Wings of Desire

Wim Wenders

Germany

1987

127 minutes

Color, Black and White

1.66:1

English, French, German

490

Synopsis

Wings of Desire is one of cinema’s loveliest city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts—fears, hopes, dreams—of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality and come back to earth to be with her. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black and white and color by the legendary Henri Alekan, is movie poetry. And it forever made the name Wim Wenders synonymous with film art.

Cast

DamielBruno Ganz
MarionSolveig Dommartin
CassielOtto Sander
HomerCurt Bois
As himselfPeter Falk

Credits

DirectorWim Wenders
Written byWim Wenders
together withPeter Handke
Director of photographyHenri Alekan
Executive producerIngrid Windisch
MusicJürgen Knieper
EditingPeter Przygodda
Assistant directorClaire Denis
Art directorHeidi Lüdi

Disc Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Wim Wenders (with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
  • Audio commentary featuring Wenders and actor Peter Falk
  • The Angels Among Us (2003), a documentary featuring interviews with Wenders, Falk, actors Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander, writer Peter Handke, and composer Jürgen Knieper
  • “Wim Wenders Berlin Jan. 87,” an episode of the French television program Cinéma cinémas, including on-set footage
  • Interview with director of photography Henri Alekan
  • Deleted scenes and outtakes
  • Excerpts from the films Alekan la lumière (1985) and Remembrance: Film for Curt Bois (1982)
  • Notes and photos by art directors Heidi Lüdi and Toni Lüdi
  • Trailers
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Atkinson and writings by Handke and Wenders

From the Current

Press Notes: Wings of Desire

Nov 16, 2009

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 . . .

On Wings of Desire

by Wim Wenders Nov 9, 2009

The following essay originally appeared in The Logic of Images, a collection of Wim Wenders’s writing that was published in 1992. In the last few years, since

Wings of Desire: Watch the Skies

by Michael Atkinson Nov 3, 2009

If ever there was a European art film that could be all things to all people, it’s Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire (1987). Marking Wenders’s career midpoint . . .

An Attempted Description
of an Indescribable Film

by Wim Wenders Nov 2, 2009

The following, written in 1986, is from the first treatment for Wings of Desire.   And we, spectators always, everywhere, looking . . .

Waiting in the Wings

Oct 14, 2009

Seekers of Criterion behind-the-scenes tidbits, take note! Our own Susan Arosteguy speaks with the travel and culture website Museyon Guides in a two-part interview about our upcoming special edition of Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire, which she produced. As the site’s interviewer explains . . .

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The Auteurs Forum

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Faraway, So Close! (In Weiter Ferne, So Nah!)

7 posts by 5 people updated 3 months ago

No french audio track on the dvd

14 posts by 11 people updated 3 months ago

Available Editions

Wings of Desire Criterion DVD Add to Cart

DVD

2 Discs

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price

$31.96

Wings of Desire Criterion Blu-Ray Add to Cart

Blu-Ray

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price

$31.96