Alice in den Städten

Alice in the Cities (1974)

If there are movies, like comedies and horror films, that are better seen in a crowd, there are some movies that might be best seen alone. This is one of them, and I didn't realize until I was almost done because it had become so absorbing I was really enjoying my isolation within the movie.

The plot is simple, and I won't say how it happens, but a nine year old Dutch-German girl is left with a German man in the United States, and he takes care of her as they search for a way to find her mother or grandmother. Their first step is to fly back to Amsterdam, and then in Germany in a little car they poke around looking for her home.

It's a road movie, though unlike any other. The two main characters are about as perfect and as natural as it gets. The man is a thoughtful, drifting writer and photographer, an artist in the counter-culture way of the times. He has no real ambition, but observes the world with poetic appreciation. So when this girl is made part of his life, he takes it in stride. That's key to the mood of the film, that this very unlikely situation can continue for so long because he just goes with the flow. There is no running to the police, no panic. But there is no sense either that this is an accepted new relationship. It's for the moment, but the end of the moment is continually deferred.

The girl goes with the flow as well, and is as brilliant as the man at being natural in front of the camera, often doing nothing. She's made to be lovable, of course, but not in any coy or sentimental way. (If this were a Hollywood film we'd all be barfing by now.) All of this matters because it isn't what's happening that really matters, but it's just being together, the two of them, and then (you realize) the three of you. You wish it was you who was doing this utterly humane, deeply felt act of traveling and being supportive and seeing modern (1973) Germany.

The filming is simple black and white but brilliantly effective, down to the heart wrenching last shot (which was probably the most expensive). The setting is actually a surprise in that you never think of the ordinary middle class and industrial parts of middle Europe being so interesting. The music comes and goes, and refers to the earthy music of the time, mostly American blues based stuff.

In a little way this reminded me of "Stranger than Paradise" and when I connected the two I saw how much Jarmusch (in that film) owed to these art film experiments just a few years earlier. And now that I think of it, this one is more touching and important even if "Stranger than Paradise" is more inventive. "Alice in the Cities" makes a case for a kind of film we don't see being made now, and which might have another vogue one of these years in reaction to the general highly refined, highly artificial worlds of most movies today. I hope so.

German journalist Philip Winter is suffering from writers block as he travels across the East Coast of America, he instead chooses to snap Polaroids instead of writing, once satisfied that that will tell his story of American culture and landscapes he sets off to return to Germany. At the airport he meets Lisa and her nine year old daughter, Alice, getting flights home prove to be difficult and the three of them end up stopping overnight at some digs. Lisa disappears and leaves Alice in Phillip's care, thus sending the two on an odyssey as they travel together thru Europe in search of Alice's grandmother, but it's the journey that each of them take mentally that will be of most importance.

This is the first film of what is regarded as Wim Wenders loosely connected road trilogy, following on from this picture would be Falsche Bewegung in 1975 and then culminating with the quite brilliant Im Lauf der Zeit in 1976. Quite what Wenders intentions were with this picture is is not immediately clear, for certain his framing {obsession} with American culture comes to the fore from the off, both in the changing landscapes and the use of American pop and rock music. But as things progress it's the simple message of purpose that a chance encounter can have, our odd couple here are at first deeply suspicious of each other, not caring for each others company in the slightest, but as time moves on they begin to understand each other and tune into each of their respective mental waves. Life quite simply found a way thru two differing humans thrust together unwillingly, it's not deep or remotely profound, it's simple and warm in its execution, and the final (tremendous) pull away aerial shot that Wenders gives us crowns this accomplished and very enjoyable piece. 7.5/10

What's not to like about this early Wim Wenders road-genre film? It's an operatic overture in which he sets out the themes, the provenance, the pacing we will see again in again...in "Goalie," in "Paris, Texas," even in "Wings of Desire." The atmospherics are perfect, and I could watch a 40-hour miniseries in this vein. The final 35mm print is bogged down now and again in graininess from blow-ups of the original 16mm negative, but the characters are flesh and blood, credible, and well- played. Alice's interaction with the protagonist's guiding male penumbra is nuanced, relieving, and something a post-modern film could never achieve. The older I get the more I cherish and cling to Wenders' early work: more worldly than you think, and a zero-tolerance zone for cynicism.

Besides the acclaimed and popular later works like Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987), Wim Wenders is also known for his Road Movie Trilogy, a string of three films that came out in consecutive years in the 1970s. Alice in the Cities, the first movie in the trilogy, was released in 1974, while the other two are The Wrong Move (1975) and Kings of the Road (1976).

