Wings of Desire

So for our latest History and Context of Journalism module, we were shown the German film 'Wings of Desire', an existentialist film based around passion, desire and achievement. The basic premise of the film is based around two angels, non-corporeal beings who watch over Berlin in the late 1980's. Both are disenfranchised with their existence and long to be human.

The main character, Damiel, is the one who yearns for humanity the most. After meeting a young trapeze artist named Marion (played by the late Solveig Dommartin, who looks eerily like Cate Blanchett), Damiel becomes infatuated with her. It's his desire for humanity and for her that results in him becoming human.

These themes of passion and desire are key elements to existentialism. Existentialists believe that to get something, you only needs to desire it enough. This is apparent in Wings of Desire, where Damiel's desires come true. True romantic love is also a key theme of both existentialism and of the film, with Marion and Damiel truly in love, even though they don't really know each other.

It's a good film and well worth a watch, even though it may be a bit confusing and long winded. Definitely worth seeing if you want to find out more about existentialism.

"Hell is other people" and listening to Radiohead live.

So in the latest installment of our History and Context of Journalism, we learnt all about those cheerful folks called existentialists. As far as I can tell, I tend to agree with them on a fair few things such as personal freedoms (apart from the whole "it's okay to murder folk" bit) and their hatred of Nazi's. That being said, I wouldn't want to go to the pub with one of them. They seem right miserable buggers.

Their key belief it seems is to ask why do people do anything. Why do I go to the shops? Why do I eat bread? Why does Rafa Benitez insist on zonal marking? They also have a like, maybe even a dislike, of morality. To an existentialist, that would be herd behaviour, something which they can't abide.

Conformity is something of a cardinal sin to existentialists. For them, there is doing things in good faith and in bad faith. Conformity breeds bad faith. This is their main gripe with fascists, particularly Nazi's. Everything they did was in bad faith as they were compulsive liars. Similarly, the people of Nazi Germany engaged in massive levels of conformity, ignoring the atrocities of their government.

People that existentialists do like is people with passion. It doesn't matter about what your passion is, just so long as you have it. You could be an artist, a football fan, a teacher, anything. I'm quite fond of this belief. The ability to have passion and care about things is important in life and without it, everything becomes a bit boring.

Existentialism isn't perfect, but it makes enough sense and has some good ideas. It may not be for everyone, but it works.