Wings of Desire
(1987)
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Wings of Desire
(1987)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Bruno Ganz | ... | ||
| Solveig Dommartin | ... | ||
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Otto Sander | ... | |
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Curt Bois | ... |
Homer
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| Peter Falk | ... |
Der Filmstar
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Hans Martin Stier | ... |
In weiteren Rollen - Der Sterbende
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Elmar Wilms | ... |
In weiteren Rollen - Ein trauriger Mann
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Sigurd Rachman | ... |
In weiteren Rollen - Der Selbstmörder
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Beatrice Manowski | ... |
In weiteren Rollen - Das Strichmädchen
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| Lajos Kovács | ... |
Im Zirkus - Marion's Trainer
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Bruno Rosaz | ... |
Im Zirkus - Der Clown
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Laurent Petitgand | ... |
Im Zirkus - Der Kapellmeister
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Chick Ortega | ... |
Im Zirkus - Der Schlagzeuger
(as Chico Rojo Ortega)
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Otto Kuhnle | ... |
Im Zirkus - Die Jongleure
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Christoph Merg | ... |
Im Zirkus - Der Jongleure
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This Wim Wenders film centers around the story of two angels wandering in a mixture of post-war and modern Berlin. Invisible to humans, they nevertheless give their help and comfort to all the lonely and depressed souls they meet. Finally, after many centuries, one of the angels becomes unhappy with his immortal state and wishes to become human in order to experience the joys of everyday life. He meets a circus acrobat and finds in her the fufillment of all his mortal desires. He also discovers that he is not alone in making this cross over, and that a purely spiritual experience is not enough to satisfy anyone. Written by Nell Rehn <NRehn@aol.com>
If my grandchildren ever ask me what it was like back in the Cold War, I'll tell them to watch this movie. It is both frighteningly bleak and lyrically beautiful. It captures the spirit of the times (Western civilization immediately before the fall of the Berlin Wall) better than any movie I've ever seen. And it manages to be a love letter to those times while also showing the place and time in all its inescapable ugliness.
The overall plot moves forward pretty nicely for a movie where plot doesn't seem to matter all that much, and there are some beautiful vignettes, beautifully photographed, acted, and directed. I'm not sure how anyone can make it through the movie without falling in love with Bruno Ganz's angel. I think the movie's lyricism holds up well on multiple viewing -- as long as you liked it the first time. If the self-consciously art-house form bugs you, however, or you find the screenplay's "poetry" to be too facile, you'll probably find this movie grating. I, however, have never seen people reading silently in a public library without thinking of this movie . . . .