I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT – WINGS OF DESIRE AT WALTER READE

Thank you to Gothamist for reminding me that the Bruno Ganz series starts this weekend at the Walter Reade at Lincoln Center. If you ever suffered through the blech City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, please do yourself an enormous favor and rush over to the Walter Reade either this evening at 6:15, tomorrow at 4, Sunday at 8:15 or Monday at 3:15 to catch Wim Wenders’ masterpiece Wings of Desire. This is a brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT movie that should not be missed. I remember in 1990 when the critics polls about the best movies of the ’80s were released, and Wings of Desire was called the second best film of the decade, following only Raging Bull. I hadn’t seen the film at that point, but I did shortly thereafter and fell in love with it. It’s a beautifully lyrical film, an embracing examination of life and love, isolation and loneliness. Taking place in a Berlin that still had its Wall (which almost plays its own character in the film), seeing it now may have a slightly different impact in our post-Cold War world, but that doesn’t negate from the power and beauty of the overall experience. Seriously … go see it, on a big screen, in the great Walter Reade theater. Any film lover won’t be sorry.