. Pay attention to Henri Alekan, brilliant cinematographer from Wings of Desire in the role of the Captain of the ship.

It's difficult to make a sequel as good as the original. If it's done in the same style, it becomes a poor shadow. Here, Wim Wenders has made something different than in "Wings of Desire:" what I consider a comedy of a misfit ex-angel, to counter the desire of an angel to become human in the other film.Near the end of the other movie, we saw one of the angels, Damiel, become human for the love of a beautiful trapeze artist. In this film, we see the other angel, Cassiel, become human by accident as he wanted to help people. As much as he wanted to fit in with our world, the more he tried to do good, the worse trouble actually made of things. He often quotes the Lou Reed song he heard: "Why can't I be good, make something of this life?"There is a cameo appearance of a world leader, when Mikhail Gorbachev (filmed the summer after resigning as Soviet president) ponders the age-old question about the meaning and purpose of life; or two leaders if counting that the guard dog's name is Khadafy. There are jokes about getting lost between East and West, since the Wall no longer was there as a landmark. But there is the serious side at the beginning, of the war and the Nazi past, which is a little hard to follow. I almost forgot about it as I got caught up in the humor of the fallen angel, but even that had the darker side of an evil angel who was leading him astray. Yet the ending tied everything together nicely.Like "Wings of Desire," there are nice transitions between black and white, which is how the angels see the world, and color, for how humans see things. There is also a poem started at the beginning, about humans being everything to the angels, when Cassiel looks down from the statue to "you whom we love." The angels are just the "messengers who bring light to those in darkness." The poem is repeated at the ending, adding that the message is love.The angels lament that humans can only believe what they can see and touch. The Wall fell, the tangible symbol of the division between East and West, yet still one driver whose thoughts we heard couldn't see what the difference was between the two areas; freedom can't be seen or touched. Love, the angels message, can be neither seen nor touched, yet that, and not "blood and steel" (as said the Russian poet and diplomat that Gorbachev quotes), is what is needed for there to be peace.

Both this and 'Until the End of the World' have a slightly maligned reputation- mainly because they are not 'Paris, Texas' or 'Wings of Desire'. 'Until...' is brilliant- though the Six hour 'Trilogy' version is said to make more sense...'Faraway' didn't appear in many cinemas here- its existence on a par with Cassiel and Rapheala in relation to the humans...This film seems to have been overlooked- which is strange considering the transcedental beauty within and the sublime U2 song...'Wings of Desire' is almost a scared text in the film world- I could not put it out of my mind when I watched this film- and so had a low esteem of 'Faraway so Close!'. A few years later and I've definitely over-watched 'Wings of Desire'. And also, that film ends with 'To Be Continued...''Faraway...' is possibly more sublime than 'Wings...'; Nastassia Kinski (daughter of a German icon and twat, Klaus Kinski) is perfect as Raphaella. Even greater than her role in 'Paris, Texas'. The cameos are good- the return of Peter Falk, Mikhail Gorbachev thinking about love in poetry rather than the "blood & steel" of revolution and Lou Reed- who appears three times: reinterpreting his song 'Berlin' for "after the wall", playing 'Why Can't I Be Good?' in a concert scene not as great as the one Nick Cave did in 'Wings of Desire' and giving Cassiel/Karl some money when he has fallen to earth as a human. Willem Defoe is as dependeable and beaugly as ever (his name 'time itself'). Bruno Ganz and Solveig Dommartin reprise their roles as Dammiel and Marion and now have a daughter- who along with Hanna's daughter represent the recurrent child theme (prevalent in 'Paris, Texas', 'Alice in the Cities', 'The Lisbon Story', 'Until the End of the World'). Some of the shots of Berlin (and particularly Raphaella) have a quality close to a Cocteau Twins record or a Rilke poem ("we are falling fast"?). Parts of the film remind me of Kryztof Kieslowski- the black economy after the end of communism and themes of new capitalism are present in 'Three Colours: Red' (and the theme of World War II and the past recalls one of the 'Dekalog's). Cassiel sees a newspaper floating in the river, stating the death of Willy Brandt- who was West German chancellor from 1969-1976: the peak period of New German Cinema. This has as much resonance as Fassbinder's use of the photos of post-war chancellors at the end of 'The Marriage of Maria Braun'. Proof that Wenders thinks of the past and isn't completely post-German...The film does feel European- the steam boat surely a reference to Jean Vigo's 'L'atalante'? Though the fusion of nationalties is as ever, international- to the point of solely human (the myriad of languages: English, German, French compound this). The music is particularly fine- not that I've been able to locate a soundtrack album- unlike the great soundtrack's for 'The Million Dollar Hotel' & 'Until the End of the World'! If Cassiel as an angel represented East-Germany and as a human represents the new unified Germany- Wenders portrays the perversion of freedom by a consumerist lifestyle and a perverted capitalism prevalent in exploitative practices justified by the 'free market'. The reduction of meaning and significance to money is seen in the gangsters or the taxi driver who no sense of the past (when Peter Falk wants to visit a part of East Berlin: very droll & very 'Columbo'). The film ends with the Barry Adamson/Nick Cave song 'Cassiel's Song'- which is as great as their later collaboration 'The Sweetest Embrace' (and they were both present on 'From Her to Eternity' used in 'Wings of Desire'). The characters are still on a journey, the constant "road" of Wenders' films- locating the home that you can never go home to again (to paraphrase Thomas Wolfe). Would be nice if we got a third film focusing on Raphaella- but that would only be an excuse to roll around the floor in ecstasy at the sight of the divine Ms Kinski!!...'Faraway So Close!' is one of Wenders's great films of the 1990's- along with 'The Beuna Vista Social Club', 'The Lisbon Story' and 'Until the End of the World' (I was a bit non-plussed by 'The End of Violence' & 'The Million Dollar Hotel'- though I might change my mind next time I see them!; 'Beyond the Clouds' is mostly not very good- though I'm not sure how much Wenders is present after reading 'My Time with Antonioni': the nudity was very 'dirty old man'- which is great if you're making soft-porn in the Paul Verhoeven mode and not so great if you made 'L'aventura' and 'Blow Up'). Forget 'Wings of Desire' and watch this film on its own merits; then again, I thought 'City of Angels' was almost interesting as Hollywood adaptations go- so what do I know?

This is a truly unique film. It was shot beautifully. The actors, music, location et.al. was superbly well chosen. This film is pure poetry in motion, language, acting, script, etc. It has the uniqueness of providing an incredibly positive view/side of the fact of being a human being. I have made all the people I know, watch it and everybody seems to agree with me. Thank you, Mr. Wenders for giving us a beautiful and meaningful film, that outshines most by the mere insinuation that life is beautiful. It is a job well done. Thank you, again. Joanne Tijerino