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Wings of Desire film image; man with angel wings looks down over edge of tall building

Wings of Desire

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Two angels wander through a divided Berlin unseen by humans, paying tender witness to the thoughts, anxieties and dreams of the people they come across (among them, Columbo star Peter Falk, playing himself) — and trying to instill hope in those who despair. One angel (Bruno Ganz) falls in love with a trapeze artist. He wants to live a normal life “to be excited by a meal, the curve of a neck . . .” and feel the ground beneath his feet.

Recently restored in 4K, Wim Wenders’ iconic film shifts elegantly between black and white (for the world as the angels perceive it) and colour (mundane reality as we know it) — the same strategy that Michael Powell applied to his celestial romance, A Matter of Life and Death some 40 years earlier. Veteran cinematographer Henri Alekan worked on such classics as Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bete and William Wyler’s Roman Holiday.

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

Geoff Andrew, Time Out

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

Roger Ebert

One of Wenders’s most stunning achievements.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

 

Media Partner

Director

Wim Wenders

Cast

Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Peter Falk

Credits
Country of Origin

West Germany/France

Year

1987

Language

In German and English with English subtitles

Focus
19+
128 min

Book Tickets

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Credits

Screenwriter

Wim Wenders, Peter Handle

Cinematography

Henri Alekan

Editor

Peter Przygodda

Original Music

Jürgen Knieper

Art Director

Heidi Lüdi

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