Featured Audience Ratings

• Chris W

  
  Daniel and Cassiel are two angels who are assigned to watch over the city of Berlin. It is their job to monitor people and take note of all that occurs, and to help out those in need. Daniel (Bruno Ganz) eventually grows tired of this, and decides to give up immortality to become… More
  Daniel and Cassiel are two angels who are assigned to watch over the city of Berlin. It is their job to monitor people and take note of all that occurs, and to help out those in need. Daniel (Bruno Ganz) eventually grows tired of this, and decides to give up immortality to become human so that, no only can he experience life to the fullest, but just life in general, including finding love with a profoundly lonely trapeze artist. Hollywood bastardized this film as City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, but even then, that doesn't take away from the fact that this is one of the most beautiful, poetic, and profoundly moving films ever made. It is, basically, Wim Wenders's masterpiece. It is a heavy film, with lots of spiritual and philosophical subtext, but despite being an art film, this deals with things that everyone can relate to, mostly, just trying to escape from an isolated life and make meaningful connections with others. The film is heavily stylized, using both criso momochromatic black and white and bright colors to represent the angelic and human worlds, respectively. The fact that it was also shot in Berlin while the Wall was still up also reinforces the divide between the humans and angels, and it is interesting to see the city from this perspective. My only real complaint is that the film is kinda slow, and maybe a bit ponderous here and there, but overall, this is just a marvelous film, and I'm glad I finally saw it because I really feel like it truly is one of the best films ever made.

• Anthony L

  
  My only criticism of Wings of Desire is that it has people playing themselves. It's a pet hate of mine but I'm really not too bothered as I love Peter Falk and I'm a big Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds & Crime and the city solution fan. I also love Berlin and so I think… More
  My only criticism of Wings of Desire is that it has people playing themselves. It's a pet hate of mine but I'm really not too bothered as I love Peter Falk and I'm a big Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds & Crime and the city solution fan. I also love Berlin and so I think I was always going to love this film, although, I certainly don't always love Wim Wenders films. For me, he is either great or terrible, this is great though - probably my favourite of his although it is neck and neck with Paris, Texas. Every element of this film is sublime, the script, the imagery - I loved the way it was splashed with colour as the main character got closer to his dream of reality and feeling. This is some an awesome film and so beautifully filmed - a love letter to love almost!

• Dan S

  
  A beautiful, haunting, atmospheric drama concerning two angels (Bruno Ganz and Otto Sandler) who wander amongst the streets of Berlin undetected, and how one of them (Ganz) falls in love with a trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin) and starts to ponder about the opportunity of becoming… More
  A beautiful, haunting, atmospheric drama concerning two angels (Bruno Ganz and Otto Sandler) who wander amongst the streets of Berlin undetected, and how one of them (Ganz) falls in love with a trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin) and starts to ponder about the opportunity of becoming human in order to be with her. This is simply a stunning piece of work by director Wim Wenders, as he creates a movie so full of life and mystery but is also able to show the flip-side of these moments of excitement by setting it in the bleak, depressed city of Berlin (with the Wall still standing - another layer of dread and sadness added in to the equation). While it is part social commentary on the state of Germany after WW2, it's actually more important a love story, and one that has a lot of weight to it surprisingly. Peter Falk's character is also a rarity - and the man nails it. While the movie really gets interesting in the last half hour, it is still intriguing during its first hour and thirty minutes, as Wenders seamlessly goes between a black-and-white scope with brief instances of color. A definite must-see just for the sheer atmosphere this movie possesses alone. Without question one of the best dramas ever created, with dialogue so rich it is impossible not to be in awe of it.

