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Wings of Desire (1987) [Full Reaction] MotM Winner's Pick (Patreon)

Published:
2026-02-28 08:00:10
Edited:
2026-03-03 17:15:50
Imported:
2026-08
Tags:

Content

A really, really beautiful movie.

Looking forward to your thoughts! Thank you nouvelle for submitting this for MotM and congrats again on the win. 😊

Direct Link Here

Files

Wings of Desire (1987) | Full-Length Watchalong Reaction

Comments

Vincent Hollow

I'm excited to check this one out. Always interested to see something new 😊

Steve Mercier

Angels, love, suicide attempts, Peter Falk, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds! Haven't seen this one in a while...very fucking cool.

nouvelle_vague

I am glad you enjoyed this. It was a bit of a big swing as a recommendation, but I thought you would enjoy it and took the chance on a slow, meditative black-and-white film in German. And not the easiest film to do a reaction to, so thanks for doing it KL. Today, as bombs are dropping and children are dying, it was a good day to re-watch this for the first time in a few years. It always restores my faith in humanity and reminds me of the impermanence of the current moment. Just being in the presence of this movie makes me start thinking about big questions. I mostly think about time and space… being vs. doing. Who we are, who we are becoming, the times we are living through, the places we live. I always think of Berlin as the main character here. The city divided. Life is so different on either side of the wall and then there is a space in between the ‘death strip’ a space belonging to neither (this was the area without the graffiti, and symbolically, the space where Damiel becomes mortal). The weight of recent history feels like it’s everywhere (“It happened once, so it will be forever.”) and yet in two short years everything will change again — profoundly — and no one knows that yet. I read a review that called it “Our Town” for the Cold War generation and I always liked that. One of the strangely beautiful part of this film was unintentional. The storyteller old man goes to try to find Potsdamer Platz, a large square dating back to the 17th century, and wanders around weeds and emptiness and trash and remembers the shops, the cafés and the people…and he almost doesn’t believe he’s in the same place. I love that scene too. They never rebuilt Postdamer Platz after the war. However, after the wall fell, suddenly there was this huge open plot of land in the middle of Berlin and now Postdamer Platz has modern skyscrapers after big companies scrambled to buy land and develop. So this busy place, bustling with energy for centuries disappears and is vacant for decades and now is something new, but once again full of life. I think all of Wim Wenders films are really beautifully shot. There’s a bit of an irony here that this is probably the most beautiful film he made visually (and probably period), but it wasn’t shot by his long-time collaborator Robby Müller who was also particularly noted for shooting in black-and-white. Rather it was Henri Alekan who was nearly 80 when he did this. And they named the circus in the film after him. I assumed that the restored version was what was out there to see, but like most people I saw the original “seventh generation” print first and it was still one of the most beautiful movies I’d ever seen, but I got to see the restored version in theatres and I couldn’t believe how great it looked. I liked what you said about this movie being spiritual without being really religious. I also love that the angels hang out in libraries and not in churches. re: Peter Falk and Columbo, that’s why Marion calls him Lieutenant too. Columbo was kind of a disarming detective who acted bumbling and sloppy, but very friendly and polite… and then he’d make an incisive observation or ask the perfect question to completely catch the bad guy off guard. It was a very charming character and I think Falk is kind of channeling some of that here. I’m glad you realized he was from Princess Bride. You may know Bruno Ganz (the main angel) from his one of his other roles… he played Hitler in Downfall, famous for the Angry Hitler meme. Solveig Dommartin did all of her own trapeze work and only spent 8 weeks learning the craft. Sadly she died at 45, but collaborated with Wenders on another film that she co-wrote. BTW the closing dedication to the angels Yasujiro, François and Andrej refers to filmmakers Yasujiro Ozu, François Truffault, and Andrei Tarkovsky who were clearly inspirations for Wenders. They did make a sequel “Faraway, So Close” that was probably best left unmade. Hollywood also remade this, taking the angel and human love story and making that the whole film and casting Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan in the leads. It, of course, made $200 million. You’re the best KL! Thanks for watching this one.

