4/4  Pure Perfection.
This film is a breath-taking work of art.

The acting (and the chemistry between Ganz & Dommartin, two angels/friends who have seen it all from Earth's beginning), the cinematography - the use of black and white in the Angel's "realm", a... (read full)

2.5/4  Wings of Desire Quick Review
I know this is supposed to be a masterpiece, but it really didn't do anything for me until the last 45 minutes. But, oh, those 45 minutes! So if you get bogged down watching this and wonder whether to quit, keep going. It's worth it.

1.5/4  Wings of Desire Quick Review
Unfortunately, I didn't really "get" this movie.

5/5 Splendid Version
  by Jack M. Walter (Baltimore, MD)
This is one case where the Criterion version of a DVD really makes a big difference in the quality of the film. I liked Wings of Desire the first time I saw it, but this new version is clean and beautiful. Seeing it this way a second time made more of an impression on me. WOD is a subtle and tender movie about being human, and it is fascinating to learn about how the film was put together.

4/5 The ORIGINAL German Film That Inspired "City of Angels" Gets The Criterion Treatment!
  by Woopak (Where Dark Asian Knights Dwell)
Winner of the best director award in the Cannes film festival, the 1987 German film "WINGS OF DESIRE" (original title: Der Himmel über Berlin = Heaven Over Berlin) inspired the Hollywood film directed by Brad Silberling called "City of Angels" which became a box-office success. This film was inspired by the poetry written by Rainer Maria Rilke and was followed by a sequel called "Faraway, So Close". This German film goes into the belief that the grass is greener on the other side and that something so different can be so enticing. Like everything else, the original is always better (about 99.9% of the time) and Criterion finally brings this beautiful film into a fully restored edition.

Berlin, just before the end of the Cold War, Damiel (Bruno Ganz, Downfall) and Cassiel (Otto Sander, Das Boot) are two angels who travel high and above to observe, testify and preserve; they also listen to the thoughts of people in the streets of Berlin. The two are angels ever since the dawn of time; and although they are angels, they cannot interact, unseen to all except to innocent children. During one of their travels, Cassiel becomes intrigued by an old man named Homer (Curt Bois) who dreams of epic peace and Damiel slowly begins to fall in love for a female trapeze performer named Marion (Solveig Dommartin) who is very talented but also very lonely. Eventually, Damiel longs for physicality and to take on human form. He forsakes his immortality and begins to bleed, taste and see the world in color. Damiel is about to embark on a new experience...

Director Wim Wenders co-wrote the film's script with Peter Handke (who also wrote the film's recurring poem "Song of Childhood). Much of the film's dialogue feels, sounds and exudes pure poetry throughout and the film's narrations and the dialogue is so beautiful.

"...When a child was child, I didn't know it was a child, everything was soulful and all souls were one."

The film is also mostly shot in black and white; in effect this represents the angels' viewpoint that the physical world is without color and nothing could attract more attention than the other. It was a clever touch to see through the eyes of someone who is supposed to be impartial or as Cassiel had stated to "testify" when the time had come. I think the black and white also represents the fact that the angels have no cause for emotion and care. Immortality and eternity also seems very attractive but it does come with a price. (please keep in mind that the angels in the film are ones portrayed by the director, seen through the eyes of a human and not to be mistaken as fact)

The film's opening act was full of visual poetry as the two angels observe and listen to everyday walks of human life; they are fascinated and at the same time genuinely concerned about us mere mortals. Through their eyes, humanity is represented through our hopes and dreams, our fears and worries and above all the need to be loved and to love. The direction manages to represent both the beauty and the ugliness of humanity; Director Wenders made the right call in shooting the film in Berlin during the days when the wall was still up, and the city while depressing, exposes the strengths and the fragilities of the human spirit. It was no surprise that Damiel would be fascinated with what he saw.

What I got from the film is the message that life is precious and that every waking hour is important. The angels in this film have no emotion, and I think that when Cassiel and Damiel touches a human who is depressed or thinking of suicide, they are trying to understand the emotions that swell within the heart. I guess humans have a way to bring out the most extreme emotions by reflecting on their hardships and their own lives. Being human has its merits and someone different sees the beauty of things we usually take fore granted. Humans can feel, and for an intangible angel, it seems very curious. Peter Falk also stars as himself, and Wenders gives his character an enigmatic feel as later revealed in the film's final act.

The love story between Damiel and Marion may seem to be the film's focal point, but the direction remembers to show the beauty that is Berlin. As I've said, this film is more than a love story, it brings humanity itself into exposition. The depressing populace and the circus scenes served Wenders' intentions quite well. The beautiful dialogue, (Marion's speech was just full of poetic meaning that it would just turn any woman into putty) the visual style all complement each other. One small fault the film may have is the fact that the movie is not for everyone, it has a sleepy feel and may be too cryptic and poetic for its own good. Mainstream audiences would become bored while those who appreciate stunning cinema would praise Wenders' work.

"Wings of Desire" is the type of film that may require multiple viewings and I think each viewing may change one`s opinion of the film. There is an abundant use of symbolisms in the film and one would have fun trying to decipher each one. The film is indeed special, and transcends any elementary classification one may become tempted to staple it with.

Highly Recommended! [4 ½ Stars]

Note: If you own the MGM release of the film, this Criterion release is very much worth the double dip. This new DVD release looks and sounds better than the previous release.





