Tour de France Recap: Stage 21

Bringing the 2014 Tour de France to a true, full-circle finish, German superstar sprinter Marcel Kittel won the biggest stage victory in cycling today, just as he won the Tour’s first stage in Yorkshire three weeks ago. The majority of Stage 21–a 137.5km ride from Evry to the Champs-Elysees (Paris)–was a bit of a victory lap for the Tour’s standouts: maillot jaune winner Vincenzo Nibali, points winner Peter Sagan, King of the Mountains Rafal Majka, and young rider champion Thibaut Pinot. For the first half of the race, riders took pictures, popped champagne, and chatted amicably across team lines… everyone congratulating one another for a race well run. By the time the riders reached the outskirts of Paris, however, we were reminded that this was still a race, not a victory lap. Jens Voigt, on his final stage of his final Tour de France, started the fun with an individual breakaway to win the intermediate sprint and a nice reward check for a beloved Tour participant. As the riders began their circuit of the Champs-Elysees, a few mishaps, including a crash by second-place rider Jean-Christophe Peraud, threatened to shake up the overall standings, but everyone found a place in the peloton by the end of the day. In the end, the race was a showcase for the sprinters, with Marcel Kittel beating his competitors to the line first for the victory. For Kittel, this was his fourth stage win of the Tour, and a repeat performance on last year’s win on the Champs-Elysees.

In the end, it was Nibali’s day, as he took his rightful place atop the podium in Paris. The Italian showed he was among the best in the competition from very early on, and his brilliant riding, coupled with some tough-luck crashes, cemented his place in Tour history. Nibali now joins only six other riders to have won all three Grand Tours in his career, placing him in elite company. The day was probably bittersweet for Sagan, the green jersey winner, who, despite his incredible consistency and massive points lead, failed to win a stage for the first time in his three Tours. On the bright side, Sagan is only 25, and has already won three-straight points competitions: an astounding feat for a great all-around rider. With this year’s Tour complete, cycling fans must now set their sights on August 23: the start of the Vuelta a Espana.

In honor of Marcel Kittel’s fourth stage victory, here is a film preview from his home country of Germany:

Germany

Wings of Desire / Der Himmel uber Berlin

(dir. Wim Wenders, 1987)

Another stage of the Tour de France, another win for the Germans. With Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel, and Tony Martin all claiming first-place finishes in this year’s race, I am running light on German films. Oh well–for the sake of these film features, it’s far better to have a run of German victors than, say, Lithuanian stage-winner Ramunas Navardauskas. Despite this being the seventh German stage victory in the 2014 Tour, I still managed to have an excellent film selection to profile for Kittel’s triumphant win on the Champs-Elysees. Today, I have selected Wim Wenders’ classic, Wings of Desire (1987).

Wings of Desire is the story of a group of angels that watch over the city of West Berlin. Two particular angels, Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander), move about, unseen, through a black-and-white world, observing humanity in action, without intervening. The lives of Damiel and Cassiel are eternal and unchanging, but things take a turn when Damiel falls in love with a human trapeze artist, Marion (Solveig Dommartin). After a brief subplot concerning American actor Peter Falk (in Berlin making a film), Damiel learns that it is possible to surrender one’s immortality and become human; this is the path Damiel chooses, in order to be with the woman he loves. Now mortal, Damiel’s world (and the film) shifts into vivid color, and he begins his pursuit of Marion. The film’s ending is deliberately ambiguous, urging viewers to continue Damiel and Cassiel’s story in Wenders’ sequel, Faraway, So Close! (1993).

A great story with a dynamite lead performance from Bruno Ganz, Wings of Desire is a film with an impact that grows as it settles on you. When I first saw the film, I felt myself appreciating and enjoying it more as I thought about it over the next few days, and I have spoken with other film fans that have had a similar experience. This is a film that makes you think… plus it features some really great music from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Crime & the City Solution. A winner of numerous international awards and a very-deserving entrant in to the Criterion Collection, Wings of Desire is a film worth seeing. Do not be deterred by the lackluster Hollywood remake, City of Angels (1998).

Tour de France Recap: Stage 1

Stage 1 of the 2014 Tour de France ultimately went to German sprinter Marcel Kittel, after a 190km ride through Yorkshire, England, from Leeds to Harrogate. With only one sprint stage and just three small climbs, all teams were focused on the finish line and the rights to this year’s first yellow jersey. There was, perhaps, no one who wanted the stage win more than veteran sprinter Mark Cavendish, who, despite an astonishing 25 individual stage wins in his career, has never worn the yellow jersey. All did not go well for Cavendish in his mother’s hometown of Harrogate, however, as a brutal crash in the final sprint to the finish ended his dreams of a yellow jersey (and quite possibly his entire Tour). Marcel Kittel, just as he did last year, won the opening stage in a sprint finish ahead of the Slovakian Peter Sagan. After Stage One, Kittel now leads the overall and points competition, with Jens Voigt leading an early breakaway group to claim the early lead in the King of the Mountains competition.

In honor of Marcel Kittel’s stage victory, here is a film preview from his home country of Germany:

Germany

The Lives of Others / Das Leben der Anderen

(dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s debut feature, The Lives of Others (2006), is a fascinating tale of Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe), tasked with monitoring a playwright, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), and his actress-lover, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). The story tracks the stoic, seemingly emotionless Wiesler, as he carefully conducts surveillance on Dreyman and his colleagues. We, the viewer, see all that Dreyman does not: the surveillance equipment carefully placed throughout the apartment, and the long days and late nights listening to every private moment and conversation. Over time, however, the story starts to turn, as Wiesler becomes sympathetic toward his subject, ultimately going so far as to falsify records and reports to keep him safe. Reminiscent of Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) or Coppola’s The Conversation (1974), the film is voyeurism at its finest: a film about one man’s complete absorption in the lives of his subjects.

An Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Lives of Others has accumulated numerous awards and worldwide acclaim. The cinematography and other technical elements create a tense, engaging mood that is punctuated with an outstanding lead performance from Ulrich Muhe. A brilliant film, made even more impressive by the fact that it was Florian Henckel von Donnersmark’s debut, The Lives of Others is a German treasure.