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Kings of the Road

Original title: Im Lauf der Zeit
  • 1976
  • Not Rated
  • 2h 55m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
6.1K
YOUR RATING
Kings of the Road (1976)
Watch Trailer [DE]
Play trailer3:11
1 Video
78 Photos
Drama

A traveling projection-equipment mechanic works in Western Germany along the East-German border, visiting worn-out theatres. He meets with a depressed young man whose marriage has just broke... Read allA traveling projection-equipment mechanic works in Western Germany along the East-German border, visiting worn-out theatres. He meets with a depressed young man whose marriage has just broken up, and the two decide to travel together.A traveling projection-equipment mechanic works in Western Germany along the East-German border, visiting worn-out theatres. He meets with a depressed young man whose marriage has just broken up, and the two decide to travel together.

  • Director
    • Wim Wenders
  • Writer
    • Wim Wenders
  • Stars
    • Rüdiger Vogler
    • Hanns Zischler
    • Lisa Kreuzer
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.7/10
    6.1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Wim Wenders
    • Writer
      • Wim Wenders
    • Stars
      • Rüdiger Vogler
      • Hanns Zischler
      • Lisa Kreuzer
    • 20User reviews
    • 30Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 1 nomination

    Videos1

    Trailer [DE]
    Trailer 3:11
    Watch Trailer [DE]

    Photos78

    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Rüdiger Vogler and Hanns Zischler in Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)
    Kings of the Road (1976)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Rüdiger Vogler
    Rüdiger Vogler
    • Bruno Winter
    Hanns Zischler
    Hanns Zischler
    • Robert Lander
    Lisa Kreuzer
    Lisa Kreuzer
    • Pauline - Cashier
    Rudolf Schündler
    Rudolf Schündler
    • Robert's Father
    Marquard Bohm
    Marquard Bohm
    • Man Who Lost His Wife
    Hans Dieter Trayer
    • Paul - Garage Owner
    • (as Dieter Traier)
    Franziska Stömmer
    • Cinema Owner
    Patric Kreuzer
    • Little Boy
    • (as Patrick Kreuzer)
    Peter Kaiser
    • Masturbating Projectionist
    • (uncredited)
    Wim Wenders
    Wim Wenders
    • Spectator at Pauline's Theater
    • (uncredited)
    Michael Wiedemann
    • Teacher
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Wim Wenders
    • Writer
      • Wim Wenders
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      There had basically been no script for the movie. Except for the first scene after the opening credits when the two protagonists meet each other, everything is improvised or developed on set.
    • Goofs
      The VW beetle driven into the Elbe river is not visible anymore when Robert reaches the waterside. Later after Bruno hands over an espresso to Robert, the beetle is shown as finally sinking.
    • Quotes

      Robert Lander: What are you writing?

      Little Boy: I'm describing a train station. Everything I see.

      Robert Lander: And what do you see?

      Little Boy: The tracks, the gravel, the timetable, the sky, the clouds. A man with a suitcase. An empty suitcase!

    • Crazy credits
      Opening credits provide the aspect ratio and other technical specifications of the film to come.
    • Connections
      Featured in Motion and Emotion: The Films of Wim Wenders (1990)
    • Soundtracks
      Just Like Eddie
      Written by Geoff Goddard

      Performed by Heinz Burt (as Heinz)

    User reviews20

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    the king of the road movies
    The Wim Wenders retrospective at the local cinematheque provided us this week the opportunity to see the most famous film in the series of the 'road movies' made by the German director more than four decades ago. 'Kings of the Road' (the original title in German is 'Im Lauf der Zeit' which would mean 'Over the Time') is, in my opinion, one of the masterpieces of the genre, a reference film, a film whose beauty has not diminished over time, but on the contrary, seems to have been accentuated and amplified, gaining new meanings from the perspective of time.

    The comparison with Dennis Hopper's 'Easy Rider' is inevitable. I'm sure that Wenders knew well and loved this movie. His heroes depicted on screen by Rüdiger Vogler and Hanns Zischler are not necessarily marginals such as those played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, but same as the ones in the American movie, they cannot care less about social conventions, and choose the roads as a way of life. Roads mean running away and discovering. Self-discovery before anything else. Roads mean taking life as it is, meeting other people, trying to communicate, to connect one loneliness with another. From 'Easy Rider' and 'Kings of the Road' we learn and understand more about the America of the late 1960s or about Germany in the mid-1970s than from dozens of other books or movies.

    Wenders' film has a second theme parallel to the one of roads - it's the decaying cinema houses. One of the film's heroes lives out of maintaining the projection equipment of the old cinemas in the small rural German villages. A job that becomes increasingly useless. Wenders anticipates Giuseppe Tornatore's "Cinema Paradiso" for over a decade. 30 years after the end of the Second World War, the ruined Germany was disappearing, taking with it signs and symbols of a way of life that had not only negative aspects. The two characters of the film, apparently lost in a world dominated by order, are actually the symbols of a lost freedom.

    'Kings of the Road' lasts three hours, three hours spent by the two characters in a truck, on country roads along the temporary border between the two Germanies, between one cinema already in ruins to another, or to one that still functions without spectators. Not much seems to happen in the movie. And yet the three hours pass quickly, like in a spell, because every minute is full of artistic substance, full of life.
    helpful•5
    0
    • dromasca
    • Feb 1, 2019

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 1977 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • West Germany
    • Languages
      • German
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Im Lauf der Zeit
    • Filming locations
      • Künsche, Lüchow, Lower Saxony, Germany(Robert at the gas station looking for his way)
    • Production companies
      • Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
      • Wim Wenders Productions
      • Wim Wenders Stiftung
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • DEM 680,000 (estimated)
    • Gross worldwide
      • $284
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      2 hours 55 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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