Cinema of the 20th Century: 1985 to 1989

British Isles

Challenging offerings from Terry Gilliam and Peter Greenaway. John Boorman and Roland Joffe visit the rainforest. Stanley Kubrick goes to Vietnam. Ireland gives us Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan, and Bruce Robinson turns out a cult comedy.

Brazil / Terry Gilliam

1985. Colour. UK. 137 mins. DVD.

An audacious fantasy that mixes George Orwell’s novel 1984 with Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1926 qv) filtered through the Kafkaesque imagination of Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam, with a writing team headed by Tom Stoppard . A computer glitch in a bureaucratic subterranean world sees mild statistician Jonathan Pryce investigating a case of mistaken identity involving terrorist Robert De Niro. In the process he finds his dream girl Kim Greist but comes under state scrutiny himself. The sets are enormous and enormously inventive and the cast includes Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Ian Richardson and Jim Broadbent.

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The Emerald Forest / John Boorman

1985. Colour. UK. 109 mins. DVD.

The 1980s saw a step change in environmental awareness. The China Syndrome (1979 qv) and Silkwood (1983 qv) were two of a number of films dealing with concerns over the nuclear industry; and by the middle of the decade the destruction of the rainforests and their indigenous peoples was high on the list of environmental concerns. In The Emerald Forest John Boorman cast his son Charley in the lead role as a child, abducted and raised by a tribe of Amazonian Indians, who is fully immersed in their customs and rituals. Powers Boothe plays the dam engineer who embarks on a ten year search for his son and begins to realise the extent of the devastation caused by the project which employs him. Based on an actual event, the film gives a sympathetic if idealised view of an isolated tribal society under threat from the encroaching clearance of the rainforest.

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The Mission / Roland Joffe

1986. Colour. UK. 120 mins. DVD.

David Lean’s regular collaborator Robert Bolt wrote the script, Sergio Leone’s regular collaborator Ennio Morricone wrote the music and Chris Menges was the cinematographer. The result is a feast for the senses that, nonetheless, fails to engage the emotions fully. Jeremy Irons is an 18th Century Jesuit priest sent as a missionary to a Brazilian tribe. A callous aristocratic slave trader (Robert De Niro) kills his own brother in a duel and, conscience stricken, arranges for Irons to oversee his penance. In the meantime conflicts between the Church, Spain and Portugal threaten the mission’s future. Joffe seems somehow distanced from his subject; in consequence the main characters seem to stand merely as ciphers; and this extends to the natives themselves, who appear simply as a token mass of victims with few positive attributes of their own.

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Mona Lisa / Neil Jordan

1986. Colour. UK. 100 mins. DVD.

Somewhat echoing Taxi Driver (1976 qv) but with Robert De Niro’s psychotic cabbie replaced by Bob Hoskins as sensitive chauffeur George. George has served gaol time to protect vice boss Mortwell (Michael Caine) and as reward is given a job as minder/driver for high class call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson). His puritanical disapproval of her profession matches her contempt for his lack of refinement. But the friction mellows into friendship and he helps her search for her only friend, a 15-year-old prostitute (Kate Hardie). Sympathetic writing, direction and performances raise the narrative out of its unsympathetic setting. Tyson is perfect as the elegant black hooker and Hoskins consolidates his status as a character actor of note.

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Full Metal Jacket / Stanley Kubrick

1987. Colour. UK. 112 mins. DVD.

Essentially a film of two halves. A bunch of recruits at Marine boot camp are subjected to the verbal abuse and sadism of the obligatory foul-mouthed drill instructor, in this instance a gunnery sergeant without redeeming features. His prime victim is pushed beyond the point of endurance. The action moves on to Vietnam, where one of the recruits turns up as a reporter for Stars and Stripes. The war scenes are impressive, the characters almost universally unsympathetic, institutionally conditioned as killing machines. Matthew Modine is the embedded newshound and ex-Marine Lee Ermey gives a totally convincing performance as the drill sergeant — one suspects strongly grounded in past experience! Michael Herr contributed to the script.

