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IMDbPro

Alice in the Cities

Original title: Alice in den Städten
  • 19741974
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 53m
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
12K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
11,766
86
Yella Rottländer and Rüdiger Vogler in Alice in the Cities (1974)
Drama
A German journalist is saddled with a nine-year-old girl after encountering her mother at a New York airport.A German journalist is saddled with a nine-year-old girl after encountering her mother at a New York airport.A German journalist is saddled with a nine-year-old girl after encountering her mother at a New York airport.
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
12K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
11,766
86
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Wim Wenders
    • Writers
      • Wim Wenders
      • Veith von Fürstenberg(contributing writer)
    • Stars
      • Yella Rottländer
      • Rüdiger Vogler
      • Lisa Kreuzer
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Wim Wenders
    • Writers
      • Wim Wenders
      • Veith von Fürstenberg(contributing writer)
    • Stars
      • Yella Rottländer
      • Rüdiger Vogler
      • Lisa Kreuzer
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 38User reviews
    • 59Critic reviews
    • 78Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 1 nomination

    Photos114

    Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Yella Rottländer and Rüdiger Vogler in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Yella Rottländer in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Yella Rottländer and Rüdiger Vogler in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Yella Rottländer and Rüdiger Vogler in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Rüdiger Vogler in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Yella Rottländer in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Yella Rottländer and Rüdiger Vogler in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Yella Rottländer and Rüdiger Vogler in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Yella Rottländer and Rüdiger Vogler in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Rüdiger Vogler in Alice in the Cities (1974)
    Yella Rottländer in Alice in the Cities (1974)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Yella Rottländer
    Yella Rottländer
    • Alice van Damm
    Rüdiger Vogler
    Rüdiger Vogler
    • Philip Winter
    Lisa Kreuzer
    Lisa Kreuzer
    • Lisa van Damm
    • (as Elisabeth Kreuzer)
    Edda Köchl
    Edda Köchl
    • Angela - Friend in New York
    Ernest Boehm
    Ernest Boehm
    • Publisher
    Sam Presti
    • Car Dealer
    Lois Moran
    Lois Moran
    • Airport Hostess
    Didi Petrikat
    • Woman at Swimming Park
    Hans Hirschmüller
    Hans Hirschmüller
    • Police Officer
    Sibylle Baier
    • Woman on Ferry
    Mirko
    • Boy Singing Next to Jukebox
    Julia Baier
    • Young Girl on Ferry
    • (uncredited)
    Chuck Berry
    Chuck Berry
    • Chuck Berry
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    Peter Genée
    • Man Looking at Monitor in New York Airport
    • (uncredited)
    • …
    Peter Handke
    Peter Handke
    • Man at Chuck Berry concert
    • (uncredited)
    Jane Jarvis
    • Organist at Shea Stadium
    • (uncredited)
    Micky Kley
    • Woman Behind Philip and Alice on Plane
    • (uncredited)
    Martin Müller
    • Man on Empire State Building Roof
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Wim Wenders
    • Writers
      • Wim Wenders
      • Veith von Fürstenberg(contributing writer)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The novel "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald is seen on the coffee table of Phil Winter's girlfriend. A character in the novel, Rosemary Hoyt, was inspired by Fitzgerald's affair with actress Lois Moran, who appears in this film as an airport hostess. It was Moran last movie.
    • Goofs
      Crew are reflected in the side of the car (at around 46 mins - sound man, microphone and other crew. This is why so many cars in movies appear dirty or have a matte paint job.).
    • Quotes

      Lisa - Alice's Mother: What are you writing?

      Philip 'Phil' Winter: The inhuman thing about American TV is not so much that they hack everything up with commercials, though that's bad enough, but in the end all programmes become commercials. Commercials for the status quo. Every image radiates the same disgusting and nauseated message. A kind of boastful contempt. Not one image leaves you in peace, they all want something from you.

    • Connections
      Featured in Such a Long Absence (1985)
    • Soundtracks
      Under the Boardwalk
      Written by Kenny Young and Alan Resnick

      Performed by The Drifters and The Rolling Stones

    User reviews38

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    9/10
    Tender, restrained, elegiac road film about unexpected meaning...
    Alice in the Cities (1974)

    If there are movies, like comedies and horror films, that are better seen in a crowd, there are some movies that might be best seen alone. This is one of them, and I didn't realize until I was almost done because it had become so absorbing I was really enjoying my isolation within the movie.

    The plot is simple, and I won't say how it happens, but a nine year old Dutch-German girl is left with a German man in the United States, and he takes care of her as they search for a way to find her mother or grandmother. Their first step is to fly back to Amsterdam, and then in Germany in a little car they poke around looking for her home.

    It's a road movie, though unlike any other. The two main characters are about as perfect and as natural as it gets. The man is a thoughtful, drifting writer and photographer, an artist in the counter-culture way of the times. He has no real ambition, but observes the world with poetic appreciation. So when this girl is made part of his life, he takes it in stride. That's key to the mood of the film, that this very unlikely situation can continue for so long because he just goes with the flow. There is no running to the police, no panic. But there is no sense either that this is an accepted new relationship. It's for the moment, but the end of the moment is continually deferred.

    The girl goes with the flow as well, and is as brilliant as the man at being natural in front of the camera, often doing nothing. She's made to be lovable, of course, but not in any coy or sentimental way. (If this were a Hollywood film we'd all be barfing by now.) All of this matters because it isn't what's happening that really matters, but it's just being together, the two of them, and then (you realize) the three of you. You wish it was you who was doing this utterly humane, deeply felt act of traveling and being supportive and seeing modern (1973) Germany.

    The filming is simple black and white but brilliantly effective, down to the heart wrenching last shot (which was probably the most expensive). The setting is actually a surprise in that you never think of the ordinary middle class and industrial parts of middle Europe being so interesting. The music comes and goes, and refers to the earthy music of the time, mostly American blues based stuff.

    In a little way this reminded me of "Stranger than Paradise" and when I connected the two I saw how much Jarmusch (in that film) owed to these art film experiments just a few years earlier. And now that I think of it, this one is more touching and important even if "Stranger than Paradise" is more inventive. "Alice in the Cities" makes a case for a kind of film we don't see being made now, and which might have another vogue one of these years in reaction to the general highly refined, highly artificial worlds of most movies today. I hope so.
    helpful•21
    3
    • secondtake
    • Oct 7, 2012

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 17, 1974 (West Germany)
    • Country of origin
      • West Germany
    • Languages
      • German
      • English
      • Dutch
    • Also known as
      • Alice in den Städten
    • Filming locations
      • Wuppertal Suspension Railway, Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
    • Production companies
      • Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
      • Filmverlag der Autoren
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • DEM 500,000 (estimated)
    • Gross worldwide
      • $58,388
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 53 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono

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