‘The more opinions you have, the less you see.’ - Wim Wenders
How beautifully and sublimely
this New German cinema’s auteur captured this self quote into a visual medium! A
German journalist roaming with his Polaroid camera into mundane cityscape of America and
experiencing emptiness around. The mental block let not finish him the offered
task as per the deadline and so he decided to return his homeland. While
booking tickets at airport he encounters a German lady and her little daughter
Alice. The chance encounter turned into friendship and company but soon it puts
him into an unwanted responsibility to take care of the girl as the mother left
both of them all of sudden one fine morning. During the journey the innocent
and sublime relations with sweet Alice
keeps breaking the sullenness of man towards life and himself. It turns out as
the journey of odd company in quest of her grandmother’s house but it also
proves as something so fulfilling experience for him washing all those dark
clouds of bleak nothingness.
Wim Wenders’ this early road film
is like an attempt to let you feel silence in the world full of noise. The
first half of the film reflects the juxtaposition of two sensibilities and
cultures with typical Wendersian road film camera portraying American
skyscrapers and industrial structures, commercial mass television and
capitalist and consumerist driven world against the inherent European artistic
mindset and sensibilities of a German reporter. With every Polaroid shots he
took he tried to compare the photographic image with one which is real but
didn’t get the feel. He maybe lost artist suffering from cultural block. His
mandatory company and odd responsibility with the little girl led him towards
the stretching journey from one destination to another and helps him to come
out of his existential disillusionment. Wenders fascinatingly captured not only
road journey of car but also views from train, airplane and boat too! The final
shot pulls out and away from Munich Express scene is something that gives it
lingering feel…Just beautiful!
Ratings-8/10
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