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03/10/2010 (12:18 pm)

Web page about Wim Wenders film "Wings of Desire" - *specific* page I've "lost"

Filed under: nappedeptrole.com edit
  • I would like to find a specific web page, in English, about the 1987 Wim Wenders film ?Wings of Desire? (Der Himmel ber Berlin) which I have read once but "lost" - that is, I saw it, found the content interesting, didn?t bookmark (doh!) it but assumed that I would be able to find it again easily enough - and now I can't, after quite a lot of trying. To say this is annoying is putting it mildly. Here?s the specification. The page I?m looking for is probably a user-written review, something like the customer/user reviews you get at Amazon, IMDB or epinions.com. So I believe that it?s probably written by a contributor, not the "owner" of the page. But bear in mind that a person stupid enough to not bookmark something they wanted to read is probably also stupid enough to get that bit wrong as well! The page I want to see contains a sentence or two, clearly and in quite a strongly worded way, suggesting that there is something in the scene in the bar, near the end, between Damiel and Marion, which you have to look very closely to see. It?s something which is not obvious and I think it happens quickly or in a hidden way. Annoyingly I cannot remember the exact wording the author used - I thought it might be something like "blink and you?ll miss it" but sadly this phrase is used a LOT on the web and I haven?t got a search strategy refined enough to help me with it. Also, it may not be that exact phrase ? it could easily be something entirely different but with a similar meaning. I must emphasise that the comment about the hidden thing you should look for and appreciate comes from this one web page author - it?s not a comment made by a character in the film - it?s a third-party comment on the scene. It's this comment that will ID the page I want. I will know immediately if it?s the right page or not ? there are *loads* of pages about this film but I have not yet found any that urges you to look, perhaps look again, and see the thing you might have missed that is in the scene for just a moment. Other points that might help you: I am a lousy researcher but have done, in a crude way, quite a lot of looking for this page. I?ve just used Google and tried lots of predictable search terms - "blink and you'll miss it", "bar scene", Wenders, wings, Marion, Damiel, glimpse, "look again", "catch it", etc etc. The reason I am asking your help - and offering what I hope is a reasonable fee, if not please comment - is my hope that you as a ?proper? researcher will have cleverer methods of looking for stuff than I do. A brute force attack *might* work but the more I stumble around looking for it the less convinced I am that it will. The page I seek was there about a week ago. I saw no reason to assume that it would vanish and I do not believe that it has - what has vanished is my competence! :) The page cannot be too newly created and in particular cannot have been created since I posted this question! It's already out there. It?s on some sort of established site, not a new site, an individual?s new little page etc. I promise you that I will know when I see it, and will know that it is the same one I saw already. I mentioned user reviews on amazon, imdb and eopinions. I do not think that what I am looking for is there on those particular sites, but prove me wrong and I will simper prettily and be pleased anyway! The answer I want is where this particular page is. I can?t accept an answer which merely speculates about what it *might* be that the author was commenting on - I want to see what I _actually_ _read_ last time. I will know immediately if it?s the right thing. I think it?s most unlikely that more than one page meets my specification, but if it does, I?d like to see them both (all?) and will tip accordingly. If you find just one genuine page that meets my spec but is not the one I want, I?ll pay up but will probably start again with the same enquiry, but ruling out that page! So far I have seen nothing that is close to it, so this may not be a big problem. Finally - I blanch to type this but I might as well be honest - there is a very small but real risk that the scene that the author referred to is not in Wings of Desire but is in its 1993 sequel, also by Wenders: Faraway, So Close! (In weiter Ferne, so nah!). That is, while looking at WoD stuff I *could* have got sidetracked into comments on FSC. I don?t think it?s likely - less than 5% - but it could, just, have happened. If it did, the scene will still be in a bar and with Marion, but the angel will be Cassiel not Damiel. If this turns out to be the case and you still find the page I want, I will tip accordingly ? not double, but not far off. (The more I think about this the less I think it?s what happened, but I thought I should mention the possibility.) That page IS out there somewhere! It just needs a clever person who?s a good searcher to find it ? am I asking too much?


