Wings of Desire

This article is about the 1987 film. For the Jennifer Rush album, see Wings of Desire (album). For the racehorse, see Wings of Desire (horse). For the band, see Wings of Desire (band).

Wings of Desire
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWim Wenders
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyHenri Alekan
Edited byPeter Przygodda
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byBasis-Film-Verleih GmbH (West Germany)
Argos Films (France)
Release dates
Running time
127 minutes[2]
Countries
  • West Germany
  • France
Languages
  • German
  • English
  • French
  • Turkish
  • Hebrew
  • Spanish
Budget5 million DM[3]
Box officeUSD$3.2 million[4]

Wings of Desire (German: Der Himmel über Berlin, pronounced [deːɐ̯ ˈhɪml̩ ˈʔyːbɐ bɛɐ̯ˈliːn] ⓘ; lit. 'The Heaven/Sky over Berlin') is a 1987 romantic fantasy film written by Wim Wenders, Peter Handke and Richard Reitinger, and directed by Wenders. The film is about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its human inhabitants, comforting the distressed. Even though the city is densely populated, many of the people are isolated or estranged from their loved ones. One of the angels, played by Bruno Ganz, falls in love with a beautiful, lonely trapeze artist, played by Solveig Dommartin. The angel chooses to become mortal so that he can experience human sensory pleasures, ranging from enjoying food to touching a loved one, and so that he can discover human love with the trapeze artist.

Inspired by art depicting angels visible around West Berlin, at the time encircled by the Berlin Wall, Wenders and author Peter Handke conceived of the story and continued to develop the screenplay throughout the French and German co-production. The film was shot by Henri Alekan in both colour and a sepia-toned black-and-white, the latter being used to represent the world as seen by the angels. The cast includes Otto Sander, Curt Bois and Peter Falk.

For Wings of Desire, Wenders won awards for Best Director at both the Cannes Film Festival and European Film Awards. The film was a critical and financial success, and academics have interpreted it as a statement of the importance of cinema, libraries, the circus, or German unity, containing New Age, religious, secular or other themes.

It was followed by a sequel, Faraway, So Close!, released in 1993. City of Angels, a U.S. remake, was released in 1998. In 1990, numerous critics named Wings of Desire as one of the best films of the 1980s.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Filmlexikon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Wings of Desire". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  3. ^ Lüdi & Lüdi 2000, p. 60.
  4. ^ "Wings of Desire". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017.