ALICE IN THE CITIES (co-wri & dir by Wim Wenders, w/ Rüdiger Vogler, Yella Rottländer, cinematography by Robby Müller, Music by Can, 110mns, West Germany, 1974)
What a revelation to see my first 1970's Wim Wenders movie so late in my movie watching career. ALICE IN THE CITIES, as many of you probably already know, turns out to be a template for Jim Jarmusch's STRANGER THAN PARADISE and DOWN BY LAW. Down to the fades out and fade ins that separate scenes.
It's a beautiful humanist organic road trip movie about frustrated German writer Philip who ends up saddled with 9 year old Alice when Alice's mother abandons them in New York just before a return plane trip to Europe. Philip is not Alice's father and he's not thrilled to have to sort this out.
It's the kind of movie that cleverly starts as one kind of road trip movie-Philip has writer's block trying to write a piece about his American road trip-and then becomes another road trip movie-Philip and Alice bond as they search out Alice's grandmother in Germany.
Shot by legendary Robby Müller (REPO MAN, DOWN BY LAW, PARIS TEXAS, BREAKING THE WAVES) ALICE IN THE CITIES has a quiet naturalistic cinematic beauty. The frames and shots are striking. But none insist. They all appear as tableaux similar to what you might experience if you glanced left and saw something unexpected and striking.
Wenders was a pioneer of 70's German New Wave cinema along with Fassbinder and Herzog. Now that I've seen my first 70's Wenders, it's clearer how each of these moviemakers differ. Fassbinder was the enfant terrible who would make controversial and provocative movies about current subjects with savage brilliance like ALI FEAR EATS THE SOUL, FOX AND HIS FRIENDS, IN A YEAR WITH THIRTEEN MOONS. Herzog would make epic impossibilities that pushed the limits of his crew like the South American descents into madness AGUIRE WRATH OF GOD and FITZCARALDO.
This is also a movie in a definitely recognizable sub-genre: the crusty adult who re-discovers life through having to become responsible for a scrappy child. Chaplin's THE KID, Bogdonavich's PAPER MOON, Takashi Kitano's KIKUJIRO and Wenders' ALICE IN THE CITIES are all stand-outs here.
The movie has an insistent quietness (aided by a hypnotic score by German rock band CAN) that puts you in a meditative state.
Like staring out a car window on a road trip and taking in landscapes you've never seen before, ALICE IN THE CITIES truly is about the journey rather than the destination.
A beautiful humanist work.
Craig Hammill is the founder/programmer of Secret Movie Club