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Withnail and I / Bruce Robinson

1987. Colour. UK. 103 mins. DVD.

A supersaturated catalogue of disastrous events coalesces into a cult comedy that marks the passing of the sub-bohemian 60s. Set in 1969, two unemployed actors escape the confines of their revolting London flat and go on holiday by mistake to a country cottage in the Lake District. The cottage has even less in the way of amenities than the accommodations they have left behind and the totally impractical pair have difficulty in coping with such basics as heat and food. Withnail (Richard E Grant) is a vaguely aristocratic drunk, continually on the verge of breakdown. Marwood (Paul McGann) is the ‘… and I’ of the title who is dragged into Withnail-induced calamities. Grant gives a convincing performance despite an allergy that placed his character’s partiality for alcohol beyond his personal experience; and comedy transmutes to pathos in the drenching rain with his final heartfelt monologue, ‘Oh what a piece of work is man…’. Delicious cameos from Richard Griffiths as Withnail’s predatory gay uncle and Ralph Brown as Danny the drug dealer, creator of the Camberwell Carrot.

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My Left Foot / Jim Sheridan

1989. Colour. Ireland. 99 mins. DVD.

Remarkable performances from Daniel Day-Lewis and Hugh O’Conor as older and younger versions of a remarkable man. Christy Brown was a lifelong cerebral palsy victim, paralysed apart from the single extremity of the title. At a fund-raising dinner at which he is guest of honour, Christy’s nurse for the evening (Mary McCabe) flicks through his best selling autobiography and the story of his life is told in flashback. Uncompromising, full of humour, unexpectedly sensual and untainted by mawkish patronisation. Brown’s tough working class origins are given depth by fine performances from Brenda Fricker and Ray McAnally as his mother and father.

My Left Foot / Christy Brown

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The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover / Peter Greenaway

1989. Colour. UK/FR. 119 mins. DVD.

Peter Greenaway’s vision and style are so far divorced from the norm as to defy definition in the vocabulary of conventional narrative cinema. Narrative of sorts there is — a tale of alienation, retaliation and revenge — but narrative is subordinated to a succession of tableaux cued by a huge Frans Hals painting and infused with complex symbolism that, in sum, create a totally self-contained world that relies on its own internal logic and structure to convey a simulacrum of reality. Michael Gambon (The Thief) is far too convincing as a one dimensional thug who dominates his wife and brutish associates through a series of dinners at a sprawling restaurant, more warehouse than eating place. Helen Mirren (His Wife) creates opportunities to consummate a liaison with Alan Howard (Her Lover), a bookish diner who regularly occupies a separate table. Their assignations take place in a progression of colour-coded rooms and are assisted by Richard Bohringer (The Cook), who is contemptuous of Gambon’s boorish pretentiousness. Discovery is followed by torture, murder and cannibalism, the last as part of the revenge exacted on the thief by his wife. The film is suffused by a mesmeric score by Michael Nyman and the sinister atmosphere is underwritten by good supporting villains, including Tim Roth and Ian Dury. There are obvious references to the French Revolution, but the film also serves as a fitting epitaph for the money-grubbing philistinism of Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s and a warning for the 1990s to come. Not for the squeamish.

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American Cinema

An eclectic mixture of competent productions that includes a catalytic milestone from Martin Scorcese. Scorcese’s Last Temptation had a profound impact, clearly visible with hindsight, in that it created a rallying point for a religious right that had already found receptive ears in the Reagan administration. In the following decades the influence of Christian fundamentalism was to become apparent in the burgeoning of eschatological themes in film and television; and in the post-9/11 world the unholy propagandising of aggressive evangelism and rabid patriotism is thought by some to be at least as dangerous as the unalloyed fundamentalism of Islam.

The Color Purple / Steven Spielberg

1985. Colour. USA. 148 mins. DVD.

A saga of mistreatment centred around a black community in the American Deep South. Whoopi Goldberg has her screen debut as Celie, a young black girl who is abused by her father and married off to an equally abusive husband (Danny Glover). Separated from the sister she loves and cut off from communication, Celie lives an isolated life devoid of affection until the arrival of Glover’s intermittent lover, Shug Avery (Margaret Avery). Oprah Winfrey lends support and Quincy Jones pays an affectionate tribute to the Jazz Age. Based on the novel by Alice Walker, the ultimate reunion of the sisters strays a little too far into the realm of fantasy.

