The Criterion Collection

Interview magazine’s Darrell Hartman is just one of many critics heralding the release of Wings of Desire in Criterion Blu-ray and DVD special editions: “Rilke-inspired interior monologues; Henri Alekan’s gorgeous black-and-white cinematography; a glorious score, rich with cellos and angsty choral music—Wim Wenders mixed these ingredients together for Wings of Desire, his 1987 art-house classic about heavenly creatures keeping grim watch over late-communist-era Berlin.” For Paste, Tim Regan-Porter sings the film’s praises, calling it “a masterful work that’s part tone poem, part philosophical treatise, and part love story—not a dramatic tale of love writ large but an exploration of the tiny things that can make life worth loving.”

Time Out New York’s Joshua Rothkopf reminds us, in a four-star review, of the film’s importance to a generation of soon-to-be cinephiles: “Wim Wenders’s 1987 angels-over-Berlin fantasy was a gateway drug to the pleasures of art cinema, a gorgeous reverie.”  Of course, Slant’s Bill Weber says, Criterion’s release of this “cultishly adored fantasy” is not just for the already converted: “Even for non-fanatics, this packaging of perhaps the most beloved European film of a generation is heaven-sent.”

12JAN10: Writes Jessica Winter in Slate, “It’s surprising how beautifully Wings of Desire holds up twenty-plus years after its release (judging by Criterion’s splendid new two-disc set). At once rarefied and accessible, with a singular visual style that’s impossible to carbon-date, Wings has earned its place alongside the likes of The Seventh Seal and The 400 Blows.”