Wings of Desire (1987)

a film about life and angels

Director: Wim Wenders

 

This is probably the greatest film of all time. It can be viewed again and again, and your heart will be touched.

It begins in black and white with a hand writing a German poem which is heard in voice-over. The poem describes the thoughts and observations of a child. Then after a brief series of titles, we are looking at a sky filled with dirty gray clouds. A man in a long trench coat with white angelic wings stands on top of a building looking down. We look down into the streets of Berlin and see crowds of people walking through a crosswalk. A child looks up, seeming to see the angel atop the building. Then we are inside a jet plane, and we seem to hear the silent thoughts of the passengers.

 

Cassiel (Bruno Ganz) and Damiel (Otto Sander) are the primary two angels in the film although may more or seen. They have been in the city of Berlin for thousands of years where they observe the thoughts of the humans. We hear those thoughts and see the people.

 

There is a pregnant mother with her husband, and she thinks about what her child will be like. Children are playing. A child watches television. People are buying a car. Parents are irritated because their son is obsessed with rock and roll. An old man (Curt Bois) walks through the city. A couple kiss at an intersection. A man commits suicide.  It is an array of the world’s people and their thoughts in the microcosm of Berlin.  We even see the actor Peter Falk as himself, in Berlin to shoot a film.

In his wanderings, Cassiel comes across a traveling circus which occupies a vacant lot with its big top. Inside, Marion (Dommartin), an attractive trapeze artist is rehearsing. Her thoughts reveal misgivings about her abilities. The manager comes around and says that the circus will be unable to continue. Cassiel watches her rehearsal and falls in love with her. Unfortunately, in his present angelic state, he cannot touch or love her. So…he gives up being an angel. From that point, the film turns to color.

 

Many of the locales shot in Berlin no longer exist (including the mysterious figures painted by an artist upon the Berlin Wall), and the footage in East Berlin was shot by a second unit man WITHOUT GOVERNMENT PERMISSION.

 

America tried to re-make this film with Nicholas Cage, but they failed.