Joel Holsteen - In Class # 4 Wings of Desire

In this foreign film called Wings of Desire we follow Angels around the city as they listen and experience human thought and human life. The beginning of the film deals with the Angels listing to peoples thoughts and occasionally affecting them by a touch of their hand. Being a Christian myself I believe that this is true and that Angels are all around us watching over us and at times helping us. The Angel Damiel, as we learn is unhappy because he wants to feel and experience the life that humans live not just learn from them through thoughts. He is eventually granted this option and is found by three kids sleeping next to the Berlin Wall with an armored chest plate in his hands. We can assume that this chest plate is part of an Angels property and with Damiel not wearing it shows that he is no longer an Angel but a human. Once human the first thing he learns are the colors of nearby art work. This is interesting because when the film follows the Angels everything is in black and white but when it fallows humans without the Angels everything is in colors. I took this as representing the fact that Angels see everything clearly like right and wrong and everything is spelled out for them they have no questions about life. The humans however experience life which is filled with a wide range of emotions and not knowing, learning is a big part of their life. When Damiel becomes human he is thirsty for this knowledge as well he wants these emotional experiences which you realize he is getting after he smiles for the first time in the film when he drinks a cup of coffee and the way he acts around the woman he falls in love with. Humans are unique because of the ability that God has given them to experience emotion as well as the ability to gain and seek knowledge.