Start a new thread for this post. In your post, engage with the film and the readings in a thoughtful and meaningful way. Please write your Discussion Analysis Post in paragraph form. Think of it as a short film analysis essay and try to use some of the terms from the film terms lecture and handout in your analysis when they are helpful. You should be organized in your thoughts and ideas and provide evidence of critical, university-level thinking making connections to our course materials and other relevant experiences. Please try your best to contribute to the learning community by being creative in your approaches to the film and readings and by making an effort to motivate the discussion. Avoid summarizing the film or the readings as all members of the learning community have seen the movie and read the assigned chapters in the book. If you quote from our textbook or other sources, please use MLA style. Be aware of spelling, grammar, and sentence mechanics and use proper etiquette. Remember that being respectful is critical. Your Discussion Analysis Post has to be at least 200 words long.
The following ten questions offer possible topics that you might want to discuss in your Discussion Analysis Post. The questions are there to help you critically reflect on the film and readings for this week. Please feel free to engage with as many or as few of them as you see fit in your post. Rather than a number of individual answers to the questions in the prompt, present your post as a short coherent film analysis essay, i.e. do not write separate answers to the questions but use them to launch your own coherent analysis and interpretation of the film. This also means that you should not copy and paste the questions into your post. The questions are only there to help you get started and to show you possible topics that you might want to explore in your analysis. Please do not think that you need to answer all questions in your Discussion Analysis Post. In fact, it would be very hard to do these questions justice if you tried to answer all of them in one short, coherent film analysis post.
It is important that your post offers an academic analysis of the film rather than a summary or a mere statement of what you liked and disliked. Make sure to analyze and interpret the film and to support your argument with evidence. Try to be original and avoid repeating what others have already noted before you in their posts. At the end of your post, please include any additional questions that you bring to the movie to spark further discussion.
Please look carefully at the picture above. In what context does this scene appear in the movie? What is happening here and why is it important? Describe in detail what you see in the image and how it is structured. What cinematic technique is used here? How do the elements in the image relate to each other? What can we hear in this scene and what does the sound add to the scene?
How would you describe Damiel, the protagonist of the film? How does Damiel change during the course of the movie? How is he different from the other angels? Do you understand his decision to change? What are his motives? Is there anybody else in the movie who might have undergone the same or a similar change?
Who is your favorite character in the movie? Why?
What role does Cassiel play? How would you describe him?
How would you describe the pace of the film? How does the movie represent time and space? How do the angels exist in relation to humankind in time and space? How do they differ from human beings? What can the angels hear and feel? How can they influence the human world? What is the angels’ purpose? How do they feel about humankind?
How would you describe Marion? What is her role in the movie? How are women depicted in the film?
How is the city of Berlin represented in the film? How would you describe the city and its inhabitants? Who can feel the angels’ presence, and who can see them and communicate with them? Why?
Why is most of the movie in black and white but some parts of it are in color? What is the cinematographic function of this? Does it have a symbolic meaning?
How does the film depict immortality and mortality? What borders, barriers, and walls are depicted in the film? What do they represent? What existential questions does the film ask? Does the film answer these questions?
If you could ask the director Wim Wenders one question, what would it be? If you have seen Brad Silberling's Hollywood film City of Angles, i.e. the American remake of Wings of Desire, which movie do you like better? The German original or the American version? Why?
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