Written by Lou Thomas
Translator: Yi Ersan
Proofreader: Qin Tian
Source: Sight & Sound (July 4, 2022)
Under the Berlin Sky (1987) is an ambitious and poetic work that tells the story of an angel in West Berlin who aspires to be human.
Under the Berlin Sky
Damil (Bruno Guntz) spends his days eavesdropping on the thoughts of Berliners with his companion Cassirer (Otto Sandel), peering down from the top of the church into the bustling crowds and wandering among the desperate and hopeful laymen. When Damil discovers the lone circus trapeze artist Marianne (Solvague Domartan) and falls in love with her, he knows he must give up eternal life and fall into mortal dust.
This is the 14th work of German director Wim Wenders, and his first work after eight years of returning to his hometown after shooting films such as "Paris, Texas" (1984) in the United States, "Under the Berlin Sky" explores some ineffable themes, including what makes people, love and aging, and we also gain insight into the thoughts and dreams of ordinary people.
It is a very infectious, beautiful work, shot mainly in gorgeous black and white shots, and it also incorporates a kind of prank fun, which is mainly attributed to Peter Fark, who starred almost in his true colors.
Recently, a restored version of Under the Berlin Sky is about to be re-released in the UK, and we had the privilege of inviting Wenders to an interview in London to review the film's unscripted creation, what happened to his beloved Berlin, and Nick Cave's role in the film.
Q: Before you returned to China to make a movie, you spent eight years in the United States. Why did you make the film "Under the Berlin Sky" as soon as you returned to your hometown?
Wenders: I miss my native language. I was speaking English in my dreams, and I realized that wasn't a good thing for me. So I started reading more in German, and I think the most beautiful of them was the poems of René Maria Rilke. After traveling to the United States, I really wanted to go back to Europe, and of all the possible cities, I chose Berlin, the city closest to my heart.
As I wandered through Berlin, I found angels everywhere, appearing in public places in the form of monuments, sculptures or reliefs, and more than in other cities. I'm really looking for a story that can help me tell the story of this city. I certainly didn't want to make a documentary about Berlin. I'm looking for a character. Eventually, my dreams were occupied by angels, and the angels I photographed and met all over the city made me realize that there was no better character than them. So I started to conceive of a story featuring guardian angels.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt like a lunatic. "You want to make a movie about angels!" But this idea opens up many possibilities for us to observe many different lives, because these angels may be anywhere. They can go over "that wall." They can meet anyone and be the perfect witness to Berlin's urban life. I finally had an omniscient and all-powerful point of view. It's not that I really believe in the existence of angels, but I like to use them as a metaphor.
Q: Is there anything else in the angel that attracts you?
Wenders: I like their ability to hear people think. I imagined the great love they had for humanity. I want to look at this city with love in '87, shrouded in division, pain, gloom and depression. This place is different from anywhere else in the world. No other city has a wall across it. Nor is there a city that is the capital of two countries.
Q: I heard that one of your favorite things about Germany is Berlin. Is there any specific reason?
Wenders: It's a unique place, steeped in history, and at the same time with a lot of unhealed wounds. Berlin is a city that still displays its wounds, even on the facades of its no-man's land and firewall.
In Berlin, history is an open book. Most other German cities have been rebuilt, leaving no trace of the past. The city where I was born, Düsseldorf, is 80% renovated. You can no longer see the past. As Berlin splits, it also metaphorically describes the state of the world to some extent.
There was still a world-class Cold War. Berlin became the center of the world in a strange way – a little tragic, but at the same time it was an island for people from all over the world. Even some punk enthusiasts from Australia think it's a great place to be.
There are a lot of musicians, painters and writers here, and it's a fairly free city; It is also a city that is basically weaponless. In Berlin, you can't bring any weapons in and out. There wasn't much violence in Berlin at the time. It is a very peaceful city.
Q: In the film, Potsdamer Platz is a wasteland, but now it has become the center of the Berlin International Film Festival, surrounded by skyscrapers. Since you shot Under the Berlin Sky, how do you think the city has changed?
Wenders: The changes are obviously visible to the naked eye, after all, it's been 35 years since the film came out. The Berlin Wall was long gone, and they even had to rebuild part of it because a lot of tourists wanted to see it. When we were shooting, in 1987, it was a completely different place.
A few years later, it changed again; For us, the city in the movie no longer exists, it becomes a mystery. That's something we never thought was going to happen in our own lives. When the Berlin Wall fell, Berlin became the only city in the world centered on no man's land. Potsdamer Platz is a prairie and a paradise for birds. Kids love it because it's an empty place, so there's always some circus that comes here to perform. We didn't expect that when the movie came out, things would change so much.
In this no-man's land, we hang out with Kurt Boyce, who plays the poet Homer in the film, who lived in Berlin, when Potsdamer Platz was the center of the "roaring twenties", which was Berlin's Times Square. As we wandered together, Kurt searched for any distinguishable imprint, but he just couldn't find it. Just a few years later, skyscrapers appeared, and it became the center of the city. It's shocking. The film is a record of a place that no longer exists. That wasn't my intention, but that's how it turned out.
Q: The Berlin Wall is an important part of the city and an important element of the film. But I know you didn't get permission to shoot the real Berlin Wall and had to find someone to copy it.
