Far Away, So Close, Part One.

I am having some really wacky and wild conflicts between my website and my blog. I don't update the website anymore hardly, and I think "Michelle's Work In Progress" will soon be deleted. For the time being, you can find it at www.home.earthlink.net/~mjacksier/index.htm.

I don't understand why the index.htm is suddenly necessary, but such is life. Maybe I'll just get rid of the frames.

I started watching my present from Mikey - the film Far Away, So Close! I understand now, why people who have seen Wings of Desire and than have seen this film, its sequel, have tried to dissuade me from seeing it. So far, FASC is a decent film on its own, but when viewed in the shadow of Wings of Desire, it is kind of crappy. Wenders is reusing a lot of material. There is the old man with a story, the musician who plays to angels, and for some reason, Peter Falk is back.

One interestingly annoying thing is that language has no boundaries in this film. The dialogue goes from German to English to Italian to French, with a little bit of Yiddish thrown in for good measure. Everyone speaks and understands every language. Not just the angels, but everyone, except for Lou Reed and Mikhail Gorbachov. They are held prisoner by their mother tongue. I had to turn the subtitles on, because all the switching around was giving me a headache. I can understand a lot of French (just don't tell Joe or he'll make me), some Italian and all the German and English. But it is impossible for my brain to switch back and forth like that.

So far, I haven't figured out why Damiel, a German-speaking angel in the first film, is using chiefly Italian to communicate to his French-speaking wife and daughter. Especially because all three live and work in Germany.

The leitmotive in the movie seems to be "time". I just haven't figured out what Wender's issue with it is just yet. That may not be Wender's fault - I'm only 1/2 way through the film.

I'm sad that he decided to make Cassiel a bad fallen angel. I always liked him. It looks like Lou Reed will be the one to set him on the straight and narrow. Go LOU!