Compassion – SHADOWS ON HUDSON

To read Singer’s Shadows on the Hudson is like glancing into the book of the angels, which Damiel and Cassiel read from to each other. What camera and sound do in Wings of Desire is what Singer’s narrative style does, sliding into and out of the character’s thoughts. Singer’s angelic compassion with his tortured characters is very much like the position of the heavenly companions in Wenders’ film. Their turmoil after the holocaust in 1947, when morality seemed utterly obliterated, strongly reminds of Dostoyevsky’s characters trying hard to live a life of moral integrity.