Wings of Desire (1987)
Directed by Wim Wenders
In bisected Berlin, curious, ponytailed angels intimately listen to the thoughts, dreams, and desires of every passersby. This is the pneumatic and expressive diegesis of Wim Wenders’s film; we follow these angels as they watch over every aspect of the city, neither in heaven or hell, but a sort of modernist purgatory. When one of the angels becomes enraptured by a lonely, alluring trapeze artist, he must decide between his position as a paragon of virtue, or accepting a humanized destiny in a world of feelings and technicolor. With two poignant and enjoyable cameos—Peter Falk and Nick Cave both portray themselves—Wenders’s ethereal masterpiece dazzles along the lines of fantasy and reality. Samantha Vacca (September 11-17, showtimes daily at IFC Center’s Wenders retrospective)
