Wings of Desire

Wim Wenders started shooting without a finished script. Peter Handke said he could not write one coherent story and promised to send notes as the production ran, so Wenders held daily crew meetings, often late at night, to plan the next day. For the angels’ monochrome view, Henri Alekan stretched a fragile old silk stocking of his grandmother’s across the lens as a filter. Peter Falk was not in the plan until photography had begun; the assistant Claire Denis argued the Columbo star would be familiar to everyone. Falk improvised much of his voice over later in a Los Angeles studio, Wenders supervising by telephone. Solveig Dommartin learned the trapeze and rope work in eight weeks and performed it without a double. The film took Best Director at Cannes in 1987 and again at the first European Film Awards in 1988, where Curt Bois won Best Supporting Actor as Homer, the last feature of his 80 year career. A good fit if you can settle into long takes carried by camera movement and inner voice rather than plot, and want the palette to turn the moment an angel does. Not for anyone unwilling to meet what the BBFC content advice lists: newsreel of war torn Berlin with real images of dead children, and a man stepping off a building.