The Color Purple / Soundtrack Album

Format: 2 Disc Set. 30 Tracks.

The Color Purple / Alice Walker

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Pale Rider / Clint Eastwood

1985. Colour. USA. 111 mins. DVD.

Not dissimilar to High Plains Drifter (1973 qv) and with a less equivocal insinuation of the supernatural. A small mining town is terrorised by gunmen hired by a rapacious strip-miner. A young girl prays for a deliverer and her prayer seems to be answered. Clint Eastwood, in the guise of a preacher, rides into town and takes on the role of the ‘rider on a pale horse’ from Revelations, dealing death and destruction to the bad guys. As with Drifter, there is more than a hint of a backstory and revenge motive. With Carrie Snodgress, Michael Moriarty, Sydney Penny, Christopher Penn and Richard Kiel.

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Witness / Peter Weir

1985. Colour. USA. 108 mins. DVD.

Australian director Peter Weir’s first Hollywood film is a good solid thriller. A young Amish boy (Lukas Haas) witnesses a murder. The investigating detective (Harrison Ford) suspects a police conspiracy and sets out to return the boy and his widowed mother (Kelly McGillis) to the comparative safety and obscurity of their Amish community. The tough cop is confronted with an idyllic non-violent way of life while falling for the young widow and dealing with the intrusion of his own brutal world. Danny Glover heads up the corrupt lawmen.

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Aliens / James Cameron

1986. Colour. USA. 148 mins. DVD.

The sequel to Alien (1979 qv) develops the storyline rather than repeating it. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is recovered from her escape pod more than fifty years after her encounter with the alien life form. During the intervening period the contaminated planet has been colonised, but contact with the settlers has been lost. She returns as adviser to a squad of gung-ho marines. Aliens cannot recapture the one-time-only shock of the gut-busting original, but James Cameron provides suspense to spare and Weaver triumphs once again as the all action heroine.

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Children of a Lesser God / Randa Haines

1986. Colour. USA. 115 mins. DVD.

A love story involving a speech teacher and a young deaf woman who refuses to learn to speak or to make a life away from the school that is supposed to be preparing her for the outside world. William Hurt and Marlee Matlin give touching performances in the screen adaptation of Mark Medoff’s hugely successful stage play. Matlin was the first deaf actor to win an Oscar. Hurt did likewise and Piper Laurie was nominated for her performance as Matlin’s mother.

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The Color of Money / Martin Scorsese

1986. Colour. USA. 115 mins. DVD.

Fast Eddie is back! Twenty five years after he was robbed of the Oscar for The Hustler (1961 qv) Paul Newman returns in the same role and, deservedly, takes the award. Eddie Felson, no longer on the pool circuit, appoints himself mentor to arrogant young hothead Vincent (Tom Cruise). The cynical old stager tries to teach the youngster when to lose and when to win as they move from one decayed pool hall to the next. Personalities clash, and the pair go their different ways until they meet again at the national tournament in Atlantic City. Vincent’s girlfriend (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) is a recurrent distraction for both men and there are substantial glimpses of John Turturro, Forest Whitaker and Iggy Pop. The blues and rock soundtrack is impressive. Scorsese’s The Last Waltz (1978 qv) will give you a clue.

The Color of Money / Soundtrack Album

Format: 1 Disc. 10 Tracks.

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Manhunter / Michael Mann

1986. Colour. USA. 115 mins. DVD.

Based on the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, Manhunter passed without notice on release. The film’s reputation has, however, grown since the massive success of The Silence of the Lambs (1991qv) from the same author. Will Graham (William Petersen) worked successfully with the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit through a disturbing ability to enter the minds of serial killers. Emotionally traumatised by the experience of tracking and capturing the brilliant but psychotic psychiatrist Dr Hannibal Lector (sic) he is persuaded out of retirement to investigate a new case. Graham seems irresistibly drawn back to the imprisoned Lector , whom he approaches for insights into the case. Lector contacts the killer and places Graham’s family at risk. Manhunter does not quite match up to the sensationalist violence of Lambs — the focus is more on the troubled Graham than on the quarantined doctor. But there is richness in the psychological detail ; Tom Noonan creates an unsettling killer with the ‘Tooth Fairy’; and Brian Cox, though less flamboyant than Anthony Hopkins, is at least as chilling in his brief appearances as Lector. Michael Mann had created TV’s Miami Vice and William Petersen has also made a name on the small screen with the more recent CSI.

