Wings Of Desire (1987) 4K UHD (3 Viewers)

[titch]

Curzon in the UK has just released a huge box set - a career retrospective - of Wim Wenders. The collection contains 22 of his films on blu-ray. The set is expensive and I will not be purchasing it, as I have several of his films on blu-ray.

However, accompanying the release, is a stand-alone 4K UHD steelbook of one of his most acclaimed masterpieces, Wings Of Desire. The film has been painstakingly restored to a level never seen before - the original release print was six generations removed from the original camera negative, owing to all the opticals baked in. Now, every element has been painstakingly scanned, separately, and a new negative has been created. The result is so stunning, it defies belief. I took a screenshot of the Criterion and of the new 4K UHD - and the Criterion looks a horrible, blurry mess.

Paris, Texas is available in a StudioCanal blu-ray from a new 2K scan - also much better than the Criterion, but not on the level of Wings Of Desire, which is a huge upgrade. The best 4K UHD disc I have purchased this year.

See on Amazon

 

[JoshZ]

The result is so stunning, it defies belief. I took a screenshot of the Criterion and of the new 4K UHD - and the Criterion looks a horrible, blurry mess.

What's with the cool blue color timing, though?

 

[titch]

What's with the cool blue color timing, though?

It's not blue - my Oppo 203/projector settings seems to result in 4K UHD black and white films with a cooler timing. I checked with the 4K UHD of It's A Wonderful Life and it was the same, so I expect the accurate, warmer, black and white, will be how people will an OLED or a better calibrated projector set-up could experience it. I don't feel like playing around with the settings on my projector, as they are limited and work well enough for me.

I also took a screenshot of a colour sequence from the film - there is no real discernible difference in colour timing between the blu-ray and 4K UHD there.

I wouldn't really put much weight on the colour of the screen caps - these pictures are taken with an iPhone 14 Pro Max, which also can lead to inaccurate colour representation. There will soon be other websites posting reviews, but this is the first review of the disc anywhere. And the main thing is how extremely sharp and cleaned-up the picture is. This is a spectacular restoration. The astonishing cinematography in this haunting, poetic masterpiece finally gets the treatment it never had before. I'll say it again: One of the greatest films of the 1980's is the best 4K UHD I have purchased this year - a year with many beautiful releases of classic films.

A sample from the 4K UHD of It's A Wonderful Life on my set-up - same cooler timing.

 

[JoshZ]

It's not blue - my Oppo 203/projector settings seems to result in 4K UHD black and white films with a cooler timing.

Thanks for clarifying.

And the main thing is how extremely sharp and cleaned-up the picture is. This is a spectacular restoration. The astonishing cinematography in this haunting, poetic masterpiece finally gets the treatment it never had before.

I don't think the Criterion release is substandard by any means. But yes, these screencaps seem to lift a veil from the image.

 

[titch]

What's with the cool blue color timing, though?

Interestingly, I was re-reading Roger Ebert's review and he writes: "When he shows the point of view of the angels, he shoots in a kind of blue-tinted monochrome". So maybe the cooler timing on the 4K UHD is closer to how it originally looked theatrically?

Wings of Desire movie review & film summary (1988) | Roger Ebert

The angels in “Wings of Desire” are not merely guardian angels, placed on Earth to look after human beings. They are witnesses, and they have been watching for a long time--since the beginning. Standing on a concrete river bank in Berlin, they recall that it took a long time before the primeval...

www.rogerebert.com

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Wings of Desire & Paris, Texas are great films and happy to have them on my shelf.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Interestingly, I was re-reading Roger Ebert's review and he writes: "When he shows the point of view of the angels, he shoots in a kind of blue-tinted monochrome". So maybe the cooler timing on the 4K UHD is closer to how it originally looked theatrically?

Wings of Desire movie review & film summary (1988) | Roger Ebert

The angels in “Wings of Desire” are not merely guardian angels, placed on Earth to look after human beings. They are witnesses, and they have been watching for a long time--since the beginning. Standing on a concrete river bank in Berlin, they recall that it took a long time before the primeval...

www.rogerebert.com

The blue tint was a result of printing black and white negative onto color film stock - since the movie was a mix of black & white and color, the only way to make release prints back then was to do it on color stock.

When they remastered the film previously, for the source that was used to make the Criterion disc, they were able to combine the black & white and color sections digitally so that the B&W portions were truly B&W and not B&W footage printed on color stock.

 

[titch]

The Caps-a-holic screenshots show exactly the same upgrade in detail, between the Criterion blu ray and the Curzon UHD, as I see on the projected image. A night and day difference.

