Wings of Desire (Special Edition)

It took us a couple of viewings before we grasped Wings of Desire’s quiet beauty, but it’s since grown to become one of our most beloved films, one we’ve seen a dozen times over the last decade. German director Wim Wenders’ story of angels silently witnessing human joys and sorrows is constructed like poetry, meditative and ethereal, without a hint of the mawkishness you might expect from what is basically a love story about an angel renouncing his immortality for a mortal woman. A near-flawless piece of work that, like It’s a Wonderful Life, makes us glad to be alive every time we see it—not to mention changing forever the way we watch Peter Falk’s old Columbo reruns, thanks to his wonderful and largely improvised supporting role here. (It also introduced us to Nick Cave, a side benefit worth the price of admission.) The two spinoffs—the sappy American remake City of Angels and Wenders’ own ham-fisted sequel—only serve to illustrate how good the original is.