Red Dragon / Thomas Harris

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Platoon / Oliver Stone

1986. Colour. USA. 114 mins. DVD.

Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone brought the depiction of the war down to the level of the ‘grunts’ — the poor bloody infantry, vacillating between fear and footrot in the dripping jungles. Raw recruit Charlie Sheen progresses through the horror and heroics as two long serving sergeants battle for supremacy and, in Sheen’s pretentious line, ‘for possession of my soul’. Tom Berenger is morally corrupt, brutalised and brutal. Willem Dafoe, equally skilled in the art of killing, is responsible and compassionate. The moralising dualism that runs through the film is a slight distraction from the stark reality of the action and locations, but overall Platoon delivers the goods.

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Angel Heart / Alan Parker

1987. Colour. USA. 109 mins. DVD.

Alan Parker’s blackest offering ranges from the backstreets of 1950s New York to the backwoods of Louisiana. Greasy gumshoe Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is employed by a vaguely menacing Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to track down one-time crooner Johnny Favourite. Cyphre claims some outstanding but undefined business with the singer, who was last heard of twelve years previously as a traumatised war veteran in a nursing home. Angel follows the clues to New Orleans, and to occultist Charlotte Rampling and a young voodoo priestess (Lisa Bonet). While he seems no nearer to solving the puzzle the people he interviews are, one by one, grotesquely murdered. De Niro’s character provides a fairly obvious wordplay that gives a clue to a kind of Faust without the ultimate redemption.

Angel Heart / Soundtrack Album

Format: 1 Disc. 11 Tracks.

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The Big Easy / Jim McBride

1987. Colour. USA. 96 mins. DVD.

Slick and spicy Cajun offering set in New Orleans and environs. Dennis Quaid is a slightly shady but efficient cop, Ellen Barkin is the sexually naïve Assistant DA sent to investigate police corruption. Love and lust blossom, not necessarily in that order. Effective thriller that captures the sights and sounds of antediluvian New Orleans.

The Big Easy / Soundtrack Album

Format: 1 Disc. 12 Tracks.

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Broadcast News / James L Brooks

1987. Colour. USA. 127 mins. DVD.

Romantic and ethical entanglements in the world of the TV newsroom are brought to life by a good script from the director and by sound performances from Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, William Hurt and, in a cameo role as a pompous New York anchorman, Jack Nicholson.

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Empire of the Sun / Steven Spielberg

1987. Colour. USA. 152 mins. DVD.

Young Jim Graham (Christian Bale) is separated from his aristocratic English parents during the Japanese invasion of China in WWII. A privileged life is replaced by one of scavenging and wheeler-dealing under the guidance of US merchant mariner Basie (John Malkovich). The boy survives the war and a POW camp, losing friends and innocence along the way. Steven Spielberg continues to develop new territory with a script by Tom Stoppard based on J G Ballard’s semi-autobiographical novel.

Empire of the Sun / J G Ballard

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Good Morning Vietnam / Barry Levinson

1987. Colour. USA. 116 mins. DVD.

Brilliant comedy vehicle that makes full use of the quickfire improvisation of Robin Williams. Armed Forces Radio DJ Adrian Cronauer is posted to Saigon, where he makes an instant mark with the troops but is less popular with his immediate superiors. Ineffectual bureaucrat Lt Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby) fights a losing battle against Cronauer’s radical style and his refusal to stick to prescribed playlists. Sgt Major Dickerson (J T Walsh), outraged by Cronauer’s irreverence and deliberate flouting of the rules, manoeuvres to have him removed. Between hilarious broadcasts Cronauer pursues beautiful Trinh (Chintara Sukapatana) through a friendship with her brother Tuan (Tung Thanh Tran), who is not what he appears. Good Morning Vietnam is unusual on two counts: it was probably the earliest film with a comedic approach to the Vietnam war, albeit with a serious subtext; and it is one of very few Vietnam movies to give an insight into the culture and complexity of Vietnamese society. Forest Whitaker plays Cronauer’s hero-worshipping sidekick and there are many good minor performances. The soundtrack is pure 1965; in the meantime the war goes on.

