Wings Of Desire [1987]

Average customer rating:

I saw this film in -88 and havent forgotten it

Watched it after reading reviews...

A Hymn To Berlin

A slower City of Angels

Serene, truthful, funny, lyrical, beautiful, haunting

Wings Of Desire [1987]
Starring: Bruno Ganz , Solveig Dommartin , Otto Sander , Curt Bois , and Peter Falk
Director: Wim Wenders
Manufacturer: Starz Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Wings of Desire

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Until The End Of The World (DVD) [1991]

The Marriage Of Maria Braun [1978]

ASIN: B00006JI25
Release Date: 2003-02-03

Customer Reviews:

I saw this film in -88 and havent forgotten it.......2008-02-04

For maybe twenty years I've been rethinking scenes from the film over and over. I just recently realized it can be bought, and am about to order it. Then I shall rewatch it. I might be a disappointment, as it has been integrated somehow in my brain. I hope the english subtitles will not confuse me... I might have my friends discover it...
What made this movie so special was the idea of angels actually interfering with our thoughts, making us think differently. Beautiful in a disturbing way. What if this were true, and are they really getting fewer? And the way litterature seemed to play an important role ( I guess that's why they had headquarters in the great library?) And the shock of discovering colour and gravity, all at the same time.. I am really looking forward to see the REAL version again, hoping that my own version isnt better ( It's shorter). This is, in my case, a film that has made a lasting impression.

Watched it after reading reviews..........2008-01-07

I rented this film after reading the reviews already posted. I have seen the updated version 'City of Angels' so thought I would give it a go. Maybe after reading the rave reviews I expected a bit more but I found it a bit hard going. I'm a Bruno Ganz fan so it was great to see him probably in his best role. I'm glad I watched it but found it a bit dated, typical 80's film. If you're a Nick Cave fan you will probably love it! Maybe I need to watch it again and I would recommend it .. I went to Berlin recently so it was interesting to see the backdrops of how it used to be. I'm not knocking this film at all... I just expected something else.

A Hymn To Berlin.......2007-12-23

Wim Wenders' film is fantastic,partially because of the acting,photography,and script,but also because of a totally unforseeable event-the Berlin Wall fell two years after the film was made,and so this is an ode to an era which,though historically recent,is now in an unreachable past.I have watched this with my 17 year old neice,who thought the film was great,but,for her,it may as well have been set during the late Byzantine Empire.
The story is easy to summarise.There are angels watching over each one of us(at least in late 1980s West Berlin).They share our joys and sorrows,and try to protect us from ourselves.One(played by Bruno Ganz) is fascinated by us humans to the extent that he falls in love with a trapeze artist,decides to leave infinity and become human.
Before and after his transition to humanity,the angel meets another of his ilk(played by Peter Falk)who decided to become human some time earlier.The angel then meets the trapeze artist-can't tell you any more,I'd ruin the end.
Fans of Nick Cave are in for a treat,he performs most of the soundtrack.
For me,the most impressive aspect of the film is Wenders' use of Berlin,to the extent that the city almost becomes a character in the film in it's own right.The angels meeting on top of the Victory Monument,overseeing us in the University library,comforting us as we ride in ambulances or on the U-Bahn,and,in an unforgettable scene,trying and failing to stop a person leaping from a skyscraper-all of this integrates Berlin's urban landscape so well.
If you've never been to Berlin and are thinkling of going,watch this first.If you like brilliant phtography and a strange,dream-like story with great acting,again watch this.
NB-There was a dreadful Hollywood remake of "Wings Of Desire",called "City Of Angels".It's truly woeful-what do you expect of any film with Meg Ryan in it?-so avoid like the plague.

A slower City of Angels.......2005-11-14

This film was obviously the main inspiration for the film City of Angels. Only the later movie was a lot more tightly written and faster paced.

The main story is that there is an angel who falls for a trapeze artist and decides to become mortal. He is sometimes accompanied on his journey around Berlin by another angel. As angels can hear peoples' thoughts, they spend most of the time recording the way the world is for those above. The angels can only see in black and white so we only see things in colour when the film looks at things from a mortal's point of view.

There is a major subplot in that Peter Falk, playing himself, is in Berlin to shoot a movie set in the Second World War. The angels do spend a fair amount of time on that set, as well as our hero spending a lot of time at the circus. Falk becomes a more important plot device in the last quarter of the film.

It is slow. Events don't really start moving until the last third of the film -- most of the film is just the two angels listening in. There is enough action to keep you interested though. I didn't think much of Marion's monologue at the end.

In short, it's a film with an interesting plot but the story is only a backdrop to which is both thoughtful and arty. If you're in the right mood you'll appreciate it but it's definitely not to everybody's taste.

Serene, truthful, funny, lyrical, beautiful, haunting.......2005-10-27

This film is just so lovely - it has haunted me all day (despite a stressful and distracting day at work) and is a film never to be forgotten. I had to order it to keep because I know it is a film I will want to watch at regular intervas for the rest of my like.
The library scenes are particularly haunting and really do convey a strong impression of serenity.
The notes in the bonus material are well worth watching too I watched them because I just wanted more I didn't want to leave this film. It is an average length film but I wish it was an hour longer - like one of those rare books that you really never want to finish
Rent it!!! Buy it!!!

