Reviewed by Sam Unsted
Stars Rudiger Vogler, Yella Rotlander, Elisabeth Kreuzer,
Edda Kochl, Ernest Bohm | Written by Veith von Furstenberg & Wim Wenders
UK certification U | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 110 minutes | Directed by Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders’ breakthrough film and a key text in the evolution of the New German Cinema, Alice in the Cities follows German journalist Phil Winter in America, travelling around the country and attempting seemingly to write an article about his experiences with US culture. Suffering from writer’s block, he moves around motels and is bombarded by the conflicting commercialism and beauty of the American experience. When in New York, he tries to book a flight home but can’t due to an ongoing strike. As he’s booking the ticket, he acts as translator for a woman attempting to fly home and strikes up a necessary friendship as the two wait along with the woman’s daughter, Alice. The woman takes her chance to abandon Alice and Phil must take her home to Germany with him.
The bond that grows between the two is beautifully played out. After all his existential wondering around America, Phil sees meaning brought into his life as he slowly becomes the protector of this child. He’s forced into a situation that he originally sees as simply taking her to meet up with her mother and their journey prior to the realisation of what her mother has done is filled with sweet moments of bonding and humour. That moment, when Alice realises what her mother has done and they decide they need to go and find Alice’s grandmother, manages to balance this light humour of the early exchanges with the devastating reality for Alice that her mother has abandoned her. It’s a wonderful scene and sets the tone for the latter half of the film, placing a melancholic tone underneath their journey which remains peppered with lovely scenes of repartee.
As Phil, Rudiger Vogler exudes an easy charm and glazed 70s expression of searching and seeking. He’s a classic character for a film of the era, searching for something even if he’s not quite sure what. Likely his mind is set on loftier expectations of understanding life and culture but eventually he finds what he needs is the companionship of someone who is yet to begin concerning her mind with existentialist thought. The star though is Yella Rotlander as Alice who places herself alongside The 400 Blows’ Jean-Pierre Leaud and Thomas Turgoose in This is England in the pantheon of incredible child performances. She’s filled with wide-eyed optimism, even in the face of a betrayal which forces her somewhat to grow up, and fails to lose her faith and impetuous magnetism. Rotlander makes Alice so utterly captivating and gives a truly sophisticated performance.
As a film within the Wenders canon it fits well. The film has a dreamy quality to it, concerning itself with long, languid takes of city landscapes and showing the same lightness of touch in exploring the searching nature of the human condition that would come into full focus in Paris, Texas. If there are flaws, they are in the essential conceit of the film. You need to buy into both the friendship between the two and also into Wenders’ fascination with the searching nature of the human condition. If you don’t buy his concerns, you won’t like this or any other film from the man. If you do like Wenders though and haven’t seen this, you’ll likely fall head over heels.
EXTRAS *** A fascinating conversation between Wenders and critic Mark Cousins along with a couple of other generic bits and pieces.