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Wings of Desire

Der Himmel über Berlin

West Germany, France

1987

127 Min
Color, Black and White
1.66:1
German, English, French, Turkish, Hebrew, Spanish
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
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DIR Wim Wenders

EXEC Ingrid Windisch

PROD Anatole Dauman, Wim Wenders

SCR Wim Wenders, Peter Handke, Richard Reitinger

DP Henri Alekan

CAST Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk, Mick Harvey, Nick Cave, Hans Martin Stier, Elmar Wilms, Sigurd Rachman, Beatrice Manowski, Lajos Kovács, Didier Flamand

ED Peter Przygodda

PROD DES Heidi Lüdi

MUSIC Jürgen Knieper

SOUND Axel Arft, Jean-Paul Mugel

Cannes (In Competition): Best Director, London, São Paulo: Audience Award, San Francisco, São Paulo (Special Presentations)

Synopsis

Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin) is one of cinema’s loveliest city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts—fears, hopes, and dreams—of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality to come back to earth to be with her. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black and white and color by the legendary Henri Alekan, is movie poetry. And it forever made the name Wim Wenders synonymous with film art. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Wim Wenders

Born in Dusseldorf just after the end of World War II, German film director Wim Wenders grew up with an insatiable appetite for American movies. Not all that interested in big-budget products, he, instead, developed a fascination with B-movies, notably melodramas and Westerns. After studying Medicine and Philosophy in his native country, Wenders took up art in Paris (a mecca for viewing American films), and then returned to his homeland to attend Munich’s Academy of Film and Television. Like many of his French movie-fan brethren, Wenders began his career writing film criticism before directing a few short subjects of his own, and, in 1970, he and several other young filmmakers formed a production-distribution firm, Filmverlag Der Autoren. Summer in the City (1970) was Wenders’ first feature film, but it was his 1973 adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter that first brought him attention outside of Germany. The film included many accomplishments, most notably coaxing… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 of 79 wall posts.
Picture of Thérèse Gonzalez

Thérèse Gonzalez

20May13

Unforgettable... My first contact with Berlin.

Rüdiger Tomczak likes this

Picture of Billy Foran

Billy Foran

17Apr13

Beautiful. Was hard to follow at first, but it really was a lovely film.

Picture of Algitya

Algitya

8Apr13

My First time to get addicted by a contemplative cinema. Again, it's Wender's

Picture of katheerine

katheerine

18Mar13

The slow rhythm is essential for this film; It takes time to think about the questions that only children do, "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?"

Mark and David Galan like this

Related Films

Fans

Displaying 5 of 4959 fans.

Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Movie Poster of the Week: Peter Falk and "...All the Marbles"

By Adrian Curry on July 2, 2011

“I can’t see you, but I know you’re there.” For me, the great Peter Falk, who passed away a week ago at the age of

read article
W184

Otto Sander @ 70

By David Hudson on June 30, 2011

Happy 70th to "The Voice," a legendary stage presence in Germany best known to international audiences as Cassiel in Wings of Desire and Kapit

read article
W184

Peter Falk, 1927 - 2011

By David Hudson on June 24, 2011

Updated through 6/26. "Peter Falk, the stage and movie actor who became identified as the squinty, rumpled detective in Columbo, which spanned

read article
W184

The Auteurs Daily: Shorts, 11/9.

By David Hudson on November 9, 2009

As I write, the city I live in, Berlin, is throwing a party for itself. As it should. Few events in the lifetimes of most of us deserve to

read article
W184

The Auteurs Daily: DVDs, 11/3.

By David Hudson on November 3, 2009

I haven't made a habit here of rounding up commentary on new DVD releases, but this is one exceptional week. "The grand theme of Wings of

read article
W184

24h Berlin

By David Hudson on September 3, 2009

On September 5, 2008, 400 people, including directors Romuald Karmakar, Volker Koepp, Rosa von Praunheim and Andres Veiel, in 80 teams fanned

read article
Blank

The Forgotten: The Slaves of Solitude

By David Cairns on February 26, 2009

HOW TO FORGET The erosion of a reputation— The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1935) is an unusual film, but we'll come to that. It affected

read article

Lists

Displaying 5 of 676 lists.

Reviews

Displaying 4 of 9

Happiness As A Whole

By Beneezy on February 28, 2010

(Sunday / February 28, 2010 / 3:30am)

Human problems such as fear of death, suicide, cry, search for feelings, loneliness, lack of desire and pleasure, war, life in different mentality, change…  read review

untitled

By Bobby Myers on January 8, 2010

I think this film was at its best when the angels meandered about Berlin listening to the thoughts and desires of its people and acquainting the viewer with its sights. It was almost like a fictional…  read review

Untitled

By futures​tar on November 5, 2009

Sometimes you just get lucky and doubly happen to be in the right place at the right time. Having Peter Faulk cast as an ex-angel was the third miracle element to help cement Wings Of Desire as one…  read review

Untitled

By Law on October 31, 2009

Wings of Desire is a humble meditation of humanity, morality and mortality that features a soothingly meandering narrative, magnificent sprawling cinematography and ingenious sound design (the wall…  read review

Forum

Displaying 2 discussion topics.

Faraway, So Close! (In Weiter Ferne, So Nah!)

15 posts by 9 people about 2 years ago

No french audio track on the dvd

14 posts by 11 people over 3 years ago