Alice in Den Stadten (Alice In The Cities)

One of the earlier Wim Wenders films, we shall be looking for the soonest opportunity to see 'Wings Of Desire' and 'Paris, Texas' as 'Alice In The Cities' is, with a few qualifications, a masterwork.
Shot in black and white, the New York scenes are closer to the reality of the city than we can remember before coming across; this combined with some audaciously exciting tracking shots along railtracks and car bumpers makes for a visually perfect film. Every location, every city or airport or car journey, is, to use an overused term, 'stunning'. The framing could not be more beautiful, the contrasts rendered are superb without being overdone, the images captured, seemingly offhand, in the iconic black and white form, are unsurpassed. In silence, this film would still make the heart stop.
And indeed there isn't a huge amount of dialogue; yet it still manages to pack in more puzzles, images and enigmatic meanings than the vast majority of films. The photographs taken, the slow realisations and epiphanies: never spelt out, never properly understood, they stand alone not as explication, but as art. The characters are, to recapitulate a point, real people, given space to breathe and never put into slots.
Perhaps it is a little long, and the narrative rather unfocused, verging on predictable. The acting, though fittinng in langurously with the aesthetic, can seems a bit '70's' (it is a 1974 movie) and mannered.
But the form of this film is such a record of excellence, the images created and the way they are put forward so purely articulated, this is a film that deserves to be returned to by every cinema fan.