• Stella D

  
  actor peter falk died yesterday, aged 83. in this magical film he plays himself. one thing many fans don't know is that the sketches made by his character in the film were also his own. a genius talent mostly remembered for his role as a rumpled detective: rip lt.columbo… More
  actor peter falk died yesterday, aged 83. in this magical film he plays himself. one thing many fans don't know is that the sketches made by his character in the film were also his own. a genius talent mostly remembered for his role as a rumpled detective: rip lt.columbo :'(

• Daniel M

  
  In my review of The Lovely Bones, I wrote about the difficulties associated with depicting the afterlife on screen. The select group of films which manage to pull it off take one of two approaches: either they approach the subject in a manner which is fantastical but fleeting, or they… More
  In my review of The Lovely Bones, I wrote about the difficulties associated with depicting the afterlife on screen. The select group of films which manage to pull it off take one of two approaches: either they approach the subject in a manner which is fantastical but fleeting, or they characterise the next world as mundanely similar to the one we inhabit now. In Wings of Desire Wim Wenders gives us the best of both worlds, resulting on one of the most touching and moving films of the 1980s. Although he only began making documentaries late of his career, Wenders' approach to filmmaking is rooted in key aspects of the documentary tradition. He has the same attitude to people as Lindsay Anderson or Krzysztof Kieslowski: in depicting and recording their actions, he is completely understated and entirely respectful of people as they are. There is a further similarity to the British New Wave in his impressionistic use of voiceover. Not everything that is spoken is subtitled or attributed to a given individual, as in Anderson's short film Every Day Except Christmas, which looks at Covent Garden flower market. As with the British New Wave, or more recently Terence Davies, Wings of Desire is a film which understands the level of gravitas which can be achieved through shooting in black-and-white. The film is shot by Henri Alekan, who also shot Jean Cocteau's La Belle et La Bête. There is none of the mystical manipulation of shadows from that film, but the film picks up on every wrinkle and slight smile on the actors' faces. The evocative and deeply elegiac visuals were achieved by rather unusual methods; Alekan draped an antique silk stocking over the camera to act as a peculiar filter. The central idea of Wings of Desire is that of angels wanting to be human. Damiel, played beautifully by Bruno Ganz, spends the film yearning to experience mortality - not as a path towards death, but as the physical sensation of being. He has long speeches in which he lists actions which seem trivial or odd to us as if they were the most valuable commodities in the universe. His love and affection for humanity is matched only by his desire to understand it, and becoming human is a way of manifesting or achieving both. In this intriguing premise, Wings of Desire takes a very interesting position on spirituality. In the first instance, it inverts or subverts people's impressions of heaven. The traditional worldview, upheld by much of Christianity, is that life is full of hardship and suffering, but when we get to heaven all such suffering will be allayed and we will understand what life was all about. But in the black-and-white world which they inhabit, it is the angels who are suffering or cursed, as they stand frustrated by their shadowy essence and perplexed as they attempt to unravel human existence. The people, meanwhile, while not permanently ecstatic or without worry, are more or less content within themselves. They have contentment even if they cannot explain or vocalise it - or if, in the case of the trapeze artist, contentment is to be found in loneliness. Following in the tradition of A Matter of Life and Death, Wenders shoots the scenes involving the angels in black-and-white while keeping the rest of the world in colour. In a subversion of 1 Corinthians, the angels' view of life is like a "poor reflection" of what life really is, and their striving towards reality is played out on one level like a detective story. Early on there is a scene of Damiel and Cassiel sitting in a car swapping notes like detectives on a stakeout. They invoke Philip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler's protagonist) and list random observations which seem completely unconnected, like clues in a case which seems impossible to solve. There is a further echo of this in the role of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Near the beginning of the film the trapeze artist plays an LP of 'The Carny', which is followed by a performance in black-and-white by fictional band Crime and the City, whose singer writhes around like a young Nick Cave. Towards the end, the Bad Seeds themselves turn up in colour with Nick Cave singing in full voice. Guitarist Mick Harvey appears in both line-ups, reinforcing the theme of poor reflections. In an unusual blend of Christianity and humanism, we hear reality at the expense of seeing it, then we see the imitation as seen by the angels, and when Damiel is made human, we arrive at reality with all of our senses. A related aspect of the relationship between the earthly and the ethereal is found in Peter Falk's character, an actor playing an investigator in the film-within-a-film. Aside from his improvised conversations on the movie set, and his various 'private' thoughts about the part, Falk gets a couple of scenes at diners where Bruno Ganz is in attendance. On both occasions Falk uses the line, "I can't see you but I know you're there", and Ganz gives a slight, welcoming smile. There are three possible interpretations of these scenes. The first is that it is all coincidence; Falk is simply rehearsing a line and Ganz just happened to be there and think he was referring to him, as when someone remarks about seeing an angel at the circus. The second is that he really can see Ganz and is 'in on the joke', being a former angel himself: we don't know enough about him to rule this out, but there's not much evidence for this either. The third, and most poignant, is that Falk isn't sure whether or not someone is there - but he wants there to be; the possibility reassures him and brings a sense of peace. This last point hints to the second spiritual dimension of Wings of Desire, namely the role of angels and whether or not God actively intervenes in humanity. Instead of being active agents of God, the angels are there as observers to document humanity - hence why so much of their time is spend in libraries, soaking up the wisdom which Men have accumulated. They cannot stop death or heal the sick, and their actions do not always lead to positive outcomes. When Cassiel lays his hands on a man, the man's next action is to jump off a ledge, and both he and Damiel are tormented at being able to hear people's thoughts and do nothing to change them. But as with Falk's character, the people in Wings of Desire ultimately find solace in the knowledge that there are forces watching over them. There is a recurring image of the angels placing hands on people - not to heal or comfort, but just to acknowledge the person's presence and that they matter in the eyes of God. Even if the Almighty isn't constantly making Himself known, His presence is a force which sustains us - it makes us feel good to be alive, even if we cannot explain why. The romance between Damiel and Marion is a beautiful counterpoint which ties all these elements together. There is the mutual irony of their predicaments: one is an angel who longs for earth, the other a performer whose profession sends her heavenward but for whom heaven is always out of reach. The scene where they meet in the bar and fall in love finds the two players meeting in the middle and sharing both worlds in a love that will last beyond the boundaries of this life. The dialogue, although rambling, has a real poetry to it which brings a sense of grandeur to what could be a very trite encounter. Wings of Desire is a beautiful, profound and deeply affecting film which remains one of the best films of the 1980s and a high point in Wenders' career. It is too long, with a very rambling structure, and the dialogue can sometimes be too artsy-fartsy for its own good. But those are miniscule flaws which are easily overlooked, in view of what remains an overwhelming experience.

