Wings of Fame

Wings of Fame was filmed at a time when Polygram began expanding into the field of feature film production and had ambitions to become a counterpart to the American Majors and the largest European production company capable of regularly producing commercial hits and festival successes. One of these was supposed to be Wings of Fame, an intellectual play on fleeting popularity and human vanity. This was also reflected in the star-studded cast - although Colin Firth still had his biggest hits ahead of him, Peter O'Toole was at his peak at the time and his colleagues were generally predicted to have a very decent future. The plot depicts a journalist and writer played by Colin Firth, who writes a book about the first-rate actor Peter O'Toole and, after desperately trying to contact him, accidentally kills him in a fit of rage. He also loses his life and both of them go to a place where the living are forbidden to enter. However, that world is far from the pictures painted by the major religions, and the status of the deceased is determined by their earthly fame. The plot is truly interesting, but I feel the whole execution is driven by festival ambitions and it somehow feels cold to me. Overall impression: 65%. (21.11.2010)

I like films with original ideas, and I especially like films that fully utilize such ideas. This is exactly such a film. I was enthralled by the fantastic afterlife world, which looks like a hotel for celebrities of all kinds, whose earthly fame depends not only on the level of luxury in which they sleep, but also on the length of their stay there. A well-written, both serious and funny script ("Who’s the idiot stealing chalk?"), Peter O'Toole and his creation of a pompous actor - a crowd favorite, a young, but already great Colin Firth, dozens of supporting characters, most of whom are only glimpsed in the film, but that's more than enough... And the ending. All this, together with the sometimes almost Gilliam-like direction, makes for a film that eluded me for a long time, but fortunately did not escape me. (22.10.2011)