James M. Skidmore (Waterloo) p.17-29
2003 Issue 1
Abstract
When one thinks of the German city film, one necessarily thinks of Berlin, the only real metropolis the country has ever known. Berlin as German capital (of one sort or another) has been the setting of any number of important films. Two modern pictures – Der Himmel über Berlin /Wings of Desire (1987) and Lola rennt/Run Lola Run (1998) – are set in two very different Berlins, one divided by a wall, the other a healed version of its former self. A close examination of each film’s narrative, however, reveals that the stories are quite similar. This paper will analyse this similarity, draw attention to the function of the Berlin setting for the films’ narratives, and discuss the degree to which Berlin is an essential element in the stories being told. The argument is then made that these Berlin stories fall into a larger tradition of city films (set in Berlin and elsewhere) in which the city serves as a site of emotional healing.