People who talk to themselves are not talking but listening.
The most heartwarming one in the Highway trilogy, and the one with a slightly stronger story. It is not uncommon to find stories of self-identification on the road, but Wenders' charm lies in making simple stories exude a unique tone from the details, environment, actors and other elements in the shot, which is largely Credit to actor Rudiger for his charisma and temperament. The male protagonist Winter travels across the United States to describe the culture and experience of the United States in words. At the beginning of the film, there are a lot of scenes of the male protagonist Winter driving. The radio in the car is playing music, and the interstitial advertisements always make Winter unable to hear the end of the song. The incessant commercials on TV made him angry. The ubiquitous commercial element suffocates him. He found himself unable to write in America, and he lost his inspiration and ability to write. He's far from home and into a new place full of popular culture and bonkers. As a literary and cultural worker, this transformation is a subversion. I think he's scared, he's hesitant, watching TV and commercials every day that are boring and brainwashed to get something out of you, dreaming the American dream out of reach. He can't see the real existence under the glitzy surface, he can't use his own experience to understand and analyze a new culture, just like Winter's lover in the United States said: when you lose your self-identity, you lose contact with the world . That's why he couldn't write, and that's why he smashed the TV. He began to use a camera to record what he saw and heard, because photos are the most realistic presentation in an objective sense, but photos can never catch up with reality, and photos do not represent everything the eyes see. He lost his ability to work, so he was terminated by the company. He was so poor that he had no choice but to return to Germany alone.
At the airport, he met a German mother and daughter, who could not leave because of the airport strike. The mother who did not speak English asked Winter for help and entrusted him to take care of her daughter for two days. But the mother did not show up to pick up her daughter as expected. In this way, because of the appearance of an irresponsible mother, Winter and the little girl Alice embarked on a journey home. They traveled through the streets and alleys of the city by various means of transportation. Alice is a ray of light that shines into Winter's confused and troubled spiritual world. Alice's peculiar childlike qualities such as simplicity, childishness, moodiness, perpetual hunger, and realism at every moment are what Winter has been looking for, although he is resistant and impatient at first. Alice's dream of being tied up on a stool to watch a movie in the hotel and Winter's smile after listening to it correspond to Winter's self-talk and anger. Winter helps Alice find her grandmother, but Alice deliberately gives the wrong address and information so that Winter can't find her grandmother's address, because Alice enjoys the feeling of being on the road with Winter. Winter was angry and sent Alice to the police station, but Alice sneaked out because the food in the police station was too bad. When he saw Alice again, Winter smiled. He no longer regarded Alice as a burden. The short parting showed the importance of each other. Winter hooks up with a white puff after Alice's conversation about not looking like her dad, and the image of Alice half-dressed waking Winter up the next morning is just too cool. They found the grandmother's residence according to the photo of the grandmother's house given by Alice, but the grandmother had already moved away, which is consistent with the previous view that the photos will never catch up with the truth. But that no longer matters, purposeful journeys have never been the subject of Wenders' films. During this journey, Alice finds a vision similar to her father, and Winter finds the lost truth and self-identity. This sense of fulfillment from nothingness is what Winter needs most, needs each other, takes care of each other, is full of Human touch. At the end, Alice gave Winter 100 yuan to buy a ticket. In the end, the two of them opened the window on the train and looked out, gradually zooming out, until the distant scene of the train speeding by the valley is unforgettable.
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