Early in the movie we see what it would be like to fly above the city. We float above the autobahn and we see a block of high-rise apartment buildings. Suddenly we are in those apartments, drifting through windows and walls, seeing the people who live there, hearing their thoughts.
This makes clear one of the things that we normally take for granted about movies- that somehow we seem to be there, watching and listening. If we play dumb about this, or think like a little child, we might ask why the people in movies don't notice us watching them.
A naive answer would be because we are invisible, because we are angels. Like the angels in the movie, we are unable to affect events. We are only able to emphasize with the characters, only able to smile to each other and compare notes.
Knowing that we, the audience, are among the angels in this movie, and that they represent us, is a good place to start thinking about how and why this movie does whatever it is that it does so well.
This makes clear one of the things that we normally take for granted about movies- that somehow we seem to be there, watching and listening. If we play dumb about this, or think like a little child, we might ask why the people in movies don't notice us watching them.
A naive answer would be because we are invisible, because we are angels. Like the angels in the movie, we are unable to affect events. We are only able to emphasize with the characters, only able to smile to each other and compare notes.
Knowing that we, the audience, are among the angels in this movie, and that they represent us, is a good place to start thinking about how and why this movie does whatever it is that it does so well.