Wings of Desire (1987)

Solveig Dommartin: Marion

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Quotes 

• Marion : It must finally become serious. I've often been alone, but I've never lived alone. When I was with someone I was often happy. But the same time, it all seemed a coincidence. These people were my parents. But it could have been others. Why was this brown-eyed boy my brother and not the green-eyed boy on the opposite platform? The taxi driver's daughter was my friend. But I might as well have put my arm round a horse's neck. I was with a man in love and I might as well have left him there and gone off with the stranger I met in the street. Look at me, or don't. Give me your hand, or don't. No. Don't give me the hand, and look away. I think tonight is the new moon. No night more peaceful. No bloodshed in all the city. I've never played with anyone and yet I've never opened my eyes and thought: Now it's serious. At last it's becoming serious. So I've grown older. Was I the only one who wasn't serious? Is it our times that are not serious? I was never lonely neither when I was alone, nor with others. But I would have liked to be alone at last. Loneliness means I'm finally whole. Now I can say it as tonight, I'm at last alone. I must put an end to coincidence. The new moon of decision. I don't know if there's destiny but there's a decision. Decide! We are now the times. Not only the whole town - the whole world is taking part in our decision. We two are now more than us two. We incarnate something. We're representing the people now. And the whole place is full of those who are dreaming the same dream. We are deciding everyone's game. I am ready. Now it's your turn. You hold the game in your hand. Now or never. You need me. You will need me. There's no greater story than ours, that of man and woman. It will be a story of giants... invisible... transposable... a story of new ancestors. Look. My eyes. They are the picture of necessity, of the future of everyone in the place. Last night I dreamt of a stranger... of my man. Only with him could I be alone, open up to him, wholly open, wholly for him. Welcome him wholly into me. Surround him with the labyrinth of shared happiness. I know... it's you.

• Marion : [inner voice]  Longing. Longing for a wave of love to swell up in me. That's what makes me so clumsy: the lack of pleasure. A desire to love. The desire to love!

• Marion : [inner voice]  It's embarrassing to talk about myself, at times like this, like now. Time heals all, but what if time itself is the disease?

• Marion : [inner voice]  Once again night falls inside my head. Fear. Fear of death. Why not die? Sometimes beauty is the only thing that matters. To look in the mirror is to watch yourself think. So what are you thinking? I think I still have the right to be afraid, but not to talk about it. You haven't gone blind yet. Your heart is still beating. And now you're crying. You'd like to cry like a very sad little girl. Do you know why you're crying? For whom? Not for me. I don't know anymore. I'd like to know. I know nothing.

• Marion : [inner voice while dreaming]  When the child was a child, it was the time of these questions: Why am I me and why not you? Why am I here and why not there? When did time begin and where does space end? Isn't life under the sun just a dream?

• Marion : [inner voice]  I couldn't say who I am. I don't have the slightest idea. I have no roots, no story, no country, and I like it that way. I'm here. I'm free. I can imagine anything. Everything's possible. I only have to lift my eyes and once again I become the world. Now, on this very spot, a feeling of happiness that I could keep forever.

• Marion : [inner voice]  As if pain has no past. All the people I've met who'll live on in my head. It always stops just when it's starting. It was too good to be true. Out in the big city at last, to find out who I am, who I've become. Most of the time, I'm too aware to be sad. I waited an eternity for someone to say a loving word to me. Then I went abroad. Someone who'd say "I love you so much today." That would be wonderful. I look up and the world emerges before my eyes and fills my heart. As a child, I wanted to be on an island. A woman alone, gloriously alone. Yes... that's it. Empty. Incompatible. Emptiness, fear, fear, fear, fear. Like a little animal lost in the woods. Who are you? I don't know anymore. But I do know, I'll never become a trapeze artist. One of those unexpected decisions you hold on to. Don't cry! No way! Crying is out of the question. These things happen. It's just how it is. Things don't always turn out the way you'd like. So empty.

• Marion : [inner voice]  Don't think about anything. Just be. Berlin. I'm a foreigner here and yet it is so familiar. In any case, you can't get lost. You always end up at the Wall. I wait for my photo at a photo booth, and out comes someone else's face. That could be the beginning of a story. Faces. I'd like to see faces.

• Marion : [inner voice]  How should I live? Maybe that's not a question. How should I think? I know so little. Maybe because I'm too curious. Often my thoughts are all wrong, because it's like I'm talking to someone else at the same time. Behind closed eyes, close your eyes once more. Then even the stones come alive. To be close to the colors. The colors. Neon lights in the evening sky, the red-and-yellow train. I just need to be ready and every man in the world will look at me.

• Im Zirkus - Marion's Trainer : Marion, not like that! Mon dieu! What's that supposed to be? Less effort, more swing! What are you doing? Don't dangle - fly! You're an angel!

  Marion : [dressed as an angel on a flying trapeze]  For heaven's sake! Damn it! I can't fly with these things.

  Im Zirkus - Marion's Trainer : Yes, you can. It's easier with wings than without.

  Marion : Well, not with these chicken feathers!

• Marion : [inner voice - after learning the circus is closing early]  So, it's over. Not even a season. Once again, no time to really get anywhere. My circus dreams - - just memories ten years from now. Tonight's the last time I'll do my good old number. It's a full moon, too, "and the trapeze artist breaks her neck." Be quiet!

  [speaking] 

  Marion : I never imagined it like this, our farewell to the circus. On the last night no one shows up, you play like fools and I fly around the ring like a dumb chicken. And then I'm a waitress again. Merde.

• Marion : [inner voice]  Sometimes it's like you have to bend to go on living. To live... one look is enough.

• Marion : [inner voice]  I'll never make it tonight. No trapeze on full moon nights. Not the last time. I have to wake up from this dream. The circus is over. All over.

• Marion : Lieutenant, I bet you must know how to find people.

  Peter Falk : Well, I know how to look for 'em. I don't always find them. You're looking for somebody?

  Marion : I don't know. I just want to find someone.

  Peter Falk : Yeah, who? A boy? A girl? A man? A woman? A man. Yes. Well, do you know his name? No. You know where he lives? No.

  Marion : I know nothing.

  Peter Falk : Nothing, huh. Well, this is a tough case.