Wim Wenders

Alice in the Cities

Alice in the Cities

The first of the road films that would come to define the career of Wim Wenders, the magnificent Alice in the Cities is an emotionally generous and luminously shot odyssey. A German journalist (Rüdiger Vogler) is driving across the United States to research an article; it’s a disappointing trip, in which he is unable to truly connect with what he sees. Things change, however, when he has no choice but to take a young girl named Alice (Yella Rottländer) with him on his return trip to Germany, after her mother (Lisa Kreuzer)—whom he has just met—leaves the child in his care. Though they initially find themselves at odds, the pair begin to form an unlikely friendship.

Film Info

  • Germany
  • 1974
  • 113 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.66:1
  • German
  • Spine #814

Special Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, commissioned by the Wim Wenders Foundation and supervised by director Wim Wenders, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • German-language audio commentary featuring Wenders and actors Rüdiger Vogler and Yella Rottländer
  • New interviews with Vogler, Rottländer, and actor Lisa Kreuzer
  • Outtakes from the film
  • Restoring Time, a 2015 short about the restoration work done by the Wim Wenders Foundation
  • Same Player Shoots Again (1967) and Silver City Revisited (1968), two newly restored early short films by Wenders
  • New English subtitle translation by Wenders

Available In

Collector's Set

Wim Wenders: The Road Trilogy

Wim Wenders: The Road Trilogy

Blu-ray Box Set

3 Discs

$69.95

Collector's Set

Wim Wenders: The Road Trilogy

Wim Wenders: The Road Trilogy

DVD Box Set

4 Discs

$69.95

Special Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, commissioned by the Wim Wenders Foundation and supervised by director Wim Wenders, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • German-language audio commentary featuring Wenders and actors Rüdiger Vogler and Yella Rottländer
  • New interviews with Vogler, Rottländer, and actor Lisa Kreuzer
  • Outtakes from the film
  • Restoring Time, a 2015 short about the restoration work done by the Wim Wenders Foundation
  • Same Player Shoots Again (1967) and Silver City Revisited (1968), two newly restored early short films by Wenders
  • New English subtitle translation by Wenders
Alice in the Cities
Cast
Rüdiger Vogler
Phillip “Phil” Winter
Yella Röttlander
Alice
Elisabeth Kreuzer
Alice’s mother
Edda Köchl
Angela
Ernest Boehm
Publisher
Sam Presti
Car dealer
Lois Moran
Airport hostess
Didi Petrikat
Friend in Frankfurt
Hans Hirschmüller
With
Sibylle Baier
Mirko
Credits
Director
Wim Wenders
Producer
Wim Wenders
Producer
Peter Genée
Producer
Veith v. Fürstenberg
Screenplay
Wim Wenders
Screenplay
Veith v. Fürstenberg
Director of photography
Robby Müller
Editor
Peter Przygodda
Editor
Barbara v. Weitershausen
Sound
Martin Müller
Assistant director
Mickey Kley
Assistant camera
Martin Schäfer
Rerecording mixer
Paul Schöler
Music
Can
Music
Chuck Berry
Music
Gustav Mahler
Music
Canned Heat
Music
Deep Purple
Music
Count Five
Music
Stories

Current

Wim Wenders: “Between Me and the World”
Wim Wenders: “Between Me and the World”

Wim Wenders’s road movies, Michael Almereyda writes, are “at once minimal and romantic, austere and lyrical,” focusing on questions—of individuals and society, culture and nature—that Wenders has returned to throughout his career.

By Michael Almereyda

Alice in the Cities: A Girl’s Story
Alice in the Cities: A Girl’s Story

With Alice in the Cites, Wim Wenders created one of the most nuanced and complex portraits of an empowered young girl ever seen on-screen.

By Allison Anders

A Robby Müller Retrospective
A Robby Müller Retrospective
Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller has given us some of the most transcendent images ever captured on-screen. Since beginning his career in the late sixties, he has lensed a wealth of indelible moments—from Harry Dean Stanton wandering alone throu…
Wim Wenders: Songs from Along the Road
Wim Wenders: Songs from Along the Road
“One of the discoveries of the road movies was not only that you could travel and work and make a film at the same time, and improvise it, but that rock and roll could also be, in the true sense, a driving force.” — Wim WendersLooking back on t…
The Wim Wenders Sound
The Wim Wenders Sound
It's been a great seventieth-birthday year for Wim Wenders. After earning an Academy Award nomination for his 2014 documentary The Salt of the Earth, Wenders received an honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in February. Then…