Alice in the Cities

Alice in the Cities (German: Alice in den Städten) is a 1974 German road movie directed by Wim Wenders. This was the first part of Wenders' "Road Movie Trilogy" which included The Wrong Move (1975) and Kings of the Road (1976). The film is shot in black and white by Robby Müller with several long scenes without dialogue.

Plot

By an unlikely twist of fate, reporter Phil Winter finds himself stuck with a little girl, Alice, searching the cities of Germany for her grandmother, whose name and address Alice can't remember. The only clue they have is a photograph of her grandmother's front door with no house number and no one in the shot. The film's theme closely foreshadows Wenders' later film Paris, Texas. The scenario of a young girl and a writer thrown together was inspired by his long time collaborator Peter Handke's experience as a single parent.^[1] The influence also of Short Letter, Long Farewell, Handke's 1972 novel, also featuring an alienated German-speaker travelling across the United States, can be inferred from the film's use of clips from John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln, itself heavily referenced in the novel.

Cast

• Rüdiger Vogler as Phil Winter
• Yella Rottländer as Alice
• Lisa Kreuzer as Alice's Mother
• Sibylle Baier as The Woman

References

External links

• Official website
• Alice in the Cities at the Internet Movie Database
• Composer Irmin Schmidt discusses the scoring