Wings of Desire • UK Ultra HD Blu-ray vs. US Blu-ray

caps-a-holic.com

 

[willyTass]

Phenomenal improvement !1 Look at that encoding !! They need to go work at paramount ha ha

By the way are u referencing the new German Studio canal blu ray release of Paris,Texas ? that one is from a 4k scan of the OCN and as u said it looks superb . Miles ahead of the criterion, BUT the Criterion has the original audio

 

[Patrick Mason]

I just received the Wings of Desire 4K steelbook release. The transfer is indeed an absolute knockout from what I sampled, and huge improvement over the older Criterion release. But what I was not expecting was SDH-only style English subtitles. Obviously great to have as an option, but horrible being forced to choose between no subtitles or constantly watching "(INDECIPHERABLE WHISPERS)" or all English dialogue popping up alongside the German translations. I hope there is a replacement issued.

 

[Ross Gowland]

Hopefully that’s an error and not an intentional thing.

 

[titch]

Hopefully that’s an error and not an intentional thing.

Oh come on - even the 4k UHD of Casablanca only has SDH English subtitles.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yes, but the difference is that Casablanca is entirely in English. Wings of Desire is a mixed language film with both German and English spoken onscreen, so a translation subtitles track representative of the original burnt in subtitles isn’t an outrageous request - if one has not been included.

 

[titch]

Yes, but the difference is that Casablanca is entirely in English. Wings of Desire is a mixed language film with both German and English spoken onscreen, so a translation subtitles track representative of the original burnt in subtitles isn’t an outrageous request - if one has not been included.

I watch all films - both English and foreign language - with English subtitles and I would estimate that less than half have normal English subtitles included. Obviously, people who rarely watch films with subtitles find it more distracting than people who are used to subtitles. On the 4K UHD of Tár, the English subtitles kept stating what mood the music was ("ominous music").

On Wings Of Desire, not only have the subtitles been considerably improved upon since the Criterion release, the parenthesis indicating who is thinking or speaking is very helpful, as there are numerous instances where it isn't immediately clear who is doing the thinking or speaking. The only person who is readily identifiable, is Peter Falk, but he has only a relatively minor role.

Criterion might pick this one up for a 4K American release, but they haven't released the 2019 2K mastered Paris, Texas yet.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watch all films - both English and foreign language - with English subtitles and I would estimate that less than half have normal English subtitles included. Obviously, people who rarely watch films with subtitles find it more distracting than people who are used to subtitles. On the 4K UHD of Tár, the English subtitles kept stating what mood the music was ("ominous music").

The same whether I'm watching a disc or streaming. The only things I don't watch with subtitles engaged are sports and news. Anyhow, I'm so used to subtitles, their presence doesn't distract me.

 

[JoshZ]

I watch all films - both English and foreign language - with English subtitles and I would estimate that less than half have normal English subtitles included. Obviously, people who rarely watch films with subtitles find it more distracting than people who are used to subtitles. On the 4K UHD of Tár, the English subtitles kept stating what mood the music was ("ominous music").

There's a difference between captions for the hearing impaired and subtitles. Captions for the hearing impaired will of course describe sound effects and music cues and other important storytelling points the presumptive impaired viewer cannot hear.

Subtitles for foreign language dialogue, however, should not spell out those things for regular viewers with normal hearing.

 

[Nathan_H]

There's a difference between captions for the hearing impaired and subtitles. Captions for the hearing impaired will of course describe sound effects and music cues and other important storytelling points the presumptive impaired viewer cannot hear.

Subtitles for foreign language dialogue, however, should not spell out those things for regular viewers with normal hearing.

Yep it is the main reason I haven’t picked this up yet. I’ve bought every prior release including a prior botched soundtrack and hope they fix this before I give in and get it anyway.

Curzon has released an updated version and a replacement program (https://forms.monday.com/forms/0c9d961a2f175fc55a136c9c71813b0d?r=use1) but I’d rather not gamble on getting old stock and needing to get a replacement. So I’m holding out for a while.

(And I guess I’m not confident they would send a replacement disk to the USA)

 

[willyTass]

.

 

[JoshZ]

Criterion just announced this for 4K. Presumably, they've licensed the Curzon master. Hopefully, it will have better subtitles.

 

[Nathan_H]

It almost assuredly will. And that will be the one I pick up. Thanks for posting the update.

(To be fair, Curzon has since re-issued it with proper English subs, and put out an offer, at least in the UK, to replace the original disk with the revised one.)