About wings and flying

[HonzaP]

I like the idea Tape came up with some time ago it was about some videogame and a flying technique in it, but after all in the book there is described that Eli has wings

[Wolfchild]

I'd always imagined Eli's wings to be diaphanous and ephemeral. Witnesses seem unsure as to whether or not they actually saw them.
A bit like in this picture.

This awesome. Where did it originally come from?

[Ash]

I'd always imagined Eli's wings to be diaphanous and ephemeral. Witnesses seem unsure as to whether or not they actually saw them.
A bit like in this picture.

This awesome. Where did it originally come from?

I thought it was from here - but can't see it.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7 ... 6bd4084473

Must be somewhere else. I'll look around.

[metoo]

I just remembered: At the back of the cover of Kate Bush's record Never for Ever, you may find her in a vampire outfit, complete with wings. For those of you who still keep your old vinyls.

[NILS]

OMG! Kate Bush...

She was always a strange phenomena!

Here is the second pic in a bigger size:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/22/32084 ... a0cf_o.jpg

[HonzaP]

I'd always imagined Eli's wings to be diaphanous and ephemeral. Witnesses seem unsure as to whether or not they actually saw them.
A bit like in this picture.

This awesome. Where did it originally come from?

I thought it was from here - but can't see it.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7 ... 6bd4084473

Must be somewhere else. I'll look around.

I contacted the author and invited him here, I posted the same picture but I had wierd browser and it didn't show me your posts Ash, anyway so far the author told me that he is a great fan of the movie and the book but he didn'T replied on my inviting him here so we'll see

[Ash]

In an attempt to put the wing thing to rest, I'd like to put forward the following opinion.
I see no evidence in the novel or film that Eli could actually fly.
She could flutter and she could glide, which probably explains why there are no flying scenes in book or film, and the smallness of her wings.
Much like a chook or domesticated duck, Eli could momentarily lift of the ground to seek refuge. Or go from Oskar's window to her own, or glide down from the hospital roof.
It has been said she and Oskar could have flown to Spain in LTODD. But I doubt it on the available evidence.

[jonjon_z]

She could flutter and she could glide, which probably explains why there are no flying scenes in book or film, and the smallness of her wings.

One of the greatest aspects of this film and book is what you don't see. You don't see wings, claws or fangs. They're implied but not apparent. In the climactic part of the film all you see of Eli is her eyes, thats it. The "dialog" between Oscar's expressions, when he gets out of the pool, and Eli's eyes spoke volumes. It turned an exceptional movie into something much more. People still wonder what Eli looked like. Did she have angel wings? Was she in some grotesque demon form? She could've been any shape or form but what matters is how Oscar perceives Eli after she rescues him, and we are shown by her eyes that it's something beautiful. Things you don't see in the book or movie is left to our imagination. That's the real magic.

[drakkar]

I see no evidence in the novel or film that Eli could actually fly.

Close to the end I get the impression (s)he can actually fly, and very well so. After being invited into the poolhouse, Eli dissappears from sight, and a moment later he crashes in through the window at the other side of the building.
Here is perhaps a slight difference in the translation; In the English edition, the window shatters "a split second" after a light spot is visible outside the window, while in the original it's "a micro second", indicating Eli is coming with a tremendous speed (impossible tremendous actually, but JAL's intentions seems clear). This might shed light on why Eli did not just crash through the door after being invited: He considered it faster to fly.

[Ash]

....but what matters is how Oscar perceives Eli after she rescues him, and we are shown by her eyes that it's something beautiful.

We know she smiled at him with nothing more than those beautiful eyes in that tight close up. That captured few millimetres of movement is what sets truly great cinematography from the rest. There was no need to show anything else than that. The silent shots of hands and dirty fingernails and dirty feet explain so much more than all the CG and Hollywood excess could ever hope to achieve. Less is actually much more.