PERFECT DAYS from Wim Wenders - Official Trailer

Hirayama is content with his simple life cleaning toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Unexpected encounters reveal more of his story in a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the world around us.

A Film by Wim Wenders

Starring Koji Yakusho

Anselm (2023) by Wim Wenders

Cassiel's Song - Nick Cave

For obvious reasons - I have always loved this! 

Inspiration Can Be Found Anywhere

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Thanks to Montana Avenue for sharing my painting Wings of Desire: Inspiration can be found anywhere, thank you Gregg Chadwick for sharing this stunning painting and your thoughts behind it

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'As 2021 shifts to 2022, I think of years passing like film titles shifting on theater marquees. With that thought, on the day we lost Betty White at 99, I am posting my painting "Wings of Desire". In the spirit of writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie, a bit of magical realism often finds its way into my paintings. In memory of Bruno Ganz and in homage to one of my favorite films by Wim Wenders, my oil on linen painting "Wings of Desire" depicts one of my favorite angels hovering by the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.'

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You can find more of his work greggchadwick.com

 

 

The Angel Falls to Earth: Bruno Ganz Dies

by Gregg Chadwick

Bruno Ganz as the angel Damiel in Wim Wender's Classic Film Wings of Desire

Bruno Ganz  has died at 77 leaving us with a rich legacy. The Swiss film actor played numerous iconic roles over the years from an angel longing for human love in Wings of Desire to Hitler facing imminent defeat in Downfall. The New York Times reports that Bruno died at his home in Zurich.

 Bruno Ganz  left his mark on Berlin in Wender's Wings of Desire. Painters, writers, and filmmakers from Max Beckmann to Christopher Isherwood to Wim Wenders have created visions of Berlin that still guide us across the city's potent memoryscape. 

Gregg Chadwick
The Angel of History
29"x73" oil and sumi on Japanese screen

In honor of Bruno, I am posting my oil and ink on screen painting The Angel of History  inspired by the writings of Walter Benjamin. 

Benjamin wrote: "This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward."
- Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History," IX 

Solveig Dommartin and Bruno Ganz in Wim Wender's Classic Film Wings of Desire

Peter Falk in Wim Wender's Classic Film Wings of Desire

Look Closely: Are There Angels Hiding in the Ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church?
photo by Gregg Chadwick (Berlin 2010)

Nick Cave Live From Los Angeles: Feb 21, 2013

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Live In L.A. on February 21, 2013
 24 Hour HD Re-Broadcast  (Full Video)

"It was another title track, though, that represented for me the night's most profoundly emotional moment: A massive, knee-wobbling, tear-inducing version of “From Her to Eternity,” his great song of obsession with a woman living in the flat above. It’s a sparse, menacing track that suggests Elvis Presley possessed by a demon Kurt Weill.

I never thought I’d see him play it live, and its performance — with Ellis leading a scraping string section, Savage poking out that off-kilter piano melody and Adamson offering keyboard clusters — was overwhelming, music that conjured heaven and embodied the kind of bliss only present in the purest of expressions. The heavens opened over those five minutes, and I'm still buzzing about it."

-  Randall Roberts

Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic

Der Himmel Draußen (The Sky Outside): Actor and Artist Peter Falk Dies at 83

Gregg Chadwick
Der Himmel Draußen (The Sky Outside)
30"x22" monotype on paper 2011

Peter Falk has died at 83 leaving us with a rich legacy of film and television work as well as a body of carefully crafted prints and drawings.
As fate would have it, I am currently working on a series of artworks inspired by my experiences in the city of Berlin. Painters, writers, and filmmakers from Max Beckmann to Christopher Isherwood to Wim Wenders have created visions of the city that still guide us across Berlin's potent memoryscape. Peter Falk also left his mark on this city of memory in Wender's Wings of Desire.

Peter Falk in Wim Wender's Classic Film Wings of Desire

Look Closely: Are There Angels Hiding in the Ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church?
photo by Gregg Chadwick (Berlin 2010)

Peter Falk
Girl With Ponytail

Peter Falk With Artist's Model

More on Berlin, Peter Falk and Wings of Desire at:
City of Cinephilia


Peter Falk in Wim Wender's Classic Film Wings of Desire

Until the End of the World

Gregg Chadwick
Hanuman's Dream
72"x96" oil on linen 1996
NEC Collection

And the dust clears and we are still here. How then shall we live?








Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Make My Bed? But You Say the World’s Ending

An Angel Hits the Ground

U2 Performs "Faraway, So Close" Live in Berlin - July 18, 2009
(Cassiel this one is for you! Nous sommes embarque.)