The Return of Angels

The german filmmaker Wim Wenders asserts that he invented angels as a means of “putting the camera in the place of innocence”. This cinematographic metaphor can be interpreted according to Jung as a spiritualization of the maternal archetype, present in all the fusional symbols, which illustrates a situation of hegemony of the unconscious. The embodiment of the angel in Wings of Desire (1987) illustrates the beginning of an individuation process, sealing the aporia of regression. The encounter with the woman would thus signify a change in the projection of the anima, gradually integrated into consciousness. But the progressive tendency is questioned once again in Si loin, si proche (1993), with the angel’s final sacrifice, which marks a retreat into the unconscious as well as the failure to return to the world and to the story.