City of Angels (film)
| City of Angels | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Brad Silberling |
| Produced by |
Charles Roven Dawn Steel |
| Screenplay by | Dana Stevens |
| Based on |
Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders Peter Handke Richard Reitinger |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Gabriel Yared |
| Cinematography | John Seale |
| Edited by | Lynzee Klingman |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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114 minutes |
| Country | Germany United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55 million |
| Box office | $198.7 million |
City of Angels is a 1998 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by Brad Silberling. The film stars Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. Set in Los Angeles, California, the film is a very loose remake of Wim Wenders' 1987 German film Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin), which was set in Berlin.
Seth (Nicolas Cage) is one of many angels who watch over humans and protect them in unseen ways. Seth's main responsibility is to appear to those who are close to death and guide them to the next life. As part of this task, Seth and one of his fellow angels, Cassiel (Andre Braugher), like to ask people what their favorite thing in life was. Despite these daily encounters, they have trouble understanding human beings and their ways.
While waiting to escort a man who will not survive heart surgery to the other world, Seth is impressed by the vigorous efforts of the surgeon, Maggie Rice (Meg Ryan), to try to save the ill-fated man's life and her sincere anguish at her failure to do so. Seth soon becomes preoccupied with Maggie and decides to become visible to her despite his obvious inability to give her many convincing details about himself, such as what he does for a living or even his last name. Despite this, they develop a friendship which soon turns to mutual attraction, although Maggie is already involved with one of her colleagues, Jordan Ferris (Colm Feore), at the hospital. Seth then meets Nathaniel Messinger (Dennis Franz), one of Maggie's patients, who can sense Seth's presence and that of other angels. Nathaniel soon relates to Seth that he, too, had once been an angel but, by way of the free will granted to angels, decided to become human through the process he refers to as "falling". Seth begins to consider exercising this option so that he can be with Maggie in a fully physical and emotional relationship. When Maggie receives a marriage proposal from Jordan, she finds herself having to choose between him and Seth.
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