*_*

[bironic]

festivids is live, and you need to know that someone made for me a Der Himmel Uber Berlin/Wings of Desire vid that is gorgeous beyond words: What No Angel Knows.

It's just. Okay, so here's part of my Dear Festividder letter: "This movie has some beautiful imagery, and so much can be done with it. A meditation, as the movie was, on the recent history of Berlin. A story of wanting to be in the world. A story of feeling fiercely protective of the beautiful, fragile humans. […] A study in contrasts from black and white to color, or from looking down (angel POV) to looking up (human POV)." This vid is all of that and more. It wants to be explicated, and really, what more could you ask from a gift vid? I've watched it maybe five times so far and I know there's more in there I'm not getting yet.

What I can say is this: It gave me shivers, and it made me grin. It uses a range of striking imagery from throughout the film, takes the dense, mortal-centric beginning and distributes it throughout the vid, people of all ages with their gamut of emotions good and bad, their lonelinesses and their intimacies, building and building, showing how the world reels in Damiel. Showing all these attempts by Damiel to sense the world the way mortals do, a rock, a pen, walls, a kiss, a handshake, a baby's gaze, hands on shoulders - Cassiel cradling him - these ways he tries to touch and connect. His breath and his grin when he decides to dive in at the end. So cool.

It starts with the angel POV and then grounds itself at human/street level; ebbs and flows more in the middle. It pops with color when people experience vibrant emotions. It manages to preserve the power of the shots of all the angels' gazes in the library. It connects through simple visual parallels the angels themselves with the winged statue overlooking the city with the costumed trapeze artist. And bringing it all fully to life is this beautiful song in English and Yiddish. "My child, your Father sends a message" as Damiel comforts a man on the subway. "He's neither the first nor the last to fall," and there are Peter Falk and Cassiel.

It's just fantastic. I hope you'll give it a try.

♥

*goes back to watching entries and collecting favorites*

Comments

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm glad you got a vid you loved! I was supposed to be productive today, but, um...I spent it watching Festivids instead. So many great ones! It was definitely worth the afternoon.

[dailyalice.livejournal.com]

Taking a break from watching festivids to read a bit of LJ and I have to stop here and flail at you for requesting this vid because I'm a fan of Wenders (Until the End of the World is one of my favorite movies ever) and and and . . . this vid you received is awesome. And so right for the movie. It's been several years since I've seen it, I keep meaning to pick up the Criterion version and revisit it, but this vid brought it back to me in a wonderful way.

Excellent that you got a vid you love and excellent for non-vidders like me who are fans of vids and of some of the things people requested. Whee!