Movies - Wings of Desire

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	Movies - Wings of Desire

Wings of Desire is the English title of Der Himmel über Berlin, a 1987 film by the German-born director Wim Wenders.

Plot

Set in Berlin in the late 1980s, it follows two angels as they roam the city, unseen and unheard by the people, observing and listening to the thoughts of all they see. They have always been in Berlin; they have been in that location since before there was a city, and in fact since before there were any humans.

Although they are pure observers, invisible to all but children, and incapable of any physical interaction with our world, one of the angels, Damiel (Bruno Ganz), falls in love with a circus trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin). Another section of the film follows Peter Falk, cast as himself, who has arrived in Berlin to make a film: it transpires that he was once an angel, grew tired of always observing, and renounced his immortality to become a mortal participant in the world. Eventually, Damiel too becomes a mortal human, being able to touch and fully interact with the world and is finally united with the girl he had desired for so long.

The story is continued in Wenders' 1993 sequel, In weiter Ferne, so nah! (Faraway, So Close!
.)

Cinematography

The movie, shot by cinematographer Henri Alekan shows the point of view of angels in a sepia tinted monochrome and switches to colour to show the point of view of human beings. During filming, Wenders and Alekan used a sock knitted by the latter's grandmother as a filter for the monochrome sequences.

Awards

The film won the prize for Best Direction at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival

American remake

In 1998 an American remake called City of Angels
was made. The setting was Los Angeles and starred Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Wings of Desire ]

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