"There are angels over the streets of Berlin," quotes the movie poster, but these are like no angels you've ever seen. Bundled in dark overcoats, they watch over the city with ears open to the heartbeat of the human soul, listening to the internal musings and yearnings of earthbound humans like existential detectives. In these delicate, astounding scenes we float through the thoughts of dozens of Berlin citizens, from the weary and worn to the hopeful and young, as the angels record the magic moments for some heavenly record. When Damiel (the empathic and sensitive Bruno Ganz) falls in love with an angel of another sort, the lonely trapeze artist Marion (willowy, sad-eyed Solveig Dommartin), he gives up the contemplation and observation of life to experience it himself.
Wim Wenders' most purely romantic film is like poetry on celluloid, a celebration of the transient and fragile moments of being human: the warmth of a cup of coffee on a cold day, the embrace of a friend, the touch of a lover, the rapture of love. Opening with an angel's-eye view of Berlin in silvery black and white (delicately captured by the great cinematographer Henri Alekan, who photographed Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast 40 years earlier), it transforms into a gauzy colour world when Damiel "crosses over" by sheer will. Peter Falk plays himself as a fallen angel with a special sensitivity for celestial visitors ("I can't see you, but I know you're there," he proclaims), and Otto Sander, whose smiling eyes brighten a face etched by eons of waiting and watching, is Damiel's partner. Wenders made a sequel in 1993, Faraway, So Close, and Hollywood remade the film as City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: There must be an angel Comment: "Wenders never would have dared pull that stunt with the angels had Fassbinder been alive" - but I'm so glad he did. Customer Rating: Summary: I saw this film in -88 and havent forgotten it Comment: For maybe twenty years I've been rethinking scenes from the film over and over. I just recently realized it can be bought, and am about to order it. Then I shall rewatch it. I might be a disappointment, as it has been integrated somehow in my brain. I hope the english subtitles will not confuse me... I might have my friends discover it...
What made this movie so special was the idea of angels actually interfering with our thoughts, making us think differently. Beautiful in a disturbing way. What if this were true, and are they really getting fewer? And the way litterature seemed to play an important role ( I guess that's why they had headquarters in the great library?) And the shock of discovering colour and gravity, all at the same time.. I am really looking forward to see the REAL version again, hoping that my own version isnt better ( It's shorter). This is, in my case, a film that has made a lasting impression. Customer Rating: Summary: Watched it after reading reviews... Comment: I rented this film after reading the reviews already posted. I have seen the updated version 'City of Angels' so thought I would give it a go. Maybe after reading the rave reviews I expected a bit more but I found it a bit hard going. I'm a Bruno Ganz fan so it was great to see him probably in his best role. I'm glad I watched it but found it a bit dated, typical 80's film. If you're a Nick Cave fan you will probably love it! Maybe I need to watch it again and I would recommend it .. I went to Berlin recently so it was interesting to see the backdrops of how it used to be. I'm not knocking this film at all... I just expected something else. Customer Rating: Summary: A Hymn To Berlin Comment: Wim Wenders' film is fantastic,partially because of the acting,photography,and script,but also because of a totally unforseeable event-the Berlin Wall fell two years after the film was made,and so this is an ode to an era which,though historically recent,is now in an unreachable past.I have watched this with my 17 year old neice,who thought the film was great,but,for her,it may as well have been set during the late Byzantine Empire.
The story is easy to summarise.There are angels watching over each one of us(at least in late 1980s West Berlin).They share our joys and sorrows,and try to protect us from ourselves.One(played by Bruno Ganz) is fascinated by us humans to the extent that he falls in love with a trapeze artist,decides to leave infinity and become human.
Before and after his transition to humanity,the angel meets another of his ilk(played by Peter Falk)who decided to become human some time earlier.The angel then meets the trapeze artist-can't tell you any more,I'd ruin the end.
Fans of Nick Cave are in for a treat,he performs most of the soundtrack.
For me,the most impressive aspect of the film is Wenders' use of Berlin,to the extent that the city almost becomes a character in the film in it's own right.The angels meeting on top of the Victory Monument,overseeing us in the University library,comforting us as we ride in ambulances or on the U-Bahn,and,in an unforgettable scene,trying and failing to stop a person leaping from a skyscraper-all of this integrates Berlin's urban landscape so well.
If you've never been to Berlin and are thinkling of going,watch this first.If you like brilliant phtography and a strange,dream-like story with great acting,again watch this.
NB-There was a dreadful Hollywood remake of "Wings Of Desire",called "City Of Angels".It's truly woeful-what do you expect of any film with Meg Ryan in it?-so avoid like the plague. Customer Rating: Summary: A slower City of Angels Comment: This film was obviously the main inspiration for the film City of Angels. Only the later movie was a lot more tightly written and faster paced.
The main story is that there is an angel who falls for a trapeze artist and decides to become mortal. He is sometimes accompanied on his journey around Berlin by another angel. As angels can hear peoples' thoughts, they spend most of the time recording the way the world is for those above. The angels can only see in black and white so we only see things in colour when the film looks at things from a mortal's point of view.
There is a major subplot in that Peter Falk, playing himself, is in Berlin to shoot a movie set in the Second World War. The angels do spend a fair amount of time on that set, as well as our hero spending a lot of time at the circus. Falk becomes a more important plot device in the last quarter of the film.
It is slow. Events don't really start moving until the last third of the film -- most of the film is just the two angels listening in. There is enough action to keep you interested though. I didn't think much of Marion's monologue at the end.
In short, it's a film with an interesting plot but the story is only a backdrop to which is both thoughtful and arty. If you're in the right mood you'll appreciate it but it's definitely not to everybody's taste.
