ALICE IN THE CITIES (1974) – Wim Wenders' "Road Trilogy" Thursdays

ALICE IN THE CITIES

The first of the road films that would come to define the career of Wim Wenders, the magnificent ALICE IN THE CITIES (1974) is an emotionally generous and luminously shot odyssey. A German journalist (Rüdiger Vogler) is driving across the United States to research an article; it's a disappointing trip, in which he is unable to to truly connect with what he sees nor  accomplish anything but a series of Polaroids before disappointedly beginning his journey back home. Things change in New York, however, when he has no choice but to take a young girl named Alice (Yella Rottländer) with him on his return trip to Germany, after her mother (Lisa Kreuzer) – whom he has just met – leaves the child in his care. In Amsterdam, the mother then fails to appear as they agreed, so Winter and Alice set out to try to find Alice’s grandmother in the Ruhr region. During their search, their initial mutual dislike gradually transforms into a heartfelt affection.

Technically, Alice in the Cities is Wim Wenders’s fourth film, but he often refers to it as his first, because it was during this film that he discovered the genre of the road movie. (It would later become the first part of his Road Movie Trilogy, along with Wrong Move and Kings of the Road.) It was also his first film to be shot partly in the U.S. and the first to feature his alter ego, Philip Winter (Rüdiger Vogler). Alice is often compared with Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid. In 1974, it won the German Critics Prize.

Dir. Wim Wenders, 1974, 118 min, Germany, German w/ English Subtitles, Unrated (Recommended for Adult Audiences), Digital.

Text courtesy of Janus Films/Criterion Collection.

Special thanks to Sam Dinerstein of Janus Films.

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