In his treatment, Wenders also considered a backstory in which God exiled his angels to Berlin as punishment for defending humans after 1945, when God had decided to forsake them. Wenders employed Peter Handke, who wrote much of the dialogue, the poetic narrations, and the film's recurring poem "Song of Childhood".
Jordan (1941) to the 1946 works It's a Wonderful Life and A Matter of Life and Death.
In 1990, numerous critics named Wings of Desire as one of the best films of the 1980s. ==Plot== In a Berlin divided by the Berlin Wall, two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, watch the city, unseen and unheard by its human inhabitants.
According to online film resource They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?, Wings of Desire is the most acclaimed film of 1987. By 1990, Wings of Desire was placed in the top 10 best films of the 1980s by critics David Denby (first), the Los Angeles Times's Sheila Benson (fourth), The Orange County Register's Jim Emerson (fifth) and Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss (tenth).
Premiere voted it the second greatest film of the 1980s, after Raging Bull.
German journalist Michael Sontheimer recommended seeing it to understand how radically Berlin has been altered since the 1980s, particularly looking at the somber images when the human Damiel walks through Berlin.
Planning to make Until the End of the World in 1985, he realised the project would not be ready for two years, and wishing to return to photography as soon as possible, he considered another project. Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry partially inspired the story.
Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin|lit=The Heaven/Sky over Berlin; ) is a 1987 romantic fantasy film directed by Wim Wenders.
Professor Adrian Danks wrote that Cave's rock music symbolized "the physical, worldly reality of Berlin", with "The Carny" adding a feel of sorrow in the background, while Marion gives "breathy accompaniment". ==Release== The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 1987.
Der Himmel über Berlin subsequently opened in West Germany late in October 1987.
According to online film resource They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?, Wings of Desire is the most acclaimed film of 1987. By 1990, Wings of Desire was placed in the top 10 best films of the 1980s by critics David Denby (first), the Los Angeles Times's Sheila Benson (fourth), The Orange County Register's Jim Emerson (fifth) and Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss (tenth).
===Accolades=== The film competed for the Palme d'Or and won for Best Director at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.
distributor, it opened in New York City as Wings of Desire on 29 April 1988 with a PG-13 rating.
Sander said that it had a release in Japan, and that while angels do not appear in Japanese mythology, Tokyo audiences would approach him after and share their impressions about the characters. After a videotape printing in Germany in 1988, Kinowelt released a DVD in Germany and Region 2 in 2005.
In 1988, it won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association. It was submitted by West Germany for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a bid supported by its distribution company.
Under the title Les Ailes du désir, it had a further 1,079,432 admissions in France. The film finished its run in North America on 11 May 1989, having grossed $3.2 million, or possibly nearly $4 million, a beneficial investment for Orion.
In 1990, numerous critics named Wings of Desire as one of the best films of the 1980s. ==Plot== In a Berlin divided by the Berlin Wall, two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, watch the city, unseen and unheard by its human inhabitants.
Professor Terrie Waddell added that the poem established "centrality of childhood" as a key theme, noting that the children can see angels and accept them without question, tying them in with the phenomenon of imaginary friends. The film has also been read as a call for German reunification, which followed in 1990.
According to online film resource They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?, Wings of Desire is the most acclaimed film of 1987. By 1990, Wings of Desire was placed in the top 10 best films of the 1980s by critics David Denby (first), the Los Angeles Times's Sheila Benson (fourth), The Orange County Register's Jim Emerson (fifth) and Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss (tenth).
James Monaco awarded it four and a half stars in his 1992 Movie Guide, praising it as "A rich, mystical near-masterpiece".
The film was a critical and financial success, and academics have interpreted it as a statement of the importance of cinema, libraries, the circus, or German unity, containing New Age, religious, secular or other themes. It was followed by a sequel, Faraway, So Close!, released in 1993.
It was not nominated; the Academy seldom recognized West German cinema. ==Legacy== In 1993, Wenders made a sequel, Faraway, So Close!, which he found desirable to explore Berlin post-reunification, more so than for the sake of a sequel.
remake, was released in 1998.
In 1998, Ebert added it to his Great Movies list, championing it for a "a mood of reverie, elegy and meditation".
In 2000, Variety calculated that it was 48th in the top 50 highest-grossing foreign language films ever released in the U.S., and one of only three in German, along with Das Boot and Run Lola Run. ===Critical reception=== Wings of Desire received "Two Thumbs Up" from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on Siskel & Ebert & The Movies, where Siskel credited Wenders for a story that "praises life as it is lived yet making sense of life's confusions".
In 2004, The New York Times included the film on its list of "the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made".
Sander said that it had a release in Japan, and that while angels do not appear in Japanese mythology, Tokyo audiences would approach him after and share their impressions about the characters. After a videotape printing in Germany in 1988, Kinowelt released a DVD in Germany and Region 2 in 2005.
Empire critic Ian Nathan gave it five stars in his 2006 review, hailing it for its poetry, themes of loneliness, and Ganz's acting style.
In 2006, the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Toneelgroep Amsterdam presented another stage adaptation, created by Gideon Lester and Dirkje Houtman and directed by Ola Mafaalani. Wenders' story was also an influence on the play Angels in America by Tony Kushner, in which angels intermingle with troubled mortals.
On reflecting on Solveig Dommartin's death in 2007, Der Spiegel recalled the film as a poetic masterpiece.
In 2009, The Criterion Collection released the film in Region 1 on DVD and Blu-ray.
Reviewing the Criterion DVD in 2009, Time Out critic Joshua Rothkopf called it an introduction to the art film, but also a product of its time, mentioning the songs. John Simon of the National Review had a differing opinion.
He described Wings of Desire as both "obnoxious" and as a "130 minute mess". It was later ranked 64th in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
In 2011, The Guardian placed it in the 10 best films ever set in Berlin.
The next year, it received 10 votes in the 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made.
Les Inrockuptibles's 2014 review declared it a great film, timeless, and poetic.
It later screened at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015, to mark Wenders' Honorary Golden Bear. The Wim Wenders Foundation produced a digital 4K restoration using the original black-and-white and colour film stock.
In his 2015 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin awarded it three and a half stars, describing it as "Haunting" and "lyrical".
The German news publication Der Tagesspiegel recounted the film's memorable imagery in 2016, listing Damiel as an angel and the library scenes.
In 2017, Le Monde rated it four stars out of five, citing the aesthetics of its black-and-white photography, poetry and contemplation of history.
This new version of the film premiered on 16 February 2018 during the 68th Berlin International Film Festival at Kino International, as part of the "Berlinale Classics" programme. ==Reception== ===Box office=== Der Himmel über Berlin had 922,718 admissions in Germany.
The film ranked 34th in BBC's 2018 list of The 100 greatest foreign language films voted by 209 critics from 43 countries around the world.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05