Wenders: That's right. The Berlin Wall was actually divided into two parts, with a minefield of 50 yards in the middle. You have to climb over two walls and cross the deadly strip in the middle, so the Berlin Wall is off-limits for us. We could shoot on the west side, but we couldn't get into that no-man's land. That's exactly what interests me most — that open field with a lot of rabbits and other wildlife. I always come up with the idea of wanting to go through it. But, of course, this is not possible.
I also tried to get permission to shoot at the Brandenburg Gate, but it was in the ghettos of the Berlin Wall. I had wanted the angels to meet above the Brandenburg Gate, in the little no-man's land at the junction of East and West Berlin, but I certainly didn't get permission.
No way. I even went to the Minister of National Cinema. He had seen my films before, and a few years ago he invited me to show Paris, Texas in East Berlin. It was one of the few West German films shown to East Germans, because for some reason they thought it was an anti-capitalist film.
Q: How did you and Peter Handke collaborate on the screenplay for the film?
Wenders: We wrote some conversations between angels, but we didn't write about their inner thoughts. Peter didn't write a complete script. When I told him the story and asked if he could work together on the screenplay, Peter was happy to help me.
He said, "I'm writing a novel of my own. The story you just told about the two angels had to be handled by yourself. It's beyond my reach." So he asked me to go home, but a few weeks later I received a letter from him, saying, "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm disappointed you." I realized from this story that you need some dialogue anyway." So Peter wrote these conversations based on his memory of the stories he heard. I told him some of the situations, and I had to add the rest myself, especially what people were thinking.
Q: Where did all these ideas come from?
Wenders: I stole a lot of interesting conversations that I had overheard, and I stole some words from Peter's book, The Weight of the World. These are all short notes and observations that I use to express Marianne's thoughts.
Throughout the film, as the camera passes by people, you hear small fragments of their inner thoughts. Especially in the library, everyone thinks differently. If you listen to these ideas, everyone is an independent universe. It's very interesting to conceive of this part of the film.
Q: While preparing and shooting the film, you posted pictures of Solvague, Bruno, and Otto in your office. Does this have any impact on your creations?
Wenders: At first I didn't have a bottom in my mind, because the film was basically done without a script. We're pretty much shooting a day. The script was a huge wall in my office that said all the places I wanted to shoot in Berlin. On the other side of the room, all the scenes we might have photographed were shown. Every night, I pick a scene and go looking for where it might happen.
I don't quite know how to tell Bruno and Otto about their angelic roles. Actors always want to know the motivation and want to have a biography of the character. "Who am I?" What is my story?" But if an actor is going to play an angel — he didn't have an unpleasant childhood, didn't have a mean father or other family affair — he didn't think about killing his parents. So there is no psychological profile.
Bruno and Otto react very differently to this state without the past. Bruno was really engaged and accepted his own setting of being full of kindness and love. Otto wants to be a human being and can become nasty, swear and do bad things. He said, I can't bear too much virtue. Otto almost refused to incarnate as an angel.
Q: It is said that inviting Peter Falk to the show was the idea of assistant director Claire Denis, right?
Wenders: One night, Claire Denis and I were standing in front of the office wall and I said, "Don't you think our movies aren't too funny?" Angels are like that, they can't turn into comedians. No one in the film seems to be able to make it all a little more interesting and vivid. Don't you think we should add a character?" And she replied, "That's right."
Then I said. "Well, then do you think it would be interesting if someone had been an angel and had the same experience as Damil?" I thought to myself, this should make the whole movie less serious, right?
Q: How was the collaboration with Peter Falke? Seems interesting.
Wenders: It's really interesting. Peter fully understood how he should act. There is no script to follow for this character. But that's exactly why he accepted the role. I called him in the middle of the night — just hours after I told Claire that the film needed to add a character. Through some exclusion, we pinpointed the funniest people imaginable to play a former angel. I got Falke's phone number from John Casaverti.
Surprisingly, he answered the phone himself, and I said, "You probably don't know me, I'm a German director who makes films in Berlin." Our movie needed to add a character, and then I thought of you." Peter laughed and said, "You're making a movie, and then you call me and tell me I should join you because there's a character who doesn't have a script?" What is it?" I replied, "A former angel." He laughed again for a long time, and finally he said, "I'm willing to shoot." I'm the best at playing this kind of role."
Q: Nick Cave was also a surprise, how did he get involved?
Wenders: He's a great singer. Now a brilliant poet, I also follow his website, The Red Hand Files.
At the time, of course, he was more of a rebel. His image is rather unruly: The Bad Seeds are only active at night, and the band members are inseparable from drugs. I often see them in the middle of the night; They never perform before midnight. If you want to talk to Nick, you have to go to a bar at three o'clock in the night to meet him.
Anyway, I eventually got in touch with him and he loved my story. It was a shame to be making a film in Berlin at the time, and it would have been a shame not to have Nick Cave involved. He truly symbolizes the spirit of the city: adventure, darkness, uniqueness. This is Berlin. Nick was so cool, we were friends.
Q: Will you work with him again?
Wenders: Anytime. I'd like to work with Nick on any work, and we'll definitely do it again. I hope so.