5/5 Criterion Collection Edition Loaded with Extras!
  by Cubist (United States)
The first disc features an audio commentary that actually consists of excerpts of interviews with director Wim Wenders and actor Peter Falk over several years. Wenders talks about the origins of Wings of Desire - it was a return to his hometown of Berlin after spending eight years in the United States. He had planned to make another film but it was too complex and expensive. He had to come up with another idea and quick or the production company he had assembled would break up. This fascinating anecdote is only one of many engaging stories as the two men tell all kinds of filming tales. They do a good job of taking us through the making of this film.

Also included are the German theatrical trailer and an amusing "Wen Wunderts" promo trailer.

The second disc features the bulk of the extra material, starting off with "The Angels Among Us," a 2003 documentary where key cast and crew members are interviewed. Wenders wanted to make a film about Berlin, the way he remembered it when he was young. Peter Handke talks about his unconventional approach to the script. For the two main angels, Wenders cast Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander based on their 20-year friendship and working relationship. Everyone speaks quite eloquently about their experiences making Wings of Desire.

"Cinema Cinemas" features an interview with Wenders from the February 17, 1987 episode of this French television program. We see Wenders at work on the set of Wings of Desire with his cast and crew shooting scenes from the film.

Also included are nine deleted scenes with commentary by Wenders and outtakes but only with music. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of footage of the angels observing humanity. The outtakes feature all sorts of beautiful shots of Berlin.

There is also a gallery of production design photographs that also highlight the film's gorgeous art direction. Included are captions that comment on some of these stills.

Also included is an interview excerpt from an interview with director of photography Henri Alekan done in November 1985. He talks about the challenge of achieving the right tone and atmosphere in a film.

"Alekan la Lumiere" features excerpts from a 1985 documentary where Alekan talks to Wenders about his cinematic techniques. There is also footage of him at work.

Finally, there is an excerpt from Remembrance, a 1982 film directed by Ganz and Sander about actor Curt Bois who went on to appear in Wings of Desire.

5/5 A film that nearly overwhelms me each time I see it
  by Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
No movie that I see on a regular basis makes me feel so powerfully the joy of being alive as this one. Although many films and numberless and sappy television shows since 1987 have used angels of one dreadful sort or another, Wim Wenders managed to success while all the others failed. Working from a story by celebrated writer Peter Handke, Wenders takes angels that seem to have more in common with Rilke's Duino Elegies than the Bible or the New Age angels. Their function is to watch and observe and record, and in their own limited fashion, to comfort and commiserate. The trick wasn't to come up with the gimmick of angels being able to listen to the thoughts of humans, but to make those thoughts beautiful and representative of all that is quintessentially human. The trick wasn't to have the angels see in black and white and the humans in color, but in making what was seen, whether two or many toned, beautiful. One has only to see the absolutely appalling CITY OF ANGELS, an English language remake starring Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage, to see that having gimmicks isn't enough; you must have substance as well.

This is not a perfect film. There are some dull moments, and I thoroughly dislike a couple of moments in the film, in particular, Dommartin's speech to Bruno Ganz in the bar near the end of the film. But there are so many magnificent moments, so many moments where they not merely get something right, but produce a moment of almost transcendent beauty, that WINGS OF DESIRE provides more than entertainment, but something akin to a reason to live. The movie becomes in the end a celebration of life, of all the tawdry elements that go into being human. The movie ends in affirming nearly as many things as Walt Whitman does in "Song of Myself."

I love the cast. Bruno Ganz is perfect as Damiel, the central angel of the story. Likewise, Otto Sander's face is the perfect receptacle for all that he witnesses on his silent rounds through Berlin, while Solveig Dommartin is so sympathetic a character, so lovely, that one could imagine an angel or anyone else yearning to be with her. And Peter Falk turns in a remarkably quirky character role, playing himself on location in Berlin. The city itself emerges as a major actor, providing what is certain to stand as the last great visual representation of Berlin in the last couple of years before the Wall fell. Curt Bois was a veteran character actor who was a staple in Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s, playing a vast number of waiters and tailors and hotel clerks (he plays the pickpocket at the very beginning of CASABLANCA). In what would be the last role before his death, Bois appropriately plays "Homer," the ancient man remembering all that had occurred in Berlin in the past several decades, playing the role of human witness to counterbalance the angelic witnesses.

This film and UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD, a Wenders film that followed this one in 1991 have to have two of the best soundtracks I have encountered. Subtract either "Six Bells Chime" by Crime and the City Solution or "From Her to Eternity" by Nick Cave, and this would have been far less of a film, and the scene where Solveig Dommartin changes in her trailer while listening to Nick Cave do "The Carny" might be the best scene in the film.

5/5 You must buy this Blu-ray
  by Daniel B. Hitchman (Fort Collins, CO United States)
There are few movies that stay with you long after the credits have rolled and the auditorium lights have come up. This is one of them.

I saw this many years ago in a high school Humanities class and always wanted to purchase it. When it came out on DVD I snagged a copy to finally own. It was as good or better than I remembered it. That was a span of some 15 or so years.

What more can I say? Powerful, evocative, thought provoking, sublime, and deeply, satisfactorily moving. Pure, high artistry and poetry on a short list of classic European films, and on a whole other plain of existence from most American "art" films. A story of Shakespearean grandeur on celluloid.

The images linger, the narration haunts. Black and white and color filmstock are brilliantly utilized in fantastic and complimentary combination used to represent the ethereal and more mundane, Earthbound realms the characters dwell in.

Wings of Desire is arguably filmmaker and music video director Wim Wenders' finest masterpiece to date. Don't let "Music Video Director" scare you off. Wim is no Michael Bay or McG. He actually has talent and is very much akin to Spike Jonze in creating fantastical flights of fancy, though with more cerebral and philosophically provoking undertones.

That Wings of Desire is now on Blu-ray in a stunning HD transfer, is something to be celebrated.