About the film
- Directed by
- Wim Wenders
- Released
- September 23, 1987
- US theatrical
- April 29, 1988
- Certification
- PG-13
- Country
- Germany, France
- Starring
- Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk
More credits
- Language
- English, French, Hebrew, Japanese, Spanish, Turkish, German
- Origin
- DE
- Studios
- Road Movies, Argos films, WDR, Wim Wenders Stiftung
- Belongs to
- Damiel and Cassiel Collection
- Written by
- Peter Handke, Richard Reitinger, Wim Wenders, Bernard Eisenschitz
- Produced by
- Anatole Dauman, Wim Wenders, Ingrid Windisch
- Cinematography
- Henri Alekan
- Music
- Jürgen Knieper
- Also starring
- Hans Martin Stier, Elmar Wilms, Sigurd Rachman, Beatrice Manowski, Bruno Rosaz
- Budget
- $2,500,000
- Box office
- $3,548,590
Berlin, before the Wall came down, was a city full of people who could not hear each other. Above them moved figures who could hear everything and touch nothing.
WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) follows Damiel and Cassiel, two angels who drift through the city in black and white, catching the private thoughts of strangers on trains, in libraries, in cars stopped at intersections. They comfort the desperate with a hand no one feels. They have watched humanity since before the city had walls, and they are tired of watching.
Damiel falls for Marion, a trapeze artist performing under a shabby circus tent, and the longing to feel what she feels, hunger, cold, the weight of a coat, becomes unbearable. Peter Falk appears as himself, a film star shooting a movie in Berlin, who speaks to Damiel as though he can sense him there.
Wim Wenders shot the angels' world in black and white and let color bleed in only when human eyes take over the frame. Peter Handke wrote the poem that opens the film and recurs through it, spoken like a memory older than the characters themselves.
It is a film about wanting to be mortal, and about a divided city aching to be whole.
How to see Wings of Desire (1987)
Streaming
United States
Also available internationally
Stream
Free
Stream
Stream
Stream
Stream
Stream
Stream
Free
With Ads
Stream
Stream
Free
Stream
Rent
Stream
Stream
Stream
Free
With Ads
Stream
Stream
Stream
Stream
Free
With Ads
Stream
Source: JustWatch
Physical media
Movies they don’t want you to see
Related movies only streaming in other territories
Movies we wrote about
181 commentsUntil the End of the World (1991)
Etoile (1989)
10 commentsThe Name of the Rose (1986)
The Vanishing (1988)
2 commentsDevil in the Flesh (1986)
Alice (1988)
Films scored for your taste
We have to talk…
Godzilla Minus Zero (2026)Not quite as good as the first, but the best monster mash Godzilla movie for sure.
Capturing Bigfoot (2026)Honestly one of the best documentaries I've seen. That sounds like hyperbole, but it was a…
Trouble Every Day (2001)TROUBLE EVERY DAY is definitely an outlier in its graphic extremity, but saying Denis was known…
The Social Reckoning (2026)A little preachy and sanctimonious - maybe. But I wonder if that's just the climate we're…
Doppelgänger (1969)One of the best!
Death Race 2000 (1975)Saw this first run at a local drive-in and loved it. Still do. Still love the…
Man Bites Dog (1992)Rented this vhs in college a couple times. Hilarious and a good way to practice your…
Pandora's Box (1929)Great movie! 🌻
The Devil Rides Out (1968)Brilliant movie!!! "The Goat of Mendes! The Devil Himself!"
Three Colors: Red (1994)I can’t believe it came out 32 years ago! The wonderful, talented cinematographer Piotr Sobociński also…
Moontrap (1989)Worth the watch
Velvet Goldmine (1998)Mark Sebastian Jordan Bowie also produced all of Transformer.
I still don’t get Cave in it
My understanding is that while Handke wrote much of the script, the opening lines are by Rainer Maria Rilke.
One of my favorite scenes is when an angle touches the shoulder of a boy about to jump off a building, the boy senses it, but jumps anyway……
Darin ElliottDarin Elliott It’s a beautiful scene and my favourite too. All the angel can do for him is to show love. Wow.
…and what it means to be human. The film is a poem.
Possibly my favourite film.
Far, far superior to the American remake.
A beautiful and poignant film ❤️ॐ
Both changed how I look at the world
❤
A very deep movie but poignant. Angels as transmitters of divine knowledge. So much meaning from the Staatsbibliothek scene. Something very hard to replicate in this day and age.
Superb film
My favorite film, bar none.
If I remember correctly the poetry is by Rilke.
I LOVE IT ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Probably my favourite film of all time.
One of my favorite films.
How much didja get for the armor?
Love this movie
A brilliant, beautiful film. ❤️
Amazing film by the master Wim Wenders where I discovered Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Best film
“Ich weiss jetzt, was ken Engel weiss.”
Truly a beautiful piece of work!
I loved this Movie.
A masterpiece
Peter Handke is a terrible wretch of human being, who overtly and enthusiastically supported the Serbia-led ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.
Who ever came up with the horrible English title “wings of desire”? The original German is “Der Himmel über Berlin”.
I agree, never liked the English title.
I absolutely love this movie.❤️❤️
Thank you!!❤️❤️