Wings of Desire [1987] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Average customer rating:

to love life, every precious minute of it.
Beautiful and captivating
Breath taking...
From a brisk cold into an intense passion to be shared!
Fantastic on many levels!

Wings of Desire [1987] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Bruno Ganz , Solveig Dommartin , Otto Sander , Curt Bois , and Peter Falk
Director: Wim Wenders , and J.M. Kenny
Manufacturer: MGM
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005JKI7
Release Date: 2003-07-01

Amazon.co.uk Review

"There are angels over the streets of Berlin," quotes the movie poster, but these are like no angels you've ever seen. Bundled in dark overcoats, they watch over the city with ears open to the heartbeat of the human soul, listening to the internal musings and yearnings of earthbound humans like existential detectives. In these delicate, astounding scenes we float through the thoughts of dozens of Berlin citizens, from the weary and worn to the hopeful and young, as the angels record the magic moments for some heavenly record. When Damiel (the empathic and sensitive Bruno Ganz) falls in love with an angel of another sort, the lonely trapeze artist Marion (willowy, sad-eyed Solveig Dommartin), he gives up the contemplation and observation of life to experience it himself.

Wim Wenders' most purely romantic film is like poetry on celluloid, a celebration of the transient and fragile moments of being human: the warmth of a cup of coffee on a cold day, the embrace of a friend, the touch of a lover, the rapture of love. Opening with an angel's-eye view of Berlin in silvery black and white (delicately captured by the great cinematographer Henri Alekan, who photographed Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast 40 years earlier), it transforms into a gauzy colour world when Damiel "crosses over" by sheer will. Peter Falk plays himself as a fallen angel with a special sensitivity for celestial visitors ("I can't see you, but I know you're there," he proclaims), and Otto Sander, whose smiling eyes brighten a face etched by eons of waiting and watching, is Damiel's partner. Wenders made a sequel in 1993, Faraway, So Close, and Hollywood remade the film as City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

to love life, every precious minute of it........2002-10-27

If you believe in endless possibilities, and that the physical and the spiritual worlds are intermingled, this film is a must to see.
It's exquisitely directed by Wim Wenders, and the cinematography by Henri Alekan, in both b&w and colour, is breathtaking...the Hollywood re-make in '98, "City of Angels", used much of the same imagery, but missed the eerie intensity.

There are scenes that are unfogettable...the short one of the desperate man in the subway, who starts to find a solution within himself as the angel sits next to him...the two angels (magnificently played by Bruno Ganz and Otto Sandler) discussing life starting from when "history had not yet begun", and so many more.

The score by Jurgen Knieper is also fabulous, and the performances are great, notably by the stunningly beautiful Solveig Dommartin, and Peter Falk.
Though some may find it slow, or too abstract, I think most will see it as a film that inspires you to appreciate how precious being alive is, and to make the most of every day.

Beautiful and captivating.......2002-06-20

This film hooked me in from the start and kept me dangling all the way through. It's arthouse, it's Berlin, it's angels, it's slow but wonderfully engaging. If you like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Gloom or any other mindless action then butt out of this one. Do try, please.

Breath taking..........2000-11-19

this is perhaps one of the most beautiful films i have ever seen. it is a whirlwind of human thought, what it is to be alive and enlightenment of the senses... all tied together with the cabaret of nick cave and solveig's lusty locks.

such a shame that hollywood felt the need to remake it.

From a brisk cold into an intense passion to be shared!.......2000-10-29

I enjoyed City of Angels but for me this took me on a rollercoaster that I'm still riding today. This is a film which stirs the very loins, an explicit tale of what it means to be a single man trying to grasp the love of a beautiful young woman, against the stark backdrop of Berlin.

My perspective lover and I were looking forward to an evening of artistic enjoyment, however she still has not seen my purchase, but eagerly awaits the next opportunity to do so.

A film which can be appreciated by all from young adults to the elderly, even my father, learnt somthing from a short glimpse, changing his perspectives from those of a loutish football fan into a loving, sensitive man. From father to son, our relationship has prospered because of the message it brings, and the partners we are with, have too.

Fantastic on many levels!.......2000-09-01

Wings of Desire can be viewed and enjoyed on a number of different levels and in a number of ways. There are those out there who will find it slow and difficult to follow, primarily because of the moves from colour to b+w (b+w being the angelic point of view)and the number of strands within the film. However, if you take the time to watch it more than once, you will realise that there isn't just one love story, but also a story of the amazing city of Berlin and a story of angels too. I particularly enjoyed Peter Falk's (Columbo) rendering of the actor in a film within the film, but overall the main feature of the film for me is the city itself in all its fallen glory.

Average customer rating:

Wings Of Desire [1987]
Starring: Bruno Ganz , Peter Falk , Solveig Dommartin , Curt Bois , and Otto Sander
Director: Wim Wenders
Manufacturer: Axiom Films International Ltd
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
ASIN: B0015FWJSA
Release Date: 2008-06-09

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