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Wings of Desire (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
 
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Wings of Desire (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (1987)

Starring: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Format: Blu-ray
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
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Product Details

  • Actors: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk
  • Format: AC-3, Color, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
  • Language: German
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
  • Studio: Criterion Collection
  • DVD Release Date: November 3, 2009
  • Run Time: 127 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B002IVDLGE
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,787 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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    #4 in  Movies & TV > Art House & International > By Original Language > German

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  • For more information about "Wings of Desire (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

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"There are angels over the streets of Berlin," quotes the movie poster, but these are like no angels you've ever seen. Bundled in dark overcoats, they watch over the city with ears open to the heartbeat of the human soul, listening to the internal musings and yearnings of earthbound humans like existential detectives. In these delicate, astounding scenes we float through the thoughts of dozens Berlin citizens, from the weary and worn to the hopeful and young, as the angels record the magic moments for some heavenly record. But when Damiel (the empathic and sensitive Bruno Ganz) falls in love with an angel of another sort, the lonely trapeze artist Marion (willowy, sad-eyed Solveig Dommartin), he gives up the contemplation and observation of life to experience it himself.

Wim Wenders's most purely romantic film is like poetry on celluloid, a celebration of the transient and fragile moments of being human: the warmth of a cup of coffee on a cold day, the embrace of a friend, the touch of a lover, the rapture of love. Opening with an angel's-eye view of Berlin in silvery black and white (delicately captured by the great cinematographer Henri Alekan, who photographed Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast 40 years earlier), it transforms into a gauzy color world when Damiel "crosses over" by sheer will. Peter Falk plays himself as a fallen angel with a special sensitivity for celestial visitors ("I can't see you, but I know you're there," he proclaims), and Otto Sander, whose smiling eyes brighten a face etched by eons of waiting and watching, is Damiel's partner. Wenders made a sequel in 1993, Faraway, So Close, and Hollywood remade the film as City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. --Sean Axmaker

Product Description

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.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Wim Wenders with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack • Audio commentary featuring Wenders and actor Peter Falk • The Angels Among Us (2003), a documentary featuring interviews with Wenders, Falk, actors Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander, writer Peter Handke, and composer Jürgen Knieper • Excerpt from: Wim Wenders Berlin Jan. 87, an episode of the French television program Cinéma cinémas, including on-set footage • Interview with director of photography Henri Alekan • Deleted scenes and outtakes • Excerpts from the films Alekan la lumière (1985) and Remembrance: Film for Curt Bois (about the actor who plays Homer in Wings of Desire) • Notes and photos by production designer Heidi Lüdi and art director Toni Lüdi • Trailers • New and improved English subtitle translation • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Atkinson and writings by Wenders and Handke

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Customer Reviews

145 Reviews
5 star:
 (107)
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (145 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
143 of 147 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A film that nearly overwhelms me each time I see it, May 24, 2003
By Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Wings of Desire (Special Edition) (DVD)
No movie that I see on a regular basis makes me feel so powerfully the joy of being alive as this one. Although many films and numberless and sappy television shows since 1987 have used angels of one dreadful sort or another, Wim Wenders managed to success while all the others failed. Working from a story by celebrated writer Peter Handke, Wenders takes angels that seem to have more in common with Rilke's Duino Elegies than the Bible or the New Age angels. Their function is to watch and observe and record, and in their own limited fashion, to comfort and commiserate. The trick wasn't to come up with the gimmick of angels being able to listen to the thoughts of humans, but to make those thoughts beautiful and representative of all that is quintessentially human. The trick wasn't to have the angels see in black and white and the humans in color, but in making what was seen, whether two or many toned, beautiful. One has only to see the absolutely appalling CITY OF ANGELS, an English language remake starring Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage, to see that having gimmicks isn't enough; you must have substance as well.

This is not a perfect film. There are some dull moments, and I thoroughly dislike a couple of moments in the film, in particular, Dommartin's speech to Bruno Ganz in the bar near the end of the film. But there are so many magnificent moments, so many moments where they not merely get something right, but produce a moment of almost transcendent beauty, that WINGS OF DESIRE provides more than entertainment, but something akin to a reason to live. The movie becomes in the end a celebration of life, of all the tawdry elements that go into being human. The movie ends in affirming nearly as many things as Walt Whitman does in "Song of Myself."

I love the cast. Bruno Ganz is perfect as Damiel, the central angel of the story. Likewise, Otto Sander's face is the perfect receptacle for all that he witnesses on his silent rounds through Berlin, while Solveig Dommartin is so sympathetic a character, so lovely, that one could imagine an angel or anyone else yearning to be with her. And Peter Falk turns in a remarkably quirky character role, playing himself on location in Berlin. The city itself emerges as a major actor, providing what is certain to stand as the last great visual representation of Berlin in the last couple of years before the Wall fell. Curt Bois was a veteran character actor who was a staple in Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s, playing a vast number of waiters and tailors and hotel clerks (he plays the pickpocket at the very beginning of CASABLANCA). In what would be the last role before his death, Bois appropriately plays "Homer," the ancient man remembering all that had occurred in Berlin in the past several decades, playing the role of human witness to counterbalance the angelic witnesses.

This film and UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD, a Wenders film that followed this one in 1991 have to have two of the best soundtracks I have encountered. Subtract either "Six Bells Chime" by Crime and the City Solution or "From Her to Eternity" by Nick Cave, and this would have been far less of a film, and the scene where Solveig Dommartin changes in her trailer while listening to Nick Cave do "The Carny" might be the best scene in the film.

