dottormalocchio

Despite its fame as a cult movie it actually is an absolutely confusing and annoying quite pretentious film which wants to show us in every scene how arty it is. Just always do the most absurd or useless thing - seems to have been the motto of Wim Wenders, who is generally known as a director of mostly boring pseudo art films which nevertheless have quite a reputation among cineasts who mix up pretention with art and therefore appreciate his films. It's a pity, because the acting of Ganz is just marvelous and also tecnically it is a well made movie, it is visually attractive and sometimes inventive and funny, but all of that cannot cover its pretentious approach. And the female role could not be more the cliche of the helpless weak woman who endures the erratic behaviour of the protagonist who kills a certain amount of people brutally, which seems to be a quite cool thing or at least nothing to worry about. Nothing really matters in this eclectic arty world, anything goes. Finally the film fails with its quite ambitious intention to put together a German arthouse film with a typical New York movie and a Nouvelle Vague film. This three together unfortunately result in less than one.

This film is a Russian trip on Acid, in the literal and metaphorical sense but at the same time it's a crystal clear picture about the dysfunctional Russian society today.

The plot is just a vehicle for this surreal, innovative and radical film. For sure one of the best Soviet silent movies.