According to Wenders, Alice in the Cities, his fourth feature-length film, came at a major turning point when he was deciding whether to remain a filmmaker. He felt that his first two features were too heavily indebted to John Cassavetes and Alfred Hitchcock, while his third was an ill-advised adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. Alice in the Cities was a conscious attempt to make something only he could do.[2]
The scenario of a young girl and a writer thrown together was inspired by Wenders' long-time collaborator Peter Handke's experience as a single parent.[3] The influence of Handke's 1972 novel Short Letter, Long Farewell, also featuring an alienated German-speaker travelling across the United States, can be inferred from the film's use of clips from John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln, which is heavily referenced in the novel. The film can be seen as a response to Handke's novel.[4]
While Wenders was preparing Alice in the Cities, a friend took him to a screening of Peter Bogdanovich's new film, Paper Moon (1973). To his horror, the film was very similar to this own, prompting him to call his production office and break the news that he was canceling the project, as he believed the film they were about to shoot "had already been made". Soon after, Wenders went to see Samuel Fuller, who had invited him to come visit after a prior encounter in Germany. Wenders mentioned to Fuller that he had just cancelled a project, and, upon finding out that Wenders had already secured the financing for the film, Fuller convinced Wenders that it was a mistake. After a few hours of discussion, Wenders realized he could still proceed, albeit with some extensive rewrites to differentiate Alice in the Cities from Paper Moon, and he called his production office to tell them that the film was back on.[2]
Wenders and Robby Müller had hoped to shoot the film in 35 mm with the Arri BL, which had just come out at the time, but it was too difficult to find one (a common problem with newly issued cameras). Given their budgetary limitations, they were left with no other option than to switch to 16 mm. Although they filmed with the 1.66:1 wide-screen format (a common European format at the time) in mind, even drawing it on the viewfinder, they had to provide a 4:3 full frame format of the film due to television broadcast demands, even though it was not their intended aspect ratio. This would create some problems in later years, before everything was rectified with the film's definitive restoration in 2014.[5]
The film was shot in close-to-chronological order—beginning in North Carolina, proceeding to New York, continuing in Amsterdam, and finishing in Germany—throughout the summer of 1973. As filming progressed, the production grew more confident about improvising each scene. Some parts, like certain hotel scenes and almost anything filmed in a car, closely followed the script for logistical reasons, but, by the end of the film, Wenders said they virtually ignored the script altogether.[2]
One of Wenders' inspirations for the story of the film was Chuck Berry's classic song "Memphis, Tennessee", in which a man is trying to re-connect with his daughter. When Wenders tried to include footage of Berry performing the song that he had shot in Frankfurt (presumably in late July 1973), Berry's camp demanded a clearance fee that he could not afford to pay. Instead, Wenders approached D.A. Pennebaker, who had filmed Berry's performance of the song at the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, which Pennebaker had filmed for his documentary Sweet Toronto (1971). Although Wenders had to decolorize Pennebaker's footage to use it in the black-and-white Alice in the Cities, licensing it turned out to be a viable workaround, as it was substantially cheaper than clearing his own footage with Berry's camp.[2]
Music
The film was scored by the German band Can. When interviewed about the experience, Can's Irmin Schmidt stated that it was recorded by him, Michael Karoli, and Jaki Liebezeit, and that they were not able to see the film before recording the