Tão Longe, Tão Perto

Wim Wenders may not be taken seriously by Hollywood (or critics) anymore, but he seems able to pull in actors and musicians at will. Great soundtrack.

Great cast as well. Check out Horst Bucholz (sp?) here and in the 1962 comedy "One, Two, Three" with James Cagney. All the "mortals", especially Bruno Ganz, seem almost gleeful. Only Willem Dafoe appears to be in a "serious German movie".

I may not be qualified to comment on the real value of this movie because "Wings of Desire" is in my permanent top 5. It probably benefits from the glow of it's precursor more than any other sequel, because I really wanted to catch up with these characters. I smiled every time I saw a familiar face.

That said, it takes about an hour to settle in but finally gets sort of serious. Watching this and "Until the End of The World" (also ripped by critics) I get the feeling Wenders was either being lazy or just freestyling to avoid boredom. Looks like fun from here.