Wings of Desire (DVD)

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It is at times a sad and melancholy film, but so can life be sad and melancholy. Moreover, there is no mistaking the film's overarching purpose to celebrate the simple pleasures of existence, the little things, the ones we take for granted until we lose them--things like raindrops, or the sun, a poem, a kind word, a favorite cafe. The film is captivating and, while admittedly slow paced, carries the viewer away with its vision.

Video:
The black-and-white portions of the movie, which occupy about 80% of the screen time, appear more a deep brown and white, don't reveal a lot of detail in the darker areas, and are a bit grainy. When the picture switches to color, the hues are a little garish, especially at first and I assume purposely so, finally settling into a more normal, though still very slightly blurred, mode by the movie's end. The screen size measures an anamorphic ratio of approximately 1.74:1 across a conventional television, with some minor flicker in densely compacted lines.

Audio:
The audio options are Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Stereo. In neither case does one hear much information being fed to the surround speakers, with the exception of musical resonance. This is understandable, as the film is almost entirely dialogue and image driven, with little or no overt action taking place. The sound is sharper and clearer in DD 5.1, however, than in Dolby Stereo, and if a person has the capability of reproducing DD 5.1, its better focus, including musical ambience in the rear channels, is the best bet.

Extras:
MGM have labeled this disc a "Special Edition," and, in fact, it contains a healthy set of bonus items. The first is an audio commentary with director Wim Wenders and co-star Peter Falk that is better than most in that the two speakers are both informative and entertaining. Wenders is particularly modest and searching in his comments. Then, there's an excellent, forty-three minute documentary on the making of the film, "The Angels Among Us," with lots of behind-the-scenes material and current cast and crew interviews. In it Wenders calls his film a "homecoming movie" and tells us the production took shape in a kind of free-form, improvisational manner, without a formal script. Maybe he was inspired by angels, I don't know. Following the documentary are thirty-two minutes worth of deleted scenes, narrated by Wenders; an interactive map of key locations in the film; and a gallery of advertising artwork. There are thirty-two scene selections available, plus two theatrical trailers and a Wim Wenders promo. English, French, and German are heard as spoken languages on the DD 5.1 track and English and German on the Dolby Stereo track, with a choice of English, French, or German subtitles. Actually, you don't have a choice of spoken languages; the film is meant to be spoken in three different languages by various people, and that's what you get. Unless you understand German, especially, be prepared for using subtitles.

Parting Thoughts:
"Wings of Desire" was so well received it won Wenders a Best Director award at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival and engendered a Hollywood remake in 1998 with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. The remake wasn't bad, but it didn't have the sweet, gently lyrical quality of Wenders'original film, which is less a romance and more an outright celebration of life than its American counterpart. "Wings" builds slowly, like a poem, and takes a modicum of patience to appreciate. If you're not into that kind of thing, it might be a chore. Put it this way: Walt Whitman would have loved it.