Good Morning Vietnam / Soundtrack Album

Format: 1 Disc. 12 Tracks.

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Dangerous Liaisons / Stephen Frears

1988. Colour. USA. 115 mins. DVD.

Decadence and scandal amongst the aristos of pre-revolutionary France, based on the 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos. The Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) and the Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) are jaded ex-lovers whose vengeful psycho-sexual games result in Valmont’s seduction of Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Cecile de Volanges (Uma Thurman). Sumptuously designed and photographed, with suitably sinister performances by Malkovich and Close and contrasting subtlety from Michelle Pfeiffer.

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The Last Temptation of Christ / Martin Scorsese

1988. Colour. USA. 164 mins. DVD.

Martin Scorsese’s accurate adaptation of the deeply religious novel by deeply religious author Nikos Kazantzakis was greeted by predictable vociferous outrage from the self-professed devout. If the temptation in the wilderness presented Jesus with the lure of world dominion, the ‘last temptation’ of the title offered the opposite — an ordinary life filled with ordinary pleasures and satisfactions. Temptation is rejected and Jesus accepts his destiny and the Cross. Scorsese achieves a realistic historical atmosphere for the New Testament story and a Holy Land under Roman rule. William Dafoe plays an ambivalent Jesus, with strong supporting roles from Harvey Keitel (Judas), Barbara Hershey (Mary Magdalene), David Bowie (Pilate) and Harry Dean Stanton (Saul/Paul). Music by Peter Gabriel.

The Last Temptation / Nikos Kazantzakis

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Midnight Run / Martin Brest

1988. Colour. USA. 122 mins. DVD.

An amiable comedy whose simple plot is lifted immeasurably by a superb cast and script. Hard-as-nails bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) is employed by bail bondsman Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) to bring in bail jumper Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin). Accountant Mardukas has gone to ground after embezzling $15 million from the Mafia and donating the cash to charity. Walsh and Mardukas are pursued cross-country by the Mob, the FBI and a rival bounty hunter (John Ashton). Mardukas uses every ploy in the book to escape from Walsh and vanish into the woodwork. De Niro and Grodin make for perfect chemistry and the one-liners come thick and fast.

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Rain Man / Barry Levinson

1988. Colour. USA. 127 mins. DVD.

Multi-Oscar-winning drama with exemplary performances by Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Hoffman plays idiot savant Raymond Babbitt, who has been ensconced in a mental home and has been named, in trust, as beneficiary of his father’s estate. His hustling brother Charlie (Tom Cruise) abducts Raymond in the hope that he can force the trustees to part with half of the estate. As the brothers travel across country the autistic and obsessive Raymond reveals remarkable skills while remaining emotionally isolated. Ironically, Charlie’s time with his unreachable sibling sparks a transition that leaves him a more sensitive and caring human being.

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Young Guns / Christopher Cain

1988. Colour. USA. 102 mins. DVD.

Glossy Brat Pack movie that reprises and re-mythologises a much-visited theme — the Lincoln County Wars and the career of Billy the Kid. A group of tearaway youngsters are taken under the wing of idealistic rancher John Tunstall (Terence Stamp). When Stamp is murdered by crooked rival Jack Palance the boys form themselves into a posse of regulators and look for justice and vengeance. Emilio Estevez is William Bonney, Kiefer Sutherland is the studious Doc, with Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips and Dermot Mulroney.

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Mississippi Burning / Alan Parker

1989. Colour. USA. 121 mins. DVD.

Hard hitting drama based on the murder of three civil rights workers in 1964. Willem Dafoe is the naïve FBI man from the big city, Gene Hackman the tough partner who is pretty much on his home ground. As the pair bring in more and more agents to search for the missing trio the countryside erupts into violence. Hackman is totally credible as a man with a deep understanding of the racist culture he has come to despise.

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Foreign Cinema

Another classic from Akira Kurosawa, a double bill from France, a disquieting offering from the Netherlands and two whimsical productions from Germany.

