Alice in the Cities

The trilogy consists of Alice in the Cities (1974), The Wrong Move (1975), and Kings of the Road (1976), all directed by Wim Wenders. Alice in the Cities is the first installment and established the thematic preoccupations with movement, alienation, and identity that run through all three films.

The cinematographer was Robby Müller, a frequent Wim Wenders collaborator who later shot Paris, Texas (1984) and several Jim Jarmusch films including Dead Man. Müller's luminous black-and-white photography in Alice in the Cities captures both American road-side landscapes and German urban environments with a contemplative, observational style.

Both films are road movies exploring themes of displacement and human connection, but Alice in the Cities is shot in black-and-white with a more spontaneous, European New Wave sensibility. Paris, Texas features color cinematography by the same cinematographer, Robby Müller, and is set in the American West with a more mythic, narrative-driven structure.

The film is bilingual, featuring substantial dialogue in both German and English as the story moves from the United States to Germany and the Netherlands. This linguistic duality reflects the protagonist's sense of rootlessness and the cross-cultural journey he undertakes with the young girl Alice.