Alice in the Cities

Philip Winter, a German journalist, meets Lisa and her nine-year-old daughter Alice, at an airport,. Out of necessity, Philip and Lisa become friends. Wim Wenders' road movie is about homelessness, the search for an identity and loneliness.

Philip Winter is a journalist in Munich who has been ordered to write a story about the American landscape for his publisher. He only brings a handful of Polaroid photographs back from his four-week tour of the States. Philip wants to return to Germany. At the airport, he meets Lisa and her nine-year-old daughter Alice. Lisa has to cancel her flight and asks him to take Alice with him, saying that she will follow shortly. Philip and Alice are compelled to get on together. They wait in vain for Lisa to arrive and get on a bus to Wuppertal where Alice thinks her grandparents live. All she has is a yellowing photograph of her grandparents' house. A joint journey through the Ruhr region begins...

Wenders' films always concentrate on the same themes of homelessness, the search for an identity and loneliness. His characters find their identity in their movement, during their travels. They meet other people and strike up relationships that break through their speechlessness. Wenders' figures are constantly looking for their social place, their home. The external travels in ALICE IN THE CITIES correspond to an internal movement within the characters. The film also tells the story of another journey, a rapprochement and friendship between the unequal pair, Philip and Alice. The pictures of the Ruhr area, the industrial landscapes and the streets all appear monotonous, but a closer look shows that they are all distinguishable. Wenders is trying to arouse our awareness of things that are being lost; he is trying to create a link between the world and the view of the person.

Wolfgang Jacobsen

Image © Wim Wenders Stiftung