Ran / Akira Kurosawa

1985. Colour. Jap/Fr. 155 mins. DVD.

Ran was a labour of passion for the 75-year-old director and it shows in every frame. Kurosawa turns once again to Shakespeare (see Throne of Blood, 1957 qv), this time transposing King Lear to 16th Century Japan. Tatsuya Nakadai is the ageing warlord Hidetora who divides his kingdom between his three sons, standing in for the Bard’s Regan, Goneril and Cordelia. The youngest son questions his father’s sanity and predicts disaster. Disaster and madness follow soon enough, as the ambitious brothers battle for supremacy and the kingdom disintegrates. Breathtaking. ‘Ran’ is the Japanese character for chaos.

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Jean de Florette / Claude Berri

1986. Colour. Fr. 116 mins. DVD.

Jean de Florette and its seamless sequel Manon Des Sources (qv) were made back to back and revived international interest in French cinema. Gerard Depardieu in the title role is a hunchbacked escapee from urban life who falls victim to peasant chicanery. Yves Montand plays an imperious local landowner whose unprepossessing nephew (Daniel Auteuil) has a potentially profitable scheme for growing carnations. The scheme needs water, and Depardieu’s farm has an untapped spring. Idyllic pastoral scenes contrast with the petty machinations of the rustics.

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Manon des Sources / Claude Berri

1986. Colour. Fr. 109 mins. DVD.

Ten years after the events in Jean de Florette (qv) an elderly Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand) has built up a successful carnation farm with his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil). Concerned that the family name is on the verge of extinction, Cesar puts pressure on Ugolin to marry. In the meantime Manon Cadoret (Emmanuelle Beart), daughter of Jean de Florette, has grown into a lovely shepherdess and has learned the circumstances of her father’s tragedy. Ugolin spies Manon bathing in a spring and falls in love …. The two films earned eight Cesars, the French equivalent of the Oscars.

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The Vanishing / George Sluizer

1986. Colour. Netherlands. 102 mins. DVD.

Two young Dutch lovers are motoring through France when the girl disappears at a service station. Her boyfriend is obsessed with finding her and spends every free moment in his search. In the meantime we are introduced to a dull, respectable French family man and it gradually becomes apparent that he was involved in the girl’s disappearance. The boyfriend eventually meets the man, leading to a truly disturbing conclusion. George Sluizer was to direct a Hollywood remake starring Kiefer Sutherland, Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges. The result was massively inferior with a cop-out ending that defeated the whole point of the original.

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Bagdad Café / Percy Adlon

1987. Colour. Ger. 87 mins. DVD.

Offbeat oddity set in a seedy motel. A statuesque German hausfrau (Marianne Sagebrecht) is abandoned by her husband after a row in the Mojave Desert. Moving in to the Bagdad Café she develops a friendship with the slipshod owner (CCH Pounder) and attracts the interest of artist Jack Palance, playing against type as a quixotic romantic. The strange assortment of friends and customers see the remote café turn into an exciting venue, not least through the performance skills of Sagebrecht. More an evocation of spirit and ambience than a linear story, this beautiful eccentricity leaves a nice warm feeling.

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Wings of Desire / Wim Wenders

1987. BW/Colour. Ger/Fr. 122 mins. DVD.

Wim Wenders’s long existential prose poem assembled from the random thoughts of the denizens of Berlin. Two angels, invisible to all but children, watch over the city with a mission to ‘observe, collect, testify to and preserve’. Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) drift through the unreconstructed streets and eavesdrop sympathetically on the inner doubts and fears of the citizens, bringing comfort with a touch. Damiel is, however, attracted by the emotions and sensations offered by the physical world and is eventually spurred to abandon immortality by his fascination with French trapeze artiste Marion (Solveig Dommartin). A subplot involving actor Peter Falk, playing himself and brought to Berlin to make a movie, adds an unexpected twist. Wings of Desire is essentially about the boundaries and barriers symbolised in the film by the Berlin Wall: between the eternal and the ephemeral, between the spiritual and the material, between the past and the present, between fiction and reality, between observation and action; and about the self imposed walls that separate one person from another. Wim Wenders’s masterpiece is very reminiscent of the film work of Jean Cocteau, and especially Orphee (1949 qv). Music by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Re-worked by Hollywood as City of Angels (1998 qv) starring Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan.

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