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Movies / On DVD / Wings of Desire
Wings of Desire

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Wings of Desire (1987)

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Reviews Counted:38

Fresh:37

Rotten:1

Average Rating:8.4/10

Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: The sky over Wenders's war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle angels wearing trench coats who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One wishes to become mortal after... The sky over Wenders's war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle angels wearing trench coats who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One wishes to become mortal after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist. 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. The result is a film that is simultaneously sentimental and cerebral. [More]

Starring: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Peter Falk

Starring: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Peter Falk, Hans Martin Stier, Nick Cave, Crime and the City Solution

Director: Wim Wenders

Director: Wim Wenders
Producer: Wim Wenders, Anatole Daumon
Screenwriter: Wim Wenders, Peter Handke
Composer: Jurgen Kneiper

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Wings of Desire

  • T-Meter Critics
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
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Few films are so rich, so intriguing, or so ambitious.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The delicate way that Wenders’ articulates feelings of loss, alienation, and the first twinges of love let the film transcend its historical place.

Full Review Source: Edinburgh U Film Society | comment Comment
01/01/00
Keith H. Brown
Keith H. Brown
Edinburgh U Film Society

a film of sheer visual poetry and deep emotional resonance

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
11/08/09
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

It's hard to think of another movie of its era that makes the viewer so fully feel like a denizen of its setting; the roving, dollying, craning camera makes angels of us all.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
11/02/09
Bill Weber
Bill Weber
Slant Magazine

No review available.

comment Comment
02/29/08
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Goatdog's Movies

No review available.

comment Comment
11/02/07
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Wings of Desire is one of Wenders's most stunning achievements.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
07/09/07
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader

No review available.

comment Comment
04/11/07
Brian Tallerico
Brian Tallerico
UGO

A gorgeous and heartbreaking look at angels in Berlin.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
03/25/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

A unique and enriching film. A film worth spending time getting to know.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
10/22/05
Clint Morris
Clint Morris
Film Threat

Depending on your tastes, you'll find the film either a beautiful, moving experience, or a slow and pretentious one.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
07/20/05
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

No review available.

comment Comment
06/20/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
02/15/05
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

Wings of Desire enthralls me, and it sends me back to my life a richer person, glad to be alive, looking about at the mundane and the everyday with new appreciation.

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
01/15/05
Jeffrey Overstreet
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

No review available.

comment Comment
02/08/04
Daniel M. Kimmel
Daniel M. Kimmel
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Wings of Desire is the most optimistic of films, finding freedom and potential in the quotidian privileges most of us take for granted.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
11/01/03
Michael S. Smith
Michael S. Smith
PopMatters

What Wim Wenders has done in his most transcendent film is not merely praise assenting angels, but embrace descending ones – we humans – as well.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
10/29/03
Dan Jardine
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide

While it takes a little getting used to, Wenders' look at Heaven and Earth and the tug between living an experience instead of merely observing is pleasantly haunting.

comment Comment
10/22/03
Dan Lybarger
Dan Lybarger
Nitrate Online

No review available.

comment Comment
10/17/03
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

No review available.

comment Comment
08/21/03
John Esther
John Esther
Pasadena Weekly
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
all

Latest News for Wings of Desire

September 15, 2005: Critical Consensus: Critics Thank "Heaven," But Don't Praise The "Lord"
This week at the movies brings us a supernatural romance ("Just Like Heaven"), a jaded arms dealer ("Lord of War") and two experiments in terror... More...

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