The Movie Book

ANGELS AND MONSTERS 261

Marion is a trapeze artist at a

failing circus. She lives in a trailer,

and leads a lonely existence dancing

on her own and wandering the streets

of Berlin.

Wim Wenders

Director

Born in Düsseldorf, Germany,

in 1945, Wim Wenders is

known for his lush, lyrical

filmmaking. He studied

medicine and philosophy at

university before dropping

out to become a painter.

However, cinema became his

focus and he enrolled in the

University of Television and

Film Munich (HFF). Wenders

soon became one of the

leading lights of the New

German Cinema movement.

The director first came to

prominence with his feature

The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the

Penalty Kick, based on a novel

by Peter Handke. The English-

language Paris, Texas, with

a screenplay by Sam Shepard,

brought him international

fame. He has also made

documentaries, the most

successful of which was

Buena Vista Social Club, about

a group of aging musicians in

Havana, Cuba.

Key movies

1972 The Goalkeeper’s Fear

of the Penalty Kick

1984 Paris, Texas

1987 Wings of Desire

1999 Buena Vista Social Club

Wenders dedicated his movie
to three “filmmaking angels,”
directors whose work inspired
him. The first is Yasujiro Ozu,
who showed how to depict the
quiet desperation of the mundane.
The second, François Truffaut,
demonstrated how to film the
reality of children as a profound
experience. The third, Andrei
Tarkovsky, created slow-paced

meditations full of spiritual

yearning. Rainer Maria Rilke once

wrote that “Physical pleasure...

is a great unending experience,

which is given us, a knowing of

the world, the fullness and the

glory of all knowing.” Falk’s joy in

the simple experience of tasting

coffee is spiritual and drives home

the idea that to have experience at

all is a wonder of being alive. ■

The whole place is full of those who

are dreaming the same dream.

Cassiel / Wings of Desire