Film Forum

(1987) Angels Bruno Ganz (Downfall’s Hitler – subject of countless YouTube parodies) and Otto Sander can see (in sepia-tinted b&w) but not be seen by the Berliners who intrigue them – who themselves see in full color. But what is it about that trapeze artist Solveig Dommartin? Ganz eventually learns the combined delight of cigarettes and coffee from Peter Falk (playing himself; passerby shouts out, “Hey Columbo!”) in Wenders’ wistful, bittersweet fantasy, originally titled Der Himmel über Berlin, literally “The Heavens Over Berlin.” DCP restoration. Approx. 130 min.

A JANUS FILMS RELEASE

New 4K restoration with 5.1 sound mix provided by the Wim Wenders Foundation and supervised by Wim and Donata Wenders. Funding provided by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the FFA, and by the French CNC.

Reviews

“WENDERS’ MASTERPIECE! A VISUAL TOUR-DE-FORCE!”
– J. Hoberman

“Part romance, part comedy, part meditation on matters political and philosophical, Wenders' remarkable movie posits a world haunted by invisible angels listening in to our thoughts… A film about the Fall and the Wall, it's full of astonishingly hypnotic images, and manages effortlessly to turn Wenders' and Peter Handke's poetic, literary script into pure cinematic expression… few films are so rich, so intriguing, or so ambitious.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

“A soulful examination of Berlin as a place aching for spiritual return. Wenders uses the architecture, the gargoyle figures, and even the stone angels), as companions to these human figures, and he sees a modern city where religious faith has to take its chances with so many other hopes and fears….This is a special, thoughtful movie, a perfect setting for Bruno Ganz–one of the great unidentifiable (or unclaimed) actors of our time–and probably Wenders’s most interesting picture.”
– David Thomson

“Haunting, lyrical, fascinating… A must see.”
– Leonard Maltin