Wings of Desire

Wings is a soaring vision that appeals to the senses and the spirit. (Review of Original Release)

Wim Wenders returns to Germany with a sublimely beautiful, deeply romantic film for our times. (Review of Original Release)

Wings of Desire works hard to be both an essay and a love story, a mural and an intimate portrait. To savor this film, the viewer must work hard too. But when the artists behind the screen and the angels in the audience meet, it's like a smoke and coffee: fantastic! (1998 May 9, p. 79)

The conceit gets a little out of hand after one of the angels falls in love with the trapeze artist and decides to become human; but prior to this, Wings of Desire is one of Wenders's most stunning achievements.

An ingratiating West German "Heaven Can Wait." (Review of Original Release)

Startlingly original at first, Wings of Desire is in the end damagingly overloaded. The excesses of language, the ceaseless camera movement, the unyielding whimsy have the ultimate effect of wearing the audience down. (Review of Original Release)

Its very existence as a film sets up expectations that wouldn't exist within a book -- another reason I'd bet that there would be more pleasure in reading the screenplay. I can't remember ever thinking that previously about a film. (1998 May 23, p. 26)

One of the most unique and touching movies ever made by man. Beautiful, poetic, and still not overtly sentimental.

The movie Wings of Desire can either be a movie you enjoy or one you hate. Two angels walk around listening to human’s thoughts and feelings. I personally did not like most of it. Even though I did not like it, some parts of it were good. The parts I did not like were with the scenes with the **** artist. Most of those scenes were longer than they needed to be and had unneeded dialogue. There was a lot of symbolism in this film and so you have to read between the lines. An example of the symbolism would be when the movie switches into color and then back into black and white. One of the parts that was good was when Damiel(Bruno Ganz) became a human. We see how he enjoys the taste of coffee and cigars, being able to see color and feel emotions. To us this is not a big deal, but to him it meant the world. He was not able to feel emotions as an angel or see color. This shows us that we should not take little things for granite because not everyone has them. Wings of Desire is really slow in the beginning and it is hard to understand the concept. If you do not pick up the fact that they are angels quick enough then you will be confused for part of the movie. Other than this I think the movie is pretty good.

Wings of Desire is a great film and was constructed with great thought and effort. The combination of color, voiceovers, and comedic relief to such a deep and dark film makes it an excellent choice for those looking for a different film that is unlike most.

"Wings of Desire" has to be one of the most boring movie I ever had to sit through. The movie is very slow paced and has almost no plot. In the beginning of the film it doesn't explain anything that is happening. Throughout the film there are very small details that are easily over looked. This makes a lot of scenes later in the film very confusing. For the first half of the movie all the angels do is walk around Berlin and comfort people. It's a cool concept but terrible execution. The second half is a lot more interesting. The ending of the movie has a plot twist when the angel turns himself into a human to fall in love. The very boring plot and the decent ending is why I rated this movie a solid 3 out of 10.

"Wings of Desire" is a black and white film that follows two immortal angels, Damiel and Cassiel. Through their journey through the city of Berlin, they touch the lives of many with their presence. Though many are unable to see them, children can. With just a touch of these angels hands, they are able to heal the thoughts of people (the man who commits suicide and help comfort the woman in labor). Although this movie may sound interesting, it is not. The movie becomes dull in some parts. For example when the conversation at the bar between Damiel and Marion runs on for so long or when we are stuck watching Marion's **** routine for what seems like an eternity. These too long of scenes it what ruined the movie for me. Overall I would not recommend this movie if you enjoy exciting, action-packed, funny movies because you won't get that out of this one.