Review of Wings of Desire (1987) by Chris W — 05 Apr 2012

Daniel and Cassiel are two angels who are assigned to watch over the city of Berlin. It is their job to monitor people and take note of all that occurs, and to help out those in need. Daniel (Bruno Ganz) eventually grows tired of this, and decides to give up immortality to become human so that, no only can he experience life to the fullest, but just life in general, including finding love with a profoundly lonely trapeze artist.

Hollywood bastardized this film as City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, but even then, that doesn't take away from the fact that this is one of the most beautiful, poetic, and profoundly moving films ever made. It is, basically, Wim Wenders's masterpiece.

It is a heavy film, with lots of spiritual and philosophical subtext, but despite being an art film, this deals with things that everyone can relate to, mostly, just trying to escape from an isolated life and make meaningful connections with others. The film is heavily stylized, using both criso momochromatic black and white and bright colors to represent the angelic and human worlds, respectively. The fact that it was also shot in Berlin while the Wall was still up also reinforces the divide between the humans and angels, and it is interesting to see the city from this perspective.

My only real complaint is that the film is kinda slow, and maybe a bit ponderous here and there, but overall, this is just a marvelous film, and I'm glad I finally saw it because I really feel like it truly is one of the best films ever made.