Review of Alice in the Cities (1974) by Ian H — 22 Aug 2016

What's most remarkable about Alice in the Cities is the way it so vividly--even in grainy 16mm black & white--captures the mid 1970s. Wim Wenders borrows more from French New Wave than his more aggressively rule-demolishing (or at least redefining) contemporaries in New German Cinema by taking the camera to the streets and rendering a relatively simple story in a way that is transcendent. It's a slow, meandering film full of long takes of urban streets and life, and even 40 years later the filmmaking is powerful enough to feel incredibly fresh.

Alice in the Cities is a weird little story. For one, what kind of mother abandons her 9 year old daughter with a bummed out 30-something? It's basically insane and improbable and yet that doesn't detract from the film's beautiful insights into how we connect (or in the case of the film's protagonist, disconnect) with the modern world and the people we grow close to, whether by choice or providence. It's a road movie (and a forebear to Wenders' masterpiece Paris, Texas, which this film really made me want to revisit), and a weird little adventure viewed through Wim Wender's brilliant brain and cinematographer Robby Muller's brilliant eye.