The premise for this film is a great one. Angels hover over Berlin listening into people's thoughts, occasionally putting an arm around the most depressed to cheer them up. One of the angels decides they want to become human to interact more completely. Wim Wenders depicts this sensitively and beautifully and the ending is sweet. The use of black and white film forces us to focus on the human emotions by stripping away the distraction of colour. However, like quite a few other Wim Wenders film, the words he gives his characters is too often written in code or poetry. One can't help thinking that he has done this because he feels art-house films should always be deep and slightly incomprehensible. So, an enjoyable film but also a pretentious one.
Review of Wings of Desire
