Film Archive

Wings of Desire (Himmel ueber Berlin, Der)

The sky over war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trench-coated angels who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One, Damiel, wishes to become mortal after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, Marion. Peter Falk, as himself, assists in the transformation by explaining the simple joys of a human experience, such as the sublime combination of coffee and cigarettes.

Told from the angel's point of view, Wings of Desire is shot in black and white, blossoming into color only when the angels perceive the realities of humankind. Ultimately, Damiel determines that he must experience humanity in full, and breaks through into the real world to pursue a life with Marion.

Wim Wenders was born in Duesseldorf in 1945. He abandoned studies in Medicine and Philosophy to become a painter, but in Paris he discovered cinema instead. He attended film school in Munich from 1967-1970, and then started to direct and produce his own films. He has received numerous international awards, including the Golden Lion (1982), the Golden Palm (1984), the European Film Award (1988), and a Silver Bear (2000). He is a professor at the Hamburg Academy of Arts, and lives partly in America, partly in Berlin. A selection of his acclaimed films includes: The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty (1971), Alice in the Cities (1973), In the Course of Time (1976), The American Friend (1977), Hammett (1982), The State of Things (1982), Paris, Texas (1984), Wings of Desire (1987), Until the End of the World (1991), Faraway, So Close! (1993), Lisbon Story (1994), The End of Violence (1997), Buena Vista Social Club (1998), The Million Dollar Hotel (2000), The Soul of a Man (2003), Land of Plenty (2004), Don’t Come Knocking (2005), and Palermo Shooting (2008), among others.
 

Genre Drama, Fantasy, Love Story
Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 1987
Director Wim Wenders
Screenplay Wim Wenders, Peter Handke
Director of Photography Henri Alekan
Editor Peter Przygodda
Music by Juergen Knieper
Production Design Heidi Luedi
Producers Wim Wenders, Anatole Dauman
Production Company Road Movies Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-production with Argos Film/Paris, in cooperation with WDR/Cologne
Principal Cast Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk
Length 128 min, 3,493 m
Format 35 mm, color, b&w, 1:1.66
Dubbed Versions French, Italian
Original Version German
Subtitled Versions Chinese, English, French, Greek, Japanese, Russian, Spanish
Festival Screenings Cannes 1987, Sydney 1987, Locarno 2007
Awards Best Director Cannes 1987, Grand Prize Sydney 1987, Guild Award in Silver 1987, 2 European Film Awards 1988, 2 German Film Awards 1988, Bavarian Film Award 1988
German Distributor Basis-Film Verleih/Berlin

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