Directed by Wim Wenders. Starring Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Club, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork triskelart.com

Perched high about Berlin, the angels Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) listen to all the sorrows and hopes of the citizens below. The angels have been there longer than the city itself, on an assignment to “assemble, testify, preserve” reality. But only now, when Damiel falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist (the late Solveig Dommartin) does he consider hanging up his wings. Is the girl on a swing worth renouncing immortality for?

It's strange returning to Wim Wenders's dreamy film about angels watching over Berlin. Almost 25 years have passed since Wings of Desirewas first released, and the divided city Wenders depicts has long gone, lending an elegiac aura to an already melancholic work.

Wings of Desirewas a perfect zeitgeist creation, a chronicle of a lost age. But in the years since its initial run, we've had a sequel ( Faraway, So Close!), a stage adaptation, and a diabolical Meg Ryan Hollywood remake ( City of Angels). We've also witnessed the excruciating rise of angel worshippers and angel TV shows. Something about that unlovely subgenre works to gnaw at Wenders's film.

The director’s tropes and thoughtful contemplation of big-arsed questions have also passed on to the over side. Much of what we loved about Wenders as a film-maker has disappeared in recent years. The very things that seemed to make him unique are now overly familiar and, dare we say it, verging on self-parody.

It's a testament to the worth of Wings of Desirethat even hindsight and all these caveats do not detract from the director's splendid city symphony.