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Wings of Desire

Wings of Desire (1987)

tomatometer

89

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

audience

94

liked it
Average Rating: 4.4/5
User Ratings: 32,183

My Rating

Movie Info

Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are angels who watch over the city of Berlin. They don't have harps or wings (well, they usually don't have wings) and they prefer overcoats to gossamer gowns. But they can travel unseen through the city, listening to people's thoughts, watching their actions and studying their lives. While they can make their presence felt in small ways, only children and other angels can see them. They spend their days serenely observing, unable to interact with

Jul 1, 2003

Criterion Collection

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All Critics (46) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (1) | DVD (15)

A fantasy that... goes right in spite of its solemn style.

November 27, 2012 Full Review Source: Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A sublimely beautiful, deeply romantic film for our times.

November 27, 2012 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
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Wings of Desire is one of Wenders's most stunning achievements.

July 9, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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Few films are so rich, so intriguing, or so ambitious.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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One of the few truly great movies to come out of the '80s.

August 5, 2003
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Startlingly original at first, Wings of Desire is in the end damagingly overloaded.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comments (4)
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Wings of Desire has an ingenuousness, a sweetness of spirit, that triumphs over the conventional rigidities of its calculation.

November 27, 2012 Full Review Source: The Nation
The Nation

This story of angels is really an examination of what it means to be human -- in the most profound sense but via the smallest, most trivial details.

November 27, 2012 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine
Paste Magazine

A beautiful, literate and romantic piece of cinema.

November 27, 2012 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

How brilliant is Wings of Desire? Understand that Peter Falk is playing himself - that is to say, he's playing actor Peter Falk, who happened to be an angel himself until he elected to become human decades earlier.

June 25, 2011 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing

Demands to be seen by cinema lovers.

March 23, 2011 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

The cinematography by Henri Alekan is simply astonishing in its spare yet lyrical quality.

November 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Sarasota Herald-Tribune

How much Eurobabble are you willing to endure in exchange for a look at one of the cinema's most ravishing and compassionate screen visions?

January 26, 2010 Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm | Comments (2)
LarsenOnFilm

a film of sheer visual poetry and deep emotional resonance

November 8, 2009 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk
Q Network Film Desk

Even for non-fanatics, this packaging of perhaps the most beloved European film of a generation is heaven-sent.

November 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

It's hard to think of another movie of its era that makes the viewer so fully feel like a denizen of its setting; the roving, dollying, craning camera makes angels of us all.

November 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

A gorgeous and heartbreaking look at angels in Berlin.

March 25, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

Audience Reviews for Wings of Desire

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.
August 2, 2011
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

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!
July 15, 2011
SirPant

Super Reviewer

    1. Homer: My heroes are no longer the warriors and kings.. but the things of peace, one equal to the other. The drying onions equal to the tree trunk crossing the marsh. But no one has so far succeeded in singing an epic of peace. What is wrong with peace that its inspiration doesn't endure.. and that its story is hardly told?
    – Submitted by Ahmad F (11 months ago)
    1. Damiel: When the child was a child, it was the time for these questions: Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? When did time begin, and where does space end?
    – Submitted by Ahmad F (11 months ago)
    1. Damiel: Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? When did time begin, and where does space end?
    – Submitted by Melania R (21 months ago)
    1. Marion: Last night... I dreamt of a stranger... of my man. Only with him could I be alone... open up to him... wholly open, wholly for him. Welcome him wholly into me... surround him with the labyrinth... of shared happiness. I know... it's you.
    – Submitted by Allison Z (2 years ago)
    1. Marion: You need me. You will need me. There's no greater story than ours... that of man and woman. It will be a story of giants... invisible... transposable... a story of new ancestors. Look. My eyes... they are the picture of necessity... of the future of everyone in the place.
    – Submitted by Allison Z (2 years ago)
    1. Marion: We are now the times. Not only the whole town... the whole world is taking part in our decision. We two are now more than us two. We incarnate something. We're representing the people now... And the whole place is full of those... who are dreaming the same dream. We are deciding everyone's game. I am ready. Now... it's your turn. You hold the game in your hand. Now... or never.
    – Submitted by Allison Z (2 years ago)

Discussion Forum

There are no discussion threads for Wings of Desire yet.

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Foreign Titles

  • Der Himmel über Berlin (DE)
  • Wings of Desire (UK)
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