Alice in the Cities

Alice in the Cities is a 1974 German road movie directed by Wim Wenders. It is the first part of Wenders' "Road Movie trilogy", which also includes 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. The film's theme foreshadows Wenders' later film Paris, Texas (1984). Plot West German writer Philip Winter has missed his publisher's deadline for writing an article about the United States. In fact, he hasn't written anything substantial, seemingly hating the country and in the middle of a life crisis – he has only been taking lots of Polaroid pictures of the emptiness (in his mind). Having lost the job and attempting to book a flight from New York City to Munich, he meets a German woman, Lisa van Dam, and her young daughter, Alice, who are also trying to return home amidst a strike by German airport ground crews. After Lisa leaves Alice temporarily in Philip's care, she disappears to deal with the relationship she has recently terminated. Philip and Alice take their flight to Amsterdam on the expectation that Lisa will catch up with them there. As Alice has lived there with her parents and speaks Dutch, she suggests showing him the city while they wait for Lisa's flight. Tension runs high between them as he cuts short the sightseeing trip and his money is running out. The next day, back at the airport, they find out that Lisa was not on the flight. Alice refuses to wait for her alone in the Amsterdam airport while Philip leaves, so he decides to take a bus to bring her to her grandmother in Germany. Since Alice can't remember the city, Philip reads off a list of cities and "Wuppertal" seems to ring a bell. Alice only knows how the house looks; she can't remember her granny's name or address. After a day of searching, first in the famous Wuppertal Schwebebahn and then with a rented car, Alice realizes that her granny actually doesn't live in Wuppertal. Enraged, Philip brings Alice to a police station for them to take care of her, then tries to unwind at a Chuck Berry concert. When he returns to the hotel at night, Alice is waiting for him and he's actually glad to see her again. She has run away from the police station and has new leads: during her interview, she remembered that her granny's name is Krüger and the police had told her that she lives in the Ruhr area.