Separated by tragedy on the night they meet, two young graduates continue their relationship anyway in this thin but radiantly shot 'Wings of Desire' riff.
\n\nSince hitting an artistic peak with the back-to-back festival triumphs “Head-On” and “Edge of Heaven” in the mid-2000s, German-Turkish auteur Fatih Akin has darted all over the map in genre, style and form — occasionally striking commercially, as with the Diane Kruger thriller “In the Fade” and the local hip-hop biopic “Rhinegold,” without ever matching the rigor and impact of those earlier standouts. That pattern doesn’t change with his latest, the star-crossed supernatural romance “Ghost Song,” which opened this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. The film, about two 20-year-olds carrying on their early courtship across the mortal divide, is earnest and a little clunky as it takes a simplistic inspirational approach to complex metaphysical questions. But it is accessible and attractive, shot in glistening monochrome, and could well be a youth-skewing hit for the filmmaker.
\n\nThe choice to shoot in inky black-and-white, making prominent use of major German city landmarks, practically begs for comparisons to Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire,” another atmospheric romantic fantasy about a love spanning the mortal and ethereal realms — with…
Original source: https://variety.com/