91
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
As a crash course in New German Cinema, this is tough to beat.
Alice in the Cities (Alice in den Städten)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- West Germany
- 1974
- · 110m
Director
Wim Wenders
Cast
Rüdiger Vogler,
Yella Rottländer,
Lisa Kreuzer,
Edda Köchl,
Ernest Boehm,
Sam Presti
Genre
Drama
German journalist Philip Winter, flying back to Germany from the United States, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends and while the mother asks Winter to mind Alice temporarily, it quickly becomes apparent that Alice will be his responsibility for longer than he expected. After flying back, Winter and Alice wander through various European cities on a quest for Alice’s grandmother in this contemplative road movie.
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What are critics saying?
80
The Observer (UK)
Yella Rottlander is unforgettable as Alice. [06 Jan 2008, p.16]
80
Time Out
There are points when the director allows his voice to ring a little loudly from behind the camera, but the richness and depth of both the photography and the characterisation manage to brush any signs of preachiness and sentimentality from view.
80
The New Yorker by Richard Brody
With this film, Wenders crystallized his style of existential sentimentality. His cool eye for urbanism and design blends a love of kitsch with a hatred for commercialism, historicism with a fear of history’s ghosts.
80
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It is an intriguing movie that lives in the mind for hours after the lights have come up.
75
TV Guide Magazine
An ancestor of director Wenders's 1984 film Paris, Texas.
75
RogerEbert.com by Peter Sobczynski
There is a timelessness to its explorations that makes it as rich and resonant today as when it was first released.
75
Slant Magazine by Carson Lund
What makes Alice in the Cities so noteworthy is the tender, lifelike rapport cultivated between Vogler and Rottländer.
60
Empire
Hardly must-see Wenders, but for fans of his road movies, it remains a treat.
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