Blu-Ray Review: Glorious ‘Wings of Desire’ Given Criterion Treatment

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CHICAGO – When true film fans receive the monthly Criterion newsletter, they usually skim it looking for their favorite films. It’s not that Criterion really ever makes bad decisions, but when a personal favorite gets the call, it’s like watching the baseball player you grew up idolizing get inducted into the Hall of Fane. Such is the feeling I get when I look at the Criterion Blu-Ray release of “Wings of Desire,” one of the most lyrically beautiful films ever made.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

Wim Wenders’ 1987 masterpiece is the filmmaker’s ode to his favorite city, Berlin, using faith and love as its instruments. Some readers may know the story better from the Nicolas Cage remake “City of Angels,” but that film is merely a shadow of one of the most acclaimed works of the last three decades. Bruno Ganz plays Damiel, an angel who wanders the streets of Berlin and listens to the thoughts of this major city’s inhabitants. He mournfully hears their fears, hopes, and dreams until the day that he falls in love.

Wings of Desire was released on Blu-Ray on November 3rd, 2009.
Wings of Desire was released on Blu-Ray on November 3rd, 2009.
Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

Damiel is presented with the decision of forsaking his immortality to come back to Earth to be with his true love, but the romantic angle of “Wings of Desire” is merely one part of what has become an amazing snapshot of both a country on the verge of change (the Berlin wall would fall just a few years later) and a poetic vision of longing and the humanity common within us all, even angels. Beautifully shot in stunning black and white, “Wings of Desire” is a film that truly can’t be captured in a Blu-Ray review. The only questionable element of its inclusion in The Criterion Collection is why it took until #490 to get this amazing film in this elite club.

The director-approved Blu-Ray release of “Wings of Desire” includes a gorgeous new transfer of the film, supervised and approved by Wenders with an amazing DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. The film has never looked more remarkable and Criterion continues to set the bar when it comes to video and audio.

Special features include an audio commentary with Wenders and star Peter Falk, a 2003 documentary about the production of the film called “The Angels Among Us,” “Wim Wenders Berlin Jan. 87,” an interview with director of photography Henri Alekan, deleted scenes and outtakes, excerpts from the film “Alekan la lumiere,”and Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander’s “Remembrance: Film for Curt Bois,” notes and photos by art directors Heidi and Toni Ludi, trailers, and a new and improved subtitle translation.

‘Wings of Desire’ is released by The Criterion Collection and stars Bruno Ganz, Solveis Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, and Peter Falk. It was written by Wim Wenders and Peter Handke and directed by Wenders. It was released on Blu-Ray on November 3rd, 2009.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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