I'm Adeli Moe and this is The Slowdown.

When I was a teenager, I fell in love with the movie Wings of Desire by Vim Vinders.

It was perfectly dark and romantic and 1987 film shot all in black and white and made

just shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It is deeply moving.

The film is in German and features angels who can listen in on people's thoughts and fears.

It's also a love story.

I held that movie close to my heart all through my teenage years and even watched it in

Germany when I moved there for love in 1993.

So when I saw that Vim Vinders was going to show the film with an artist talk afterward

in Seattle, I immediately made plans to attend.

I was just 19 but I was determined to see the film and listen to the questions and hear

what a great filmmaker might say about his movie.

I even wore my black trench coat which was what the angel played by Bruno Gansa wore in

the film.

The audience waited in line for tickets and then watched the film that's over two hours

in wrapped silence.

I had never seen it in the theater only on a rented videotape on the small screen.

And then there he was, Vim Vinders, an icon of new German cinema.

And I found myself too frozen, too awestruck to ask questions.

He gave a brief and brilliant introduction to his process and then what followed was

something that always stuck with me.

...