A group of angels in the German capital look longingly upon the life of humans.
I think generally people consider "Wings of Desire" to be the better film between that one and this. And there is good reason for that. One, it was first, so it has a bit of an edge on originality. And two, it was remade into "City of Angels", so it got some attention from Hollywood. The average American film-goer probably has no idea there was a German version 9or a sequel).
But I think this film has its own charm. Peter Falk is amusing, and you wonder if he really draws and why he would be in Berlin. Willem Dafoe (who does not play himself) was still relatively unknown at this point (though this is post-Last Temptation) and it is nice to see him in a European film. To this day (2016), he never shies away from controversial films, even if he is kind of a jerk in real life.
I think generally people consider "Wings of Desire" to be the better film between that one and this. And there is good reason for that. One, it was first, so it has a bit of an edge on originality. And two, it was remade into "City of Angels", so it got some attention from Hollywood. The average American film-goer probably has no idea there was a German version 9or a sequel).
But I think this film has its own charm. Peter Falk is amusing, and you wonder if he really draws and why he would be in Berlin. Willem Dafoe (who does not play himself) was still relatively unknown at this point (though this is post-Last Temptation) and it is nice to see him in a European film. To this day (2016), he never shies away from controversial films, even if he is kind of a jerk in real life.