Alice in the Cities marks the first appearance of the director's recurring character Philip Winter (Rüdiger Vogler) who would later reappear in several other Wenders titles. This time he is a journalist and photographer who has been assigned to travel around in the United States and write a story about his experiences but suffers from a bad case of writer's block. Just before returning to his native Germany he meets a German woman called Lisa (Lisa Kreuzer) and her young daughter Alice (Yella Rottländer) who are also planning to return home. Soon Philip finds himself as Alice's temporary custodian and takes her on a long road trip through Germany in order to find her grandmother whose whereabouts seem to be more or less unknown.

Many stories have been made about men learning something new about themselves upon suddenly becoming responsible for a child. The premise can easily be made into a cheesy inspirational family movie, but luckily Alice in the Cities takes a more ambitious, or perhaps ambiguous, route. There are only three significant characters in the story: Philip appears to enjoy living and working alone but gets fairly well along with the young Alice who has also been thrown into the situation against her will but is able to maintain a positive attitude most of the time. The third important figure in the film is Alice's mother Lisa who remains rather enigmatic and does not reveal much about her motives. Philip and Alice do quietly evolve as persons over the course of the story; how exactly, the audience must figure out by themselves.

Visually the movie looks fine. The grainy black and white cinematography is guaranteed Robby Müller quality and the melancholic score is provided by the legendary German krautrock band Can. Numerous shots are filmed through car windows as Philip drives through American or German towns by himself or with Alice, so admirers of urban environments can get a neat first-hand view of a traveler. I especially liked the scenes on or near the suspended monorail in Wuppertal, Germany. Loud TV programs playing in various television sets are also a recurring theme and a source of frustration for Philip, whereas Alice seems to enjoy them more.

There are some things I'm not sure I like, such as the slightly excessive runtime or the frequent fades to black that make many scenes feel a tad rushed, but in the end I enjoyed the movie as a whole. Rüdiger Vogler does a good job as the quiet Philip and Yella Rottländer never comes across as unnatural or annoying in the role of Alice. Alienation, parenthood and traveling are themes that have wide appeal and whilst "the journey is more important than the destination" may not be a wildly original conclusion, it always makes a fitting overhanging theme for a road movie. In addition, Alice in the Cities features a strong thematic connection to Paris, Texas and is recommended viewing to fans of said movie and traveling films in general.

I might have been Alice. Or was I too fearful, too cared for, too lost in myself? Was I born at the wrong time? When I watch this film, I'm reminded of a line from another of director Wim Wenders' films: "Life is in colour, but black & white is more realistic". I'm still not sure if I believe that, but there are memories that seem more a thing of light and shadow than of colour. And this is, after all, a black & white film. "Alice in the Cities" is as much about its other main character, Philip Winter, as Alice herself. Him, I have been. Lost out on the highways of New Brunswick and Maine, lonely hotel holidays all by myself with no one to comfort or to talk with. I wanted to smash that television just as he does in an early scene, but it was my only companion through the long night ahead.

"Alice in the Cities" is the first of three consecutive films by Wim Wenders about the open road, each starring Rüdiger Vogler as a similar, if not identical character. The second, "The Wrong Movement" (Falsche Bewegung) (1975), is an incredibly difficult slog of total human alienation. The third, and much better than the second film, "Kings of the Road" (Im Lauf der Zeit) (1976) is similar to this one, as Mr. Winter continues his journeys through the German countryside.

This is a film about childhood relationships - not those we have with our peers, but those of a greater age. This makes perfect sense to me, as I would without fail seek out the company of an adult over the fleeting fancies of ones closer to me. To me, anything past fully grown would blur together, all except for the very old. Philip isn't comfortable with children, just as I have become over time. It is a hallmark of those who feel that they have never outgrown their own childhood, who feel so lost inside the adult world that the past feels foreign to a present that will never fit. Their belief that living in the future is futile keeps them grounded in today, their only salvation from a life spent dreaming.

Reality is harsh in "Alice in the Cities". The release comes where life lives. The precious and precocious sensation of human interaction runs like a vein through the center of everything. This is a story suitable for anyone, not because it holds back, but because it is all in. In love with the very same world it fears, holding the hands of the same dream on whose feet it steps on. Like we all do in life. This film feels exactly like those first two or three years of your earliest memories. If you let it, you'll be taken further back than you'd have ever imagined.