Wings of Desire (1987)

All Critics (42) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (44) | Rotten (1) | DVD (15)

Wings of Desire is one of Wenders's most stunning achievements.

July 9, 2007 Full Review | Comment

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

One of the few truly great movies to come out of the '80s.

August 5, 2003 Comment

Douglas Pratt

Hollywood Reporter

Top Critic

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

May 20, 2003 Full Review | Comments (4)

Janet Maslin

New York Times

Top Critic

The film evokes a mood of reverie, elegy and meditation.

January 1, 2000 Full Review | Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

Underneath its melancholia and mind-boggling, even bothersome metaphysics, it's the simplest (well, almost) story ever told -- angel meets girl, angel gets girl.

January 1, 2000 Full Review | Comment

Rita Kempley

Washington Post

Top Critic

a soaring vision that appeals to the senses and the spirit

January 1, 2000 Full Review | Comment

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

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 | Comment

Matt Brunson

Creative Loafing

Demands to be seen by cinema lovers.

March 23, 2011 Full Review | Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

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

November 29, 2010 Full Review | Comment

Christopher Lloyd

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 | Comments (2)

Josh Larsen

LarsenOnFilm

a film of sheer visual poetry and deep emotional resonance

November 8, 2009 Full Review | Comment

James Kendrick

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 | Comment

Bill Weber

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 | Comment

Bill Weber

Slant Magazine

A gorgeous and heartbreaking look at angels in Berlin.

March 25, 2006 Full Review | Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Few films are so rich, so intriguing, or so ambitious.

January 26, 2006 Full Review | Comment

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

A unique and enriching film. A film worth spending time getting to know.

October 22, 2005 Full Review | Comment

Clint Morris

Film Threat

Depending on your tastes, you'll find the film either a beautiful, moving experience, or a slow and pretentious one.

July 20, 2005 Full Review | Comment

Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Wings of Desire enthralls me, and it sends me back to my life a richer person, glad to be alive, looking about at the mundane and the everyday with new appreciation.

January 15, 2005 Full Review | Comment

Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

• 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 (5 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 (9 months 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 (9 months 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 (9 months ago)
• 1. Marion: At last it's becoming serious. So I've grown older. Was I the only one who wasn't serious? Is it our times that are not serious? I was never lonely... neither when I was alone, nor with others. But I would have liked to be alone at last. Loneliness means I'm finally whole. Now I can say it... as tonight, I'm at last alone. I must put an end to coincidence. The new moon of decision. I don't know if there's destiny..... but there's a decision. Decide!
  – Submitted by Allison Z (9 months ago)