• Reid V

  
  A deeply personal and exhaustive rumination on what it means to be human. While this idea would be lifted for the American disaster City of Angels, this film actually has something to offer the viewer besides the satisfaction of seeing Meg Ryan get plowed by a semi. Not only does… More
  A deeply personal and exhaustive rumination on what it means to be human. While this idea would be lifted for the American disaster City of Angels, this film actually has something to offer the viewer besides the satisfaction of seeing Meg Ryan get plowed by a semi. Not only does Wender's camera gorgeously glide around the city and the people who inhabit it in a manner that gives the viewer their own celestial insight into our world, he also builds a sort of human poetry by layering the inner monologues of the German people. Bruno Ganz is excellent as usual as an angel who just longs to feel even though he understands the anguish that comes along with being human. The film is also an important historical source. As Ganz paces around the viewer gets a glimpse of a Berlin divided. Not only is it still reeling from the Second World War and subsequent Cold War, we get to see shots of the Berlin wall. Wender even risked getting footage of East Berlin which he had to do from inside his van a la Alfred Hitchcock. Due to it's meager pace, I do not believe that it is a film I will revisit frequently. However, this film has a lot to offer and is a great piece of German cinema.

• danny d

  
  as much a cinematic poem as a story, the film was masterfully shot and the mental monologues were beautiful. ganz and falk were especially good in their roles, and to see the mastery of this film and the futility of the american remake is further evidence that people need to see this… More
  as much a cinematic poem as a story, the film was masterfully shot and the mental monologues were beautiful. ganz and falk were especially good in their roles, and to see the mastery of this film and the futility of the american remake is further evidence that people need to see this amazing movie.

