Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin) is one of cinema’s loveliest city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts—fears, hopes, and dreams—of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality to come back to earth to be with her. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black and white and color by the legendary Henri Alekan, is movie poetry.
Cultures and families clash in Mira Nair’s exuberant Monsoon Wedding, a mix of comedy and chaotic melodrama concerning the preparations for the arranged marriage of a modern upper-middle-class Indian family’s only daughter, Aditi. Of course there are hitches—Aditi has been having an affair with a married TV host; she’s never met her husband to be, who lives in Houston; the wedding has worsened her father’s hidden financial troubles; even the wedding planner has become a nervous wreck—as well as buried family secrets. But Nair’s celebration is ultimately joyful and cathartic: a love song to her home city of Delhi and her own Punjabi family.
The pinnacle of the decades-long collaboration between director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, Howards End is a thought-provoking, luminous vision of E. M. Forster’s cutting 1910 novel about class divisions in Edwardian England. Emma Thompson won an Academy Award for her dynamic portrayal of Margaret Schlegel, a flighty yet compassionate middle-class intellectual whose friendship with the dying wife (Vanessa Redgrave) of rich capitalist Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins) commences an intricately woven tale of money, love, and death that encompasses the country’s highest and lowest social echelons. With a brilliant, layered script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (who also won an Oscar) and a roster of gripping performances, Howards End is a work of both great beauty and vivid darkness, and one of cinema’s greatest literary adaptations.
Wings of Desire and Howards End will be available October 20, while Monsoon Wedding will be available one week earlier, on October 13, 2009.
Continue after the break to read up on the discs’ specs and special bonus features.
WINGS OF DESIRE
1987 – 127 minutes – Black & White/Color – Surround – In German, English, and French with English subtitles – 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Directed by Wim Wenders (The American Friend; Paris, Texas; Buena Vista Social Club)
Starring Bruno Ganz (Nosferatu, Downfall, The Reader)
Starring Peter Falk (Columbo, A Woman Under the Influence, The In-Laws)
Cinematography by Henri Alekan (Beauty and the Beast, Anna Karenina, Roman Holiday)
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
– New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Wim Wenders (with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
– Audio commentary featuring Wenders and actor Peter Falk
– The Angels Among Us (2003), a documentary featuring interviews with Wenders, Falk, actors Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander, writer Peter Handke, and composer Jürgen Knieper
– Excerpt from “Wim Wenders Berlin Jan. 87,†an episode of the French television program Cinéma cinémas, including on-set footage
– Interview with director of photography Henri Alekan
– Deleted scenes and outtakes
РExcerpts from the films Alekan la lumi̬re (1985) and Remembrance: Film for Curt Bois (about the actor who plays Homer in Wings of Desire)
– Notes and photos by production designer Heidi Lüdi and art director Toni Lüdi
– Trailers
– New and improved English subtitle translation
– PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Atkinson and writings by Wenders and Handke
MONSOON WEDDING
2001 – 114 minutes – Color – Surround – In English and Hindi with English subtitles – 1.85:1 aspect ratio
Directed by Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake)
Cinematography by Declan Quinn (Vanya on 42nd Street, Leaving Las Vegas, Rachel Getting Married)
Starring Naseeruddin Shah (The Perfect Murder, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Krrish)
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
– New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Mira Nair and director of photography Declan Quinn (with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
– Audio commentary featuring Nair
– Nair’s short documentaries So Far from India (1983), India Cabaret (1985), and The Laughing Club of India (2001), featuring video introductions by the director
– Nair’s short fiction films The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (1993), 11’09″01—September 11 (Segment: “Indiaâ€) (2002), Migration (2007), and How Can It Be? (2008), featuring video introductions by the director
– New video interview with actor Naseeruddin Shah, conducted by Nair
– New video interviews with Quinn and production designer Stephanie Carroll
– Theatrical trailer
– New and improved English subtitle translation
– PLUS: An essay by critic and travel writer Pico Iyer
HOWARDS END
1992 – 142 minutes – Color – Stereo – 2.35:1 aspect ratio
Directed by James Ivory (A Room with a View, Maurice, The Remains of the Day)
Produced by Ismail Merchant (Heat and Dust, The Bostonians, The Europeans)
Starring Emma Thompson (The Remains of the Day, Sense and Sensibility, Brideshead Revisited)
Starring Anthony Hopkins (The Remains of the Day, The Silence of the Lambs, Nixon)
Starring Vanessa Redgrave (Blow-Up, Julia, Mrs. Dalloway)
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
– High-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts, with uncompressed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack
– New appreciation of the late Ismail Merchant by director James Ivory
– Building “Howards End,†a documentary featuring interviews with Ivory, Merchant, Helena Bonham Carter, costume designer Jenny Beavan, and Academy Award–winning production designer Luciana Arrighi
– The Design of “Howards End,†a detailed look at the costume and production designs for the film, including original sketches
– The Wandering Company (1984), a 50-minute documentary about the history of Merchant Ivory Productions
– Original 1992 behind-the-scenes featurette
– Original theatrical trailer
– PLUS: An essay by critic Kenneth Turan