Wings of Desire review

 Number 258 on the top 1000 films of all time is Wim Wenders 1987 romantic fantasy 'Wings of Desire.'

Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are two angels watching over the citizens of Berlin able to hear thoughts but unable to engage in the human world. That all changes when Damiel falls in love with acrobat Marion (Solveig Dommartin) and decides to give up being an angel and become human.

It's been a while since I've fallen asleep watching a film, but it has also been a while since I've watched a film as slow, boring or pretentious as Wings of Desire. It had a lot of potential, which was all ultimately squandered in faux-philosophy.

The angels have the ability to hear people's thoughts and all the people they hear are thinking deep, profound thoughts. It's complete nonsense. Nobody thinks like that in real life. I'm sure we all like to think we're the next John Locke, but we're really not. Myself included. And their telepathy seems ultimately pointless as they have little positive effective in the human world. Cassiel hears the thoughts of a suicidal young man, but is unable to stop him from jumping to his death.

And when Damiel meets and falls in love with Marion - of which he decides to turn human for, I had all but lost interest. The film's redeeming feature was Peter Falk who played a human who had once been an angel. He provided some warmth into what was otherwise a cold, soulless film.