Movies with KL

Thank you for sharing all of this AND thanks again for submitting it for MotM! ☺️🤙

Tyler Foster

Co-writer/director Wim Wenders (pronounced "Vim Venders") is a very famous German filmmaker. Given you liked this, I would definitely recommend one of his other major masterpieces, Paris, Texas (1984). He is still alive and working, having just recently made the highly-acclaimed film Perfect Days (2023), although unfortunately he just put his foot in his mouth at a film festival where he was running the jury (a comment that many pointed out is in direct opposition to something he said when he was younger; I'll let you look into that if you want to). Bruno Ganz was also a very famous German actor. He passed away somewhat recently, in 2019. He worked with Wenders multiple times, and has appeared in both German and American productions. In the 1970s, Peter Falk worked constantly with filmmaker John Cassavetes, who worked in a manner very similar to Christopher Guest, where the actors were given a basic outline of the scene featuring motivations and POVs for the characters, and then the details of the scene were improvised (although Cassavetes generally made dramas). When Wenders presented Falk with the idea, Falk thought it was one of the wildest ideas he ever heard, but he actually found it appealing that Wenders hadn't written anything for him yet, just conceptualized the character, because it was just like Cassavetes' approach. In the opening credits, Claire Denis is credited as assistant director. Denis would go onto have a major filmmaking career as her own in France, although she has directed at least one American production, starring Robert Pattinson. All of the material showing the Berlin Wall is actually an artificial version of the wall constructed near where the real Wall was located, as filming of the actual Wall was prohibited at the time. Another filmmaker who was clearly very influenced by Wenders that I really enjoy is director Jim Jarmusch. One movie that could be called the yang to this movie's yin, in a way, would be his film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). If I were picking a Jarmusch to start with, I would probably go with Mystery Train (1989) or Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), but Only Lovers Left Alive would still be a fun reaction, especially -- just to give you the tiniest hint of what the movie is about -- near October.

Movies with KL

Thanks for the info! I'm a little bummed that this was a first watch for you too, yet you are commenting here as if you have seen this movie many times. I'd be interested in knowing what you thought about the movie.

Tyler Foster

Only because these days I try not to organize my thoughts that way until I'm logging it on LBX, and I do that at least the day after, and then longer during the weekends (because why not leave that as an easy monotony-breaker for when I'm on the clock?). Gotta give it time to marinate. Tomorrow I'll come back and link whatever I think, although I liked it.

Vincent Hollow

I've actually been meaning to check out Paris, Texas. That's so cool it's the same director.

Vincent Hollow

I'm gonna try and squeeze it in this weekend. 😊 I'm doing a Women's History Month theme with films by women directors for funsies this month, so the weekend is really the only time I can get two movies in. Glad I saw it available on HBO Max. 😁

Steve Mercier

Watching this one tonight (but I imagine so)...

Steve Mercier

So...I started watching the movie...forgotten quite a bit, loving it still, but had to take a break. Now I'm getting some bullshit message that reads: "Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot This helps protect our community. Learn more" It now appears on all my videos. I know this isn't you, but what the %$#%...? Contacted Patreon, but I'm not exactly holding my breath. I just wanted to watch a reaction video...*grumble*

Tyler Foster

Since KL posts the full lengths on a YouTube channel, you can always click the "Direct Link Here" button to go straight to the video and avoid Patreon's Cloudflare quizzes.

Steve Mercier

Thank you! I actually figured that out after swearing very loudly at my laptop, but I still appreciate the heads up. Thank you, kindly.

Steve Mercier

Yes! After some technical difficulties (stupid YouTube bot bull$#!%), I very much enjoyed watching this again with your reaction. Haven't seen it in probably fifteen years or so. For shits and giggles, I dug out my old VHS copy I believe I special ordered back in the mid-90s. It was dusty as hell. Like me. Because I'm old. But, yes...very much enjoyed rewatching this. Gooooood stuff.

nouvelle_vague

Good mention of Claire Denis. I wasn't going to get too in the weeds on Wim Wenders since there's a big world of films out there to explore, but I think Paris, Texas is an absolute masterpiece. However, I also think Perfect Days is a beautiful companion to Wings of Desire. A friend of mine saw it and it literally changed her life. I can't think of many movies that have that kind of impact. But most Wenders movies are slow, they're not often what I'd call 'plot heavy' so they're not for everyone. If anyone here likes his work, but hasn't seen Alice In The Cities, I think it's the best of the Road Movie Trilogy and I think it's better than The American Friend which might be a hot take, but there it is. I recommend it highly.

Tyler Foster

Alice in the Cities is great. Would make for a perfect companion to Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon.