peter falk / surreal

[ToyMan]

wasn't peter falk, famous as columbo, in some sort of surreal, possibly foreign film where he played a gumshoe? i remember a lot of street fog, and some scenes where the characters were standing near a chainlink fence, talking a bit. do you think i'm folding a few different films into eachother?

[schmendrik]

Any ideas as to the time frame? He's done the gumshoe thing many different times, including in parodies such as The Cheap Detective (1978) and Murder by Death (1976).

His IMDB page lists at least two German films (post-Columbo) and a couple of Italian films (pre-Columbo).

[JJ80]

I think that this is that Wim Wenders film called  "Der Himmel über Berlin" from circa 1987 that was remade as "City Of Angels" in Hollywood a few years later.

[Rev. Powell]

I'm pretty sure JJ8o is correct.  The film was called WINGS OF DESIRE in the US.  You can spot him in the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioGGQAkNKow

Peter Falk played himself, though, not a detective.

Very good movie, by the way.

[ToyMan]

no, what i remember was in color, and i remembered him essentially being the "columbo"-type character, except maybe more languid.

[TheDope]

Toyman:

Look at this trailer from Wings of Desire and pay attention to the scene at :49 - is this what you were thinking of?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Of3FypaVM

Hope this helped.

-TGWD

[ToyMan]

oh, totally!

sorry for immediately dismissing the answers, rev & jj. also, thanks to greatwhite for really pounding it home.