Wings of Desire
Der Himmel über Berlin
Synopsis
An angel overlooking the divided city of Berlin makes a wish to become a human mortal when he begins falling in love with a beautiful French trapeze artist.
Our take
Wim Wenders’ masterpiece? Wings of Desire is one of cinema’s loveliest symphonies, a poignant fantasy and a tapestry of sounds and images (mixing color with black & white) that forever made Wenders’ name synonymous with film art.
Show all
(28)
Awards & Festivals
Cannes Film Festival
1987 | Winner: Best Director
Independent Spirit Awards
1989 | Winner: Best Foreign Film
Once upon a time, half the city of Berlin was a land-locked island. Wim Wenders’s most enduring and atmospheric film, Wings of Desire, first released here 30 years ago, may be the movie that most powerfully evokes the mood of Cold War Berlin (at least on the western side of the Wall).
J. Hoberman
September 25, 2018
In the film’s second half, its aesthetic switches from black-and-white contemplation to color fantasy as one angel (again Wenders’ majestically lumpen leading man Ganz) gives up his wings to come to earth and find love with a beautiful trapeze artist. Has a movie ever offered a plainer, more joyous affirmation of earthly wonder than Peter Falk and a cup of hot coffee on a cold day?
Bilge Ebiri
November 05, 2015
With two poignant and enjoyable cameos—Peter Falk and Nick Cave both portray themselves—Wenders’s ethereal masterpiece dazzles along the lines of fantasy and reality.
Samantha Vacca
September 09, 2015
Related films
The World
Jia Zhangke, 2004
20,000 Days on Earth
Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard, 2014
Made in Heaven
Alan Rudolph, 1987
One Who Set Forth: Wim Wenders' Early Years
Marcel Wehn, 2007
Caught
Max Ophüls, 1949
The Cat Piano
Eddie White, Ari Gibson, 2009
Faraway, So Close!
Wim Wenders, 1993
Until the End of the World
Wim Wenders, 1991
Alice in the Cities
Wim Wenders, 1974
A Matter of Life and Death
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1946