Wim Wenders Collection Reviews

scarlet letter

I guess similar theme to paris Texas, set in 17th century colonies on North American East Coast with great photography and acting. In German with English subtitles.

Berlin Epic

Wenders' Berlin epic featuring Bruno Ganz and guest starring Peter Falk. Wings of Desire chronicles the life of an angel aching to feel life on earth. An old fashioned story of love and longing, backed up with a fantastically dark sountrack from Nick Cave and Crime and the City Solution. Watch it before 'Faraway So Close' and then book your trip to Berlin.

Painfully pretty

Coming to terms with things you've done and the way you reacted, doing things that are for the best even though they hurt - and all shot in superbly vivid colour.

Great to watch when you don't want a load of noise in your ear.

Not for everyone. Especially if you don't like 'art' cinema or you expect lots of guns or if you are the kind of person to say, 'What was the point of that?' at the end of a movie.

TRULY AWFUL

Oh boy this is a real stinker. So disappointing as I am a huge fan of Paris,Texas by same director.Pretenious post-modernist tosh. Incredibly dated. Our anti-hero expresses his alienation by listening to the Troggs....need I say more?

Wonderful

Wonderful. I watched it twice which is unusual for me. And I kept thinking about it for days afterwards.

Wings of Desire..a unique experience

Romantic and uplifting. Manages to be philosophical without being pretentious. Bruno Ganz is mesmerising. Just let it wash over you with a glass of wine. But yes it does dawdle a bit in the middle. That's what the wine is for.

[Highly rated reviewer]

WORK OF GENIUS

From SILVER HARP Edinburgh

WINGS OF DESIRE

Wim Wenders

If we happened on the storyboard for this film prior to seeing the film itself we’d probably not “get it” and not bother watching it either. On the face of it it’s a film involving angels moving about post-war Berlin. They invisibly intermingle with the general public, taking time to focus on chosen individuals in an effort to tune into their thoughts, memories, feelings, aspirations and such-like. And there is a purpose, which will probably not come as any great surprise, which is revealed near the end. That said, narrative remains subverted throughout in favour of other effects; mainly it has to be said making deeply profound connections with its audience, principally at individual level.

My own experience, for what it’s worth, was at the start of the film to reject it as pretentious and boring, then gradually to become drawn-in and mesmerised by it. So much so, that having put it away, I was filled with a longing to be reconnected with the long-forgotten emotional memories and states which it managed to temporarily disturb. That is the power, magic, relevance and cleverness of this film.

Fincher is still the Master of Modern Noir

A great crime drama/ murder mystery. If you don't like your films long, detailed and meandering, you probably won't like this. For me, this was engrossing from start to finish, especially in it's relentless persuit of detail and zeitgist. Throw into the mix a few exceedingly creepy moments and a good number of plot twists and red herrings and you have a great film. The direction only adds to the mood - this film bearing all the dark and brooding you will remember from Fincher's earlier efforts, especially Seven and The Game. The only thing I'm left confuseed about is why this film barely made a blip on the radar when first released and at subsequent awards ceremonies.

The Great Tradition

This film is in the great tradition of black and white films with an allegorical theme . It pursues a universal theme of an invisible life going on in parallel with our own, in which compassioante angels watch us and one, a 'fallen angel' longs to become human and is granted his wish through love for a mortal, who ironically 'flies' in her act as a trapeze artist. I think of The Little Mermaid by Hans Anderson, and Tolstoy's story of an angelic visitor who brings solace to the poor, Bergman's The Seventh Seal , La Strada where there us a circus performer with ethereal qualties, and A WonderfulLife, The Frank Capra film in which the kindly angel rescues the despairing James Stewart from suicide. The flashbacks to blitzed Berlin, the symbolic statues with wings, the pathos and loneliness of old age, it's all there in classical black and white and its poetic, warm and wonderful.