WINGS OF DESIRE (DER HIMMEL UBER BERLIN) (1987) B/W & C widescreen 130m dir: Wim Wenders

w/Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk

From The Movie Guide: "A rich, mystical near-masterpiece. With WINGS OF DESIRE, Wim Wenders creates a visual poem about the walls that exist in our world --- those that separate fiction from reality, Heaven from Earth, history from the present, those who observe from those who feel. Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander play two angels who circulate in a black-and-white Berlin, where they 'observe, collect, testify to, and preserve' the world around them, unseen by all but innocent children. The angels focus their attentions on three individuals --- an octogenarian poet (Curt Bois); an American film and TV star (Peter Falk, playing himself); and a French trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin). But while helping these mortals, Ganz also struggles with his own desires to be able to feel, not just emotionally but physically as well. Although WINGS OF DESIRE draws on many sources, from Cocteau's filmic depiction of angels to the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke, the film's roots are perhaps closest to Walter Ruttmann's classic 1927 silent documentary, BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A CITY. WINGS OF DESIRE, too, is a symphony on Berlin, though under Wenders's direction the city limits (which were then bisected by the Wall) become fantastic, extending far above to include those angels who keep a watchful eye on the world below. WINGS OF DESIRE enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive reception both at the box office --- where it exceeded the success normally enjoyed by art-house offerings --- and at the hands of the critics. The jury of the 1987 Cannes Film Festival named Wenders Best Director."