• Sophie B

  
  Interesting plot line but it seems to dwardle along with no care in the world. By the end I did feel for Damiel and wanted him to be happy. The scene with Marion and Damiel near the end is simply mesmirising. One of the best scenes I have seen in a long time. Their passion and desire… More
  Interesting plot line but it seems to dwardle along with no care in the world. By the end I did feel for Damiel and wanted him to be happy. The scene with Marion and Damiel near the end is simply mesmirising. One of the best scenes I have seen in a long time. Their passion and desire can truely be seen. It's difficult to watch but worth it in the end.

• Pierluigi P

  
  A bit redundant, but visually enthralling.

• AJ V

  
  This is just a fantastically beautiful film about angels and humans and life and death and love. The story is unique and awe inspiring, but you also get a bit of humour from Peter Falk, which is so cool. Plus, you get a performance from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I loved this… More
  This is just a fantastically beautiful film about angels and humans and life and death and love. The story is unique and awe inspiring, but you also get a bit of humour from Peter Falk, which is so cool. Plus, you get a performance from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I loved this movie, and I highly recommend it.

• E.J. B

  
  Not so much a movie as it is a visual experience. It takes a director with real talent to create real emotions without having to use dialogue. Wim Wenders is that talent.

• vieras e

  
  So ein wunderschönes Film!

• Christopher M

  
  The story of an angel who gives up his immorality for the love of a human woman. This is a remarkable German film - shot mostly in a beautiful, crisp sepia tone, with splashes of full colour throughout, this film is utterly profound and a must-see. The direction is brilliant, so many… More
  The story of an angel who gives up his immorality for the love of a human woman. This is a remarkable German film - shot mostly in a beautiful, crisp sepia tone, with splashes of full colour throughout, this film is utterly profound and a must-see. The direction is brilliant, so many interesting shots and so well, written, too. Having Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in there at the end was a very cool, pleasant touch to the whole affair, too.

• Lanning :

  
  Having just recently seen Bruno Ganz in <i>Downfall (Der Untergang)</i> where his Adolf Hitler is stunning, I was amazed to see him here playing a very gentle, soft-spoken angel. I think it fair to say that the roles could not be more different. This man has range. A… More
  Having just recently seen Bruno Ganz in <i>Downfall (Der Untergang)</i> where his Adolf Hitler is stunning, I was amazed to see him here playing a very gentle, soft-spoken angel. I think it fair to say that the roles could not be more different. This man has range. A very different story than the last days in the life of the 20th-century's most infamous maniac and mass-murderer, <i>WIngs of Desore</i> tells the tale of the angels who walk among us, watching over us, guiding us, and generally looking observing the everyday life of the living. This story is not new, but I was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of angels. At several points it almost felt as if each of us might actually have a guardian angel, they appeared so abundant -- I think mine is very much like the Clarence of <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i>. <p> And as you might or might not be surprised to discover, not all angels are thrilled with the reality of living forever, unable to participate in the aspects of human existence that they find appealing. Love, for instance, is a big problem for an angel who suddenly finds a human woman with whom he wishes to fall in love. <p> Happily, however, if you wish hard enough for something, it may actually come to be, and Ganz wants so badly to experience human love with Solveig Dommartin as Marion -- and I can't say I blame him -- that he becomes mortal. Luckily for him, she feels the same way when she meets him, and we assume that they live happily ever after -- until, of course, death do them part, neither one being immortal now. <p>Okay, so this is a very nice story. The best thing about <i>Wings of Desire,</i> however, is Peter Falk. Falk plays himself; he is on location in Berlin shooting a movie. The <i>Columbo</i> jokes are good as various citizens recognize him on the street, but you slowly come to realize that, besides all the very young children who are somehow aware of the angels walking amongst us, Falk too is aware of their presence. He finally actually speaks to Ganz, even though he cannot see Ganz. In the most amazing turn of the film -- and yes this is a major spoiler -- my apologies -- Ganz realizes that Falk was once an angel himself. Like Ganz, he too came to the realization that he wanted to be a human being, and his wish was fulfilled. It's a wonderful twist, and something I'm still smiling about when it comes to mind. Peter Falk, a former angel. I love that.