  • I've found it! Not knowing much about how GA works, I don't know if these comments will survive once I have cancelled my question, but I thought I should try. The paragraph I was looking for is here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093191/usercomments-94 - it's the comment entitled "Astonishing" by erik150x. Some comments: 1. Having found it, I'm slightly disappointed/puzzled, as it is more or less what I thought, but a bit more mysterious, so I can't really use it as a specific instruction to go back and look for something I've missed - I think it's perhaps a more general comment than that. However, I am thrilled to bits to have found it, as it was bugging me something rotten! 2. I said it *probably* wasn't on IMDB ... what a twit. I really thought I had checked IMDB quite carefully. Perhaps my new rule 1 should be "do the obvious things really thoroughly". Doh! 3. I didn't do anything clever to find it. I just thought of a yet _another_ different phrase along the same lines as the dozens I had been trying, and used that, with no real hope of it working. A Google search for ["did you see it" bar scene damiel] finds that one page. How I managed to *not* find this before, I shall never know. 4. The feeling of relief on finding this page, which I had begun to worry I might have dreamed up, is indescribable. Rule 2 should perhaps be "next time, you bookmark it!" :) 5. I would like to express my huge gratitude to pafalafa-ga, justaskscott-ga, voila-ga and any anonymous others who have had a go at this problem. I hope you are not too disappointed that you won't now become rich through my incompetence... I really am most grateful for your efforts, and I hope you are not too irritated with me! :) Regards Nevilley PS I know this is not a film crit board but, as others have mentioned, this is a wonderful film and if reading any of this has made you wonder if you'd like to see it, you probably should!


  • I'd been looking for a WoD script translation a couple years ago and came across this site. Don't recall the "blink or you'll miss it" line but there are some interesting observations about the bar scene/dialogue in Part 7 here: http://www.nathanwolfson.com/scholarship/ Good luck! *V*


  • Thank you very much for that. I'd seen Wolfson's stuff - rather nicely written I thought. Sadly it doesn't get me closer to my goal - the language of the page I saw was more "unofficial" if you see what I mean - more like speech. But it's nice to have been reminded about those essays. Great film, isn't it? :) Thanks again for your kindness Nevilley


  • Oh dear - I'm sorry, I really thought it would be doable. Thanks for the suggestion but yes, I've already tried checking histories and what have you but got nowhere. It was possibly too long ago (i.e. more than the week that I thought) or just that the history has been tidied up, deleted, was on someone else's PC and so on. I've got router logs at home that show me names and these also are no help: at work (where I might also have seen this page) I've got router logs which are only IP addresses but they cover my whole department so as you can imagine I start to lose interest somewhere round there ... :) Thanks very much for trying. It would really be a lot simpler if I had not lost it in the first place! Regards Nevilley


  • nevilley-ga, Haven't found the page you're asking about...perhaps another researcher will be able to. In the mean time...Have you checked the history file on your own computer? Many systems are set-up to retain copies of web pages visited for the past week or so. It could be that the page you're seeking is right there in your History file. Let us know if you need any assistance in accessing these files (and if you do...tell us what sort of system you have). Good luck. pafalafa-ga


  • It's a longshot, but could this be the page? "Wenders and the Audience in Wings of Desire and Faraway, So Close", by Brian Meacham" (10 May 1996) [third-to-last and second-to-last paragraphs] Meacham.com http://www.meachams.com/brian/film/papers/wings.html


  • Dear Justaskscott Thank you so much for trying but no, sorry, it isn't. In the page I am looking for, the author directly addresses the reader, saying something like "look again" or "did you see it" or "it's there if you watch closely" - it's like a personal address, rather than a more formal mode of writing such as an academic article etc. That's why I think it may well have been in a user comments part of a site, rather than being an "official" comment on the film. I do appreciate your trying, and I enjoyed reading this piece anyway, so thanks. Regards Nevilley







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