The Road Trilogy

Three defining early features by German filmmaker Wim Wenders—all starring Rüdiger Volger on journeys across Germany—are collected in this boxed set. Alice in the Cities (1974), with Volger playing a photojournalist returning to Germany from a trip across America and young Yella Rottlander as a girl left in his care by her single mother (Lisa Kreuzer), is Wenders's international breakthrough and one of his most beloved films. Shooting in lovely black and white, Robby Müller (cinematographer for all three films) visually matches the easy, meandering pace and observational style that defines the entire trilogy. Wrong Move (1975), inspired by a Goethe novel and starring Volger as an alienated, self-involved would-be writer, is the most overtly literary of the three and the most downbeat, and also features Hanna Schygulla and Nastassja Kinski (the latter in her first screen role). Kings of the Road (1976) is Wenders's first masterpiece, a road movie epic centering on a movie projector repairman (Volger) working near the East German border and the aimless child psychologist (Hanns Zischler) who becomes his traveling companion. This three-hour film exhibits a gentle serenity and contemplative tone as it chronicles the dramas of people the pair meet along the way. All three films are united by the overriding theme of searching for identity in 1970s Germany (where the culturally suppressed legacy of the Nazi past echoes throughout), as well as the road movie structure, and Volger's casting in the lead, and they established Wenders as a major filmmaker of the New German Cinema. All three films have been newly restored and feature a new English subtitle translation by Wenders, along with extras including audio commentaries, interviews with cast and crew, a featurette on the restoration work, two early short films by Wenders, and a 50-page book with essays and photos. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)