Synopsis
German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer’s block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends (almost out of necessity) 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.
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Cast
- Rüdiger VoglerPhilip Winter
- Yella RottländerAlice van Damm
- Lisa KreuzerLisa van Damm
- Edda KöchlAngela
- Ernest BoehmPublisher
- Sam PrestiCar Dealer
- Lois MoranAirport Hostess
- Didi PetrikatWoman at Swimming Park
- Hans HirschmüllerPolice Officer
- Sibylle BaierWoman on Ferry
Recommendations
- 91
The A.V. Club
As a crash course in New German Cinema, this is tough to beat. - 80
The Guardian
It is an intriguing movie that lives in the mind for hours after the lights have come up. - 80
The New Yorker
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
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 Observer (UK)
Yella Rottlander is unforgettable as Alice. [06 Jan 2008, p.16] - 75
Slant Magazine
What makes Alice in the Cities so noteworthy is the tender, lifelike rapport cultivated between Vogler and Rottländer. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
An ancestor of director Wenders's 1984 film Paris, Texas. - 75
RogerEbert.com
There is a timelessness to its explorations that makes it as rich and resonant today as when it was first released.