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53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The DVD is splendid., July 15, 2003
By mail "mail" (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Wings of Desire (Special Edition) (DVD)
I first saw Wings of Desire in 1988. It is impossible to tell someone what this movie is about. They best way to describe it is to tell that you will learn from it. It shows you what it is to be alive, appreciate life, and to fall in love with the world around you. Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander are gorgeous! They fit very well together. Solveig Dommartin was a joy to watch. Her use of multiple languages to display her thoughts and emotions was very well done. Curt Bois fit into his role 100% and was superb. Peter Falk was a splendid addition to the film and also fit nicely with his use of English and a tiny bit of German. This movie teaches about Cold War Berlin and the wall that divided the city. It teaches you to strive for what you desire in life because you can get it if you really want it. Wim Wenders and Peter Handke were geniuses with fitting all of this together. This movie is totally not Hollywood style. There is no sappy romance or most of the cast getting shot to death in brutal ways. There is no script cast in stone. It pulls at your heart and your mind and never becomes tiresome or boring. It does not tell you step by step the plot. It gives basic ideas and lets you decide in your heart how you will feel the film. Wim Wenders is brilliant! Berlin has changed so much since Wings of Desire was released. Wim Wenders has kind of frozen time and preserved this era of Berlin for us. It does not show Berlin as some beautiful majestic town like a Hollywood film would. It shows how the people are a kind of eclectic group kind of pushed together and pulled apart in this walled off land. Wim Wenders gives a lot of behind the scenes info in the angels among us section of the DVD. Wim Wenders' director's commentary is priceless. He answered questions that have been in my head for the last 15 years. He is very generous with all information and takes a lot of time to explain all. A Hollywood director would never do this! The DVD is like a double feature. The movie (in German) is one part and the film history, historical city data, and personal information (in English) provided by Wim Wenders about Berlin makes a second part.

Wings of Desire is a nice film for German students. Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander speak German beautifully and clear. They use every day vocabulary so it gives good practice with sentence construction.

Do not bother with the American version City of Angels. Maybe it is easier for us in the U.S. since it is in English but it was a complete waste of film. The American version kills, more like savagely butchers, all the Wings of Desire cast worked so hard for.

I would give the DVD 10 stars if I could.

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103 of 112 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Artistic, Poetic, Sublime!, July 26, 2000
This review is from: Wings of Desire [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I'll confess that I've had problems in the past getting into some of Wenders' films. Many go too over the deep end on the existential and intellectual elements and result in my ending up feeling alienated. This film, however, leaves one feeling connected to the entire world plus infinity. There is an inspiring romance (in German cinema no less!) between angel turned-to-mortal Bruno Ganz and a beautiful circus performer. Before he becomes a mortal, there are wonderful moments of him and the other angels standing guard over us mortals, listening and watching us. I felt as if I were immersed in an epic poem in those scenes. This film is also beautiful, flowing like a painting and done in a mixture of black & white plus color. There are wonderful acting moments throughout by the entire cast but especially by Bruno Ganz and Peter Falk. I haven't seen Ganz in a role this good since he played the Count in "The Marquise of O" for Fassbinder. I tried watching the American remake of this movie, "City Of Angels" with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan and couldn't bear watching what we (Americans) had done to this Cannes' award winner. Well worth owning, this film can be watched over and over, just like any great piece of art.
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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Wenders' best
Wim Wender's deliberately paced, hauntingly realized contemporary masterpiece, Wings of Desire is, all at once: a political allegory for the reunification of Germany, an... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Le_Samourai

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this movie!
Customer Video Review

Length:: 0:54 Mins
Published 22 days ago by Dottie A. Randazzo

1.0 out of 5 stars Grainy - Despite Being a Criterion Collection
This rating is strictly based on the image quality of the blu-ray disc. Because it is both blu-ray and a Criterion Collection disc, I was expecting an excellent quality image, but... Read more
Published 1 month ago by KLNcatz

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible.
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"Wings of Desire" released in Germany as "Der Himmel über Berlin" which translates to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ted

4.0 out of 5 stars Invisible Angels in West Berlin
"Wings of Desire" beautifully uses the medium of film to create a unique and sometimes surreal viewing experience. Read more
Published 2 months ago by The Movie Man

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid Version
This is one case where the Criterion version of a DVD really makes a big difference in the quality of the film. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jack M. Walter

4.0 out of 5 stars The ORIGINAL German Film That Inspired "City of Angels" Gets The Criterion Treatment!
Winner of the best director award in the Cannes film festival, the 1987 German film "WINGS OF DESIRE" (original title: Der Himmel über Berlin = Heaven Over Berlin) inspired the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Woopak

5.0 out of 5 stars Criterion Collection Edition Loaded with Extras!
The first disc features an audio commentary that actually consists of excerpts of interviews with director Wim Wenders and actor Peter Falk over several years. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Cubist

5.0 out of 5 stars A film that nearly overwhelms me each time I see it
No movie that I see on a regular basis makes me feel so powerfully the joy of being alive as this one. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Robert Moore

5.0 out of 5 stars You must buy this Blu-ray
There are few movies that stay with you long after the credits have rolled and the auditorium lights have come up. This is one of them. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Daniel B. Hitchman

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