Wings of Desire [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are angels who watch over the city of Berlin. They don't have harps or wings (well, they usually don't have wings) and they prefer overcoats to gossamer gowns. But they can travel unseen through the city, listening to people's thoughts, watching their actions and studying their lives. While they can make their presence felt in small ways, only children and other angels can see them. They spend their days serenely observing, unable to interact with people, and they feel neither pain nor joy. One day, Damiel finds his way into a circus and sees Marion (Solveig Dommartin), a high-wire artist, practicing her act; he is immediately smitten. After the owners of the circus tell the company that the show is out of money and must disband, Marion sinks into a funk, shuffling back to her trailer to ponder what to do next. As he watches her, Damiel makes a decision: he wants to be human, and he wants to be with Marion, to lift her spirits and, if need be, to share her pain. Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire is a remarkable modern fairy tale about the nature of being alive. The angels witness the gamut of human emotions, and they experience the luxury of simple pleasures (even a cup of coffee and a cigarette) as ones who've never known them. From the angels' viewpoint, Berlin is seen in gorgeous black-and-white -- strikingly beautiful but unreal; when they join the humans, the image shifts to rough but natural-looking color, and the waltz-like grace of the angels' drift through the city changes to a harsher rhythm. Peter Falk appears as himself, revealing a secret that we may not have known about the man who played Columbo, and there's also a brief but powerful appearance by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Wings of Desire hinges on the intangible and elusive, and it builds something beautiful from those qualities. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo, DTS-HD Master Audio
• Encoding: NTSC
• Screen: Black and White, Color
• Subtitle: English
• Features:
  • 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 - "Wim Wenders Berlin Jan. 87," from an episode of the French television program Cinéma cinémas, including on-set and outtakes _ Excerpts from the film Alekan la Lumière (1985) and Ganz and Sander's Remembrance: Film for Curt Bois (1982)
  • Notes and Photos by Art Directors Heidi and Toni Lüdi
  • Trailers
  • New and improved English Translation

AWARDS

• Cannes Film Festival

•     Won Best Director - 1987 (Wim Wenders)

• European Film Academy

•     Won Best Director - 1988 (Wim Wenders)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1988 (Curt Bois)

• Independent Spirit Awards

•     Won Best Foreign Film - 1988 (Wim Wenders)

• Los Angeles Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Cinematography - 1987 (Henri Alékan)
•     Won Best Foreign Film - 1987

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Cinematography - 1988 (Henri Alékan)

• São Paulo International Film Festival

•     Won Audience Award - 1987

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Bruno Ganz - Damiel
       Solveig Dommartin - Marion
       Peter Falk - Himself
       Otto Sander - Cassiel
       Curt Bois - Homer

• Director:

  Wim Wenders

• Producer:

  Ingrid Windisch

• Screenwriter:

  Peter Handke, Wim Wenders

• Cinematographer:

  Henri Alékan

• Composer (Music Score):

  Jürgen Knieper

• Editor:

  Peter Przygodda

• Production Designer:

  Heidi Ludi

• Co-producer:

  Anatole Dauman, Wim Wenders

• Associate Producer:

  Joachim von Mengershausen

REVIEW:

• After seven years in the U.S., New German Cinema director Wim Wenders returned to Germany for this meditation on existence, mortality, time, and Berlin, the city in which it is set. Co-written with frequent collaborator Peter Handke, the odyssey of two guardian angels becomes a means for Wenders to examine poetically the fractured "soul" of the still-divided Berlin. Mixing black-and-white and color, and aerial photography with street-level shooting, Wenders contrasts the contemplative distance of the angels with the emotional vicissitudes of daily life. Damiel's desire to trade his wings for a chance at full-color human romance with a circus performer becomes a descent into a forward-moving present that threatens pain as well as potential joy. The fall of the Berlin Wall only two years later makes Wings of Desire seem more prescient than obsolete. Praised for its imaginative lyricism, the film won Wenders the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival; the 1993 sequel Faraway, So Close was not as well-received, and the film was Hollywoodized as City of Angels in 1998. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

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