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Wings of Desire

Wings of Desire (1988)

April. 29,1988
|
7.9
|
PG-13
| Fantasy Drama Romance

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds -- with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk -- that it might be possible for him to take human form.

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Reviews

Platicsco
1988/04/29

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

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Kamila Bell
1988/04/30

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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Zandra
1988/05/01

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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Geraldine
1988/05/02

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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ElMaruecan82
1988/05/03

Make nothing happen... and viewers will look at your film like in a mirror ... the more boring and insignificant, the more meaningful it will be ... it will show your true independence, your courageous stance toward cinematic conventions. No you won't undergo the tyranny of plot, the dictatorship of having to "tell a story", the screen says its truth and they'll be there to experience it, and to drop some positive labels such as: a true-to-life story, a character study, like-looking-in-a-mirror, slap-in-a-face with a haunting atmosphere carried by monochrome photography.Nothing happens? You didn't get it? Never mind, some stuff is just beyond rational thinking and this is why Art Movies are for, conveying the kind of messages that demand many viewings to be fully gotten, and since you target a niche market, you'll find followers. The point is to explore abstraction and metaphysics , psychological and spiritual subjects, whose introspective content will justify the use of a dream-like atmosphere and a poetic screen writing, there is no answer to life, why should this film have one.I won't go as far as saying that "Wings of Desire" is arty indie for dummies but seriously, I've tried. I really wanted to plug my mind into that profound and stylish contemplation of human existence or the sheer loneliness of the human soul, inspiring at the end all these smart-sounding fancy words that make you sound like you've grasped a parcel of the director's light ... but I couldn't.I won't drop any director's names to tell you that I can handle intellectual movies, allow me just to say one thing about Ingmar Bergman, he's made movies that are as enigmatic and hypnotically bizarre-yet-intellectually-deep as WimWenders but one of his most notable trademarks is that his movies rarely lasted more than eighty or ninety minutes.Roger Ebert said that a good movie is never too long and a bad one never too short, I won't call "Wings of Desire" a bad movie but its languorous pacing and the time it takes to get to the point is so slow that even if you want to stay glued to the screen, you can't. The first act struck me as the kind of sequences you'd watch when embedded in the hospital, in fact, it's the kind of movie you'd watch at an old age or at the verge of death, staring at the screen while being carried away by your own "vague à l'âme" as they say in French.The film has Bruno Ganz, Peter Falk and the same cinematographer who worked in Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" but it also has a melancholic and moody take on life and you must probably be in the proper mood to 'enjoy' it, I tried seven years ago and I could barely finish it, I tried twice again, I just gave up. Maybe I'm not as much into this kind of film; maybe I've watched too many films to ever take seriously one that features so much existential voice-over and monochrome photography. The film tries too much to be that intellectual knockout, I tried to have some glimpses on the Bonus Features but even Wenders' interview bored the hell out of me.Then I tried to get some insights from master Yoda himself, the great Roger Ebert and I found this little pearl where he's commenting on the acting of SolveigDommarten, the deceased actress who played the trapeze artist. His comment reminded me of my instant dislike of Aurore Clément's performance in WimWenders' previous success "Paris, Texas", I found her so bad she was almost distracting, now here's a similar observation from Roger Ebert, albeit in more flattering terms: "That may make it a "bad" scene in terms of the movie's narrow purposes, but does it have a life of its own? Yes, for the same reasons it's flawed. Movies are moments of time, and that is a moment I am happy to have."I think that's the worst symptom of "great" movies, genuine flaws are perceived as 'moments of time', of 'genuineness', we're talking of the stuff that potentially ruin careers and I don't see why it should be minimized because it's a great director, when it's a bad one, we find the flaws, when it's a good one, we find the excuses.And we do look for excuses because typically, these movies say less about the directors than the detractors, I'm quite aware that this film has an existential value, but I think I just walked off symbolically from the theater and embraced my own desire to fly over these contemplative issues. I'll try again, in seven years...

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K_A
1988/05/04

For years I've resisted watching Wings of Desire again, afraid that it would spoil the memory and be a disappointment. But watching it now, almost 30 years later, it still feels like one of the most beautiful and haunting movies ever made.It was a stroke of genius to cast Bruno Ganz as an angel, with his aging boxer's face. The angel smiles at a child, and we can't help smiling with him.There are many unforgettable scenes in there. The two angels sharing reports on ordinary people doing ordinary things. The suicide who jumps off a building, while the angel cries "nein!". The lonely trapeze artist proclaiming her love for life. Pretty much every scene is magic. Even the silly ones.I don't believe in angels, but I do believe in this film. It's about kindness and love and the chaotic minds of people. It once made me realize that German is a language of poets, not of goose-stepping thugs.

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jacklyn_lo
1988/05/05

Wings of DesireI picked up this movie because City of Angels is inspired by it.What I like the most: a general idea of spiritual entities around human beings; the name of the movie. What I dislike: pointless angels hanging around without any particular goal or idea.The Wings of Desire might have been an enjoyable movie for the 80's, but it doesn't look that great anymore. The general dynamics of the movie is pretty slow, with over extended scenes and angels who seem to have nothing to do. Of course, then there is something to do in the sinful human world and… one of them falls! The end of the plot is quite disgusting – a pensioner is picking up a woman 35-years younger than him. He doesn't even have a single word to tell her - just an action.in my opinion, the lightening and camera-work are artistically done and I add a credit for that. I have to admit that the remake, City of Angels, is developed much further as a spiritual awakening movie. But BIG thanks to W of D for innovation, which helped to create the remake!

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Vihren Mitev
1988/05/06

This is the second film for which I hinted in the previous post. Film, with clearly defined idea surrounded by many dissolving in the absolute under topics. The place is Germany, and that we are looking at is humanity. Often forgotten fact is that the German title of the film translates in The Sky Over Berlin.Modern in the way of shooting and framing, as well as posting the shades of post military discourse. Themes of alienation, withdrawing and loss of sense. The transition of life from eighty years ago, the appearance of the first two cars in Berlin, devastating destruction that follows the subsequent development of technology and to the construction of the wall (which fall the director anticipates two years earlier).Here again we see where lies the spirituality of humanity and who are the people who have a relationship with her. Despite the existence of all these people, misfortunes and accidents occur. And the last time the echo is huge.The task of the angels who protect us is to find sense in every human being, in every touch on a subject, inhalation of cigarette smoke, feeling of cold, especially the element of love, which transmits the whole world in the life of two lovers, providing continuation of the flight on the wings of the desires of the human race.http://vihrenmitevmovies.blogspot.com/

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