Inside The Cage

An angel must decide if love is more important than eternal peace in this Americanized adaptation of Wim Wenders' modern classic Wings of Desire. Seth (Nicholas Cage) is an angel who hovers over the city of Los Angeles, listening to people's thoughts, observing their lives, and guiding them to the next world when they die. While Seth and his fellow angels try to offer comfort to people as they can, they are discouraged from direct contact with humans and are usually invisible to them. While at a hospital, Seth sees Maggie (Meg Ryan), a dedicated heart surgeon who attempts to save the life of a patient Seth was to call upon. Maggie is distraught after the patient passes, and her agony touches something inside the reserved Seth; he finds himself falling in love with her, and he decides to make himself visible so he can communicate with her.

Mike Figgis' grim drama documents a romantic triangle of sorts involving prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue), failed Hollywood screenwriter Ben (Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage), and the constant flow of booze which he loves more dearly than life itself. Arriving in Las Vegas with the intention of drinking himself to death, Ben meets Sera, and they gradually begin falling for one another. From the outset, however, Ben warns Sera that no matter what, she can never ask him to quit drinking, a condition to which she grudgingly agrees. A darkly comic tragedy, Leaving Las Vegas charts the brief romantic convergence of two desperately needy people who together find a brief flicker of happiness.

The young violinist Diamanda La Berge Dramm ventures to bridge music of the baroque with modern. In her GENUIN debut album, the Dutch artist interweaves the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and John Cage. In her collaboration with singers Michelle O'Rourke and Katinka Fogh Vindelev, the boundaries between singing and instrumental playing dissolve, and the production of sound itself becomes a highly exciting parameter. From the layers of depth in Bach's great Chaconne to the cobweb-thin tapestry of John Cage's genre-bending compositions, the violinist takes us on an exciting sonic journey that reveals her to be an artist who is as mature as she is inquisitive.