Far Away, So Close [1994] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

The Berlin Ground........2004-02-27

The success of 'Wings Of Desire' must have prompted Wenders to come up with a sequel. It certainly makes a greater effort at garnishing a wider audience, with the addition of Natassja Kinski, Willem Dafoe & Horst Buchholz to the previous cast. The script also has the novelty of being in 4 different languages.

In 'Wings Of Desire' Bruno Ganz's transformation from angel to human could be seen as a desire by Berliners each side of the wall to overcome their imprisonment from each other. In 'Faraway, So Close', the moral confusion that Otto Sander witnesses when he crashes down from above, mirrors the uneasy turmoil of the new united Berlin. Like an East Berliner untutored in the ways of the West, he stumbles about in an unsophisticated way until his new freedoms begin to overwhelm him and he finds his only refuge in a bottle. Despite all this, he tries to find meaning and do good, but finds that in the new Germany, the only options open to an ex-angel (or an ex-communist) is the criminal underworld.

Although the film starts to lose its way in the final farcical half hour, there are some impressive performances here, especially Horst Buchholz (last seen in 'The Magnificent Seven').

Wenders last great film, his talent has since floundered in making movies with the likes of Mel Gibson.

Not as terrible as some would have you believe........2002-10-20

Wings of Desire is held up with Paris, Texas (1984) as Wenders's finest moment. This sequel, I feel, has been judged too harshly by some. The 'To Be Continued' at the end of Wings of Desire surely would have led you to expect it? Faraway, so Close! is flawed and has some boring and/or silly moments- though I think the same can be levelled at the latter parts of Wings of Desire (when Damiel comes to earth, for example). It's an interesting flip-side to Wings of Desire, FSC! being set after the Berlin Wall has fallen and reunifcation of East & West Germany has occurred (a complete antithesis to the Berlin of WOD, where the Wall dominates).

The story focuses on Cassiel, who follows Damiel into the mortal realm and finds it hard to fit in with the interference of Willem Defoe's Emil Flesti (Time Itself)- this is a bit pretentious and the action scenes at the end don't really work. There are great things about FSC!: the soundtrack (U2, House of Love, Lou Reed, Nick Cave/Barry Adamson), Nastassia Kinski, Damiel & Marion, the cameos (Peter Falk again, Mikhail Gorbachev, Lou Reed), the return of Philip Winter as a character (see Until the End/Alice in the Cities/Lisbon Story/Kings of the Road- the latter he is Bruno Winter!), the scene where a newspaper floats past Cassiel's head detailing the death of Willy Brandt, the scene from the Nazi era and the final scene as the survivors float away from Berlin on a barge (reminiscent of Vigo's L'atalante).

The good moments far outweigh the bad/dull, not many films can measure up to Wings of Desire- to which this is an extension with enough to warrant its existence. I particularly liked the sewer scenes, where beneath the modern reunified Berlin lies arms from the Nazi era- this reminded me of The Third Man. Another film this recalled was Three Colours: White, which looked at the new capitalism (everything/anything is for sale) in post-Communist Poland and in many ways can be viewed as a companion to this from the realm of European Cinema.

Faraway, So Close! is a good film with excellent moments, though it is far from the best of Wenders in the 1990's- which I feel can be seen in The Buena Vista Social Club, The Lisbon Story & Until the End of the World.

Disappointing.......2002-07-31

Wings of Desire was always going to be a difficult film to measure up to, and sadly Wenders fails to do so with this sequel.
Returning to the world where humanity is watched over by benevolent angels achieves nothing here of what it did in the original. Gone are the meditations on human pain and pleasure, on the nature and hard work of love, and the wonderment at the human condition from an outsiders perspective. Further lacking are the intelligent mix of lesser known European actors with that of Peter Falk in the first film. These are instead replaced with a slew of bigger names, often used it seems because they were available and not because they were needed. The effect is to give the film the reek of a vanity project, both for director and cast, in place of the originality and warmth brought displayed in its predecessor.

calm film and nice.......2001-08-31

Indeed not as good as the wings of desire, but very charming still and very enjoyable to watch. One of the most innovative sequels I have ever seen. Sequels are not easy because the public has high expectations. This film possibly fulfills some of them. Thank you

Sequence to 'Wings of Desire' but not as good.......2000-11-14

This film tells us about angels who live all around us and can (and sometimes do) become people. Same idea was used in previous Wenders movie 'Wings of Desire', but this film, although interesting, does not have same sort of magic.

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