Wings of Desire

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Part of Great Beyonds: The Afterlife on Film film talk series!

Join Jeffrey Bender as he shuffles off this mortal coil and into the realm of the fantastic, the celestial and the downright absurd, in this four-film series exploring cinematic conceptions of the afterlife from a variety of styles, genres and perspectives across film history. It’s everything you wanted to know about the hereafter, but were afraid to ask… all on our big-screen!

Wings of Desire is one of cinema’s loveliest city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts – fears, hopes, dreams – of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality and come back to earth to be with her. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black and white and color by the legendary Henri Alekan, is movie poetry. And it forever made the name Wim Wenders synonymous with film art.

Presented in German with English subtitles.

Jeffrey Bender

Jeffrey Bender has hosted a number of in-person and online Film Talks with the Westdale, most recently ‘Ride or Die Cinema’. He joins us this fall to host ‘Great Beyonds: The Afterlife on Film’, featuring four essential explorations into the afterlife as interpreted throughout film history, as well as serving as one of the guest speakers for Noirvember, featuring a survey of classic and contemporary film noir.