Wednesday | June 15, 2005 7:00 pm

Wings of Desire
(Der Himmel über Berlin)

Screening on Film

Directed by Wim Wenders.
With Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander.
West Germany/France, 1987, 35mm, color and b&w, 127 min.
English, German and French with English subtitles.

Inspired by a poem from Rilke and co-written by acclaimed Austrian playwright Peter Handke, Wings of Desire follows a pair of angels who descend to earth to eavesdrop on the lonely, melancholy inhabitants of the streets and buildings of pre-unification Berlin. Aided by the haunting, mostly monochromatic images of veteran cinematographer Henri Alekan, Wenders creates a spiritual documentary of the city and a haunting portrait of what it means to be human. He earned a Best Director award at Cannes for this meditative work, aptly dedicated to three of his own cinematic "angels": Ozu, Truffaut, and Tarkovsky.