Kings of the Road (1976)

Kings of the Road (Im Lauf der Zeit)
Directed by Wim Wenders
Written by Wim Wenders
1976/West Germany
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Originality now is rare in the cinema and it isn’t worth striving for because most work that does this is egocentric and pretentious. What is most enjoyable about the cinema is simply working with a language that is classical in the sense that the image is understood by everyone. I’m not at all interested in innovating film language, making it more aesthetic. I love film history, and you’re better off learning from those who proceeded you. — Wim Wenders

The final film in Wim Wenders’ “Road Trilogy” deals with existential loneliness and the death of cinema.  Sounds dreadful but it definitely works.

Bruno Winter (Rudiger Vogler) is a laid-back movie projector repair man, who drives from one small town’s decrepit theater to another in a huge old bus.  The current journey takes him through towns on the border between West and East Germany.

One day, he witnesses Robert Lander (Hanns Zischler) drive his VW beetle into a lake.  At the last moment, Robert changes his mind and swims to shore with one small suitcase. Bruno helps Robert dry off and offers him a sleeping place for the night.  Slowly there is a wordless agreement that Robert will stick around for the ride.  We learn later that Robert has just split up with his wife.

The two drive leisurely to the soundtrack of rock ‘n’ roll music.  At one stop, Bruno meets a woman who sells tickets at a porno theater he is servicing and has a one-night stand with her.  Bruno is quite willing to make detours and both men eventually visit their childhood homes.  Robert visits his father and forces him to finally listen to him and his views on how he never listened to his wife.  Bruno visits the now empty home he grew up in.

The two encounter a man whose wife crashed their car into a tree and killed herself.  They stay with him until the car can be towed.  Finally the journey is interrupted by the border. The two get drunk and indulge in some boozy soul-searching.

This is definitely a slow burn and the viewer spends a lot of time waiting for something to happen.  But the journey itself is interesting and there is a lot of wry humor to be enjoyed. The movie theaters that Bruno stops at all contain memorabilia of the Golden Age of Hollywood now lost and replaced by porn or sensationalist fare.  At the last theater, the proprietor says she is keeping her closed theater in working order in case movies that are worth seeing get made again.  The film probably would reveal even more on a rewatch. Fans of action need not apply but if you are looking to experience a leisurely road trip with some important points to make, I can recommend.