• Cindy I

  
  A moving film about why it's wonderful to be human. Bruno Ganz plays an angel in Berlin who falls in love with a trapeze artist and wants to become human to be with her. If this doesn't make you appreciate life in a whole new way, there's no hope for you. Remade as City… More
  A moving film about why it's wonderful to be human. Bruno Ganz plays an angel in Berlin who falls in love with a trapeze artist and wants to become human to be with her. If this doesn't make you appreciate life in a whole new way, there's no hope for you. Remade as City of Angels with Nic Cage and Meg Ryan, but see this one first.

• Cameron J

  
  Before Bruno Ganz was Hitler, he was an angel, so I think that it's safe to say that he is a very diverse actor. Still, he's not the most diverse actor in the world, because he just can't get enough of being in full-on German films, even though he's Swiss, with a… More
  Before Bruno Ganz was Hitler, he was an angel, so I think that it's safe to say that he is a very diverse actor. Still, he's not the most diverse actor in the world, because he just can't get enough of being in full-on German films, even though he's Swiss, with a northern Italian mother. Yes, I'm well aware that Swiss borders on Germany, so it's pretty tight with the German culture, but really, Ganz wishes that he was born on the other side of that border, because he's a bit too celebratory of his culture's rather similar neighbor. Well, the German films he's in are the only ones that people remember, and plus, his name is Bruno Ganz, which is so German that it's not even Swiss anymore, so it's pretty clear that he was born to be a little bit more German than the average Swiss. Well, now that I think about it, maybe he's not so much a fan of Germany, as much as he's a fan of short drives - seeing as how this film is German and French, two cultures that are pretty much right there next to Switzerland -, but either way, it would appear as though Ganz is a good casting choice for this film, because he, much like the angel he portrays, is in a culture that looms over Germany, though isn't quite German, no matter how much he wishes he was. Well, either the Damiel character wants to be German or is upset about the harsh realities of life... or wants a sandwhich; it's kind of hard to keep up with subtitles sometimes. Hey, I may be rusty on my German... French, Turkish, Hebrew and Spanish (Thank goodness this film also has English segments, or else my head probably would have exploded), but I know a good film when I see it, and let me tell, this one, well, isn't even close, as it is a tremendous mess, yet one saved by what is good in this film, which may not be much, but is decidedly enough to save these wings from getting clipped (Whatever that's supposed to mean). Henri Alekan's cinematography has been praised as brilliant, and, of course, it really isn't all that good, largely because the artistry within the photography goes drowned out by the mostly black-and-white style. However, black-and-white or not, there's a consistent level of attractiveness in Alekan's photography, and much of it comes from quite a few slickly clever tracking shots that catch your eye and give you a dazzling view of the environment, which is something to be said about the few occasions in which the photography does don color, and handsome color at that. Outside of Alekan, the other man who breathes essence into this film and gives you a certain degree of feel for the environment is, of course, leading man Bruno Ganz, who has very little to do, being asked to do not much more than be fascinated, awed and often disturbed by the human world, but boy, does Ganz know how to do that. The Damiel character's visit of the mortal world gives him profound insight into the hearts, minds and souls of humanity, and Ganz conveys this poignantly and with quite a few layers, capturing the wonderment, sympathy, affections, fear and anguish of a spirit who uncovers the depths of a world and finds both the very good and the extremely bad. Alkan's and Ganz's artistic efforts are held back, but impressive enough to sustain your attention, to a certain degree, while director, co-director and co-writer Wim Wenders makes his ambitions palpable, and respectably so, thus creating a sense of charm that's not especially intense, but does go quite a ways in the long run. As I'll get into later, this charm often descends into a bit of arrogance, but on the whole, Wenders' ambitions are commendable, and fulfilled just enough to save this film. However, for every fulfilled ambition, there are every so many that go unfulfilled, and quite considerably, for although the film never collapses under the overwheming weight of its mistakes, it still makes so many mistakes, and just enough for it to fall as unrewarding, or if nothing else, blandness incarnated. Okay, maybe the film isn't exactly blandness incarnated, or even quite as boring as I was expecting, yet make no mistake, it is dull, as you would expect a meditative film to be, and woah boy, is this film very much a meditative film. The fact of the matter is that the film has nearly no plot and is primarily looking to analyze humanity with style and lyricism, which is respectable and all, but ever so rarely works, and sure as sunshine doesn't work here, as the film is too plotless and too lyrical, heavily meditating upon nothing but nothing for excessively long periods of time, thus leaving the film's artistry to overbear considerably, which is a situation made worse by the histrionic voice-overs, superfluous on-the-spot dialogue pieces and music that amplify the film's overbearing artistry. It doesn't take long for this type of meditative storytelling's effectiveness to run thin, and it all but takes over most of the film, and after a while of this, the artistry doesn't simply dull the film down, but drenches it in pretense, as well as a lack of focus that leaves substance to dilute, thus betraying the film's intentions. These overlong moments of meditativeness certainly add a degree of unevenness in the film once traditional storytelling falls into play, at which point, you're jarred into a different storytelling method so messily that you hardly even notice the transition, thus leaving the ever so few moments of plot - such as it is - to fall flat. Still, where we're dealing with too much artistry or following an messily handled "plot", there is a consistent element throughout this film, and that is, of course, slowness, which renders the film all too often rather bland, and here and there, just plain all-out boring, thus leaving the final product to further lose momentum, something that it hardly has any of to begin with and progressively loses more and more of as things go along. This film is what is it, it's just that what it is is a member of a flawed film type: the mediative film, and on that level, it's still flawed as all get-out, being too meditative, too plotless and too uneven when it does incorporate plot, and when you couple all of that with the kind of overstylizing and slowness that practically defines meditative filmmaking, what you're ultimately left with is a very average meditative film, complete with immense underwhelmingness, but also so many other flaws that, by the end, it descends below average and rests as utterly mediocre, if not borderline bull. Considering the fair couple of aspects in it that are respectable, the final product could never be bad, and while it is never genuinely good, I was willing to stick with it, but after a while of sitting through all of its pretentious, monotonously overbearing over-artistry and scarce substance, I found that I could no longer get behind it, and while the final product is, again, not bad, by the end, I found myself tremendously underwhelmed, considerably unrewarded and rather relieved that the film was over. In the end, the film's artistry is undeniably handsome, and with Bruno Ganz's underwritten yet generally inspired performance and Wim Wenders' mostly charming ambition breathing further life into this film, what we're ultimately left with is a final product that can never be bad, yet can, at the same time, never be anything more than underwhelming, until it becomes incapable of transcending total mediocrity, being tainted by overbearing artistry and meditation that severely dulls down and takes over the film, drenching it in a kind of arrogance that leaves what substance there is to fall flat, and with very little dynamicity or plot available for this film to transcend its missteps, more and more steam goes lost, never to be recovered, until "Wings of Desire" finally falls limp as an unrewarding bore that has too many respectable aspects to be utterly dismissed, though not enough for the final product to raise above extreme blandness. 2/5 - Medicore

• Chris B

  
  A truly amazing piece of cinema.

• Alec B

  
  Its optimistic and inspiring without being cheesy. The way it observes the tiniest elements of human nature is beautiful. Wender's depiction of Angels is really fascinating. I think the film goes on for too long to be a real masterpiece, but its such a interesting concept that it… More
  Its optimistic and inspiring without being cheesy. The way it observes the tiniest elements of human nature is beautiful. Wender's depiction of Angels is really fascinating. I think the film goes on for too long to be a real masterpiece, but its such a interesting concept that it manages to carry you to the end.

• Joey N

  
  Alternately lyrical and boring. MIXED FEELINGS.

• Isaac H

  
  In terms of narrative, Wings of Desire doesn't bring much new to the table, but it's visually engrossing and places its characters in uniquely bizarre situations that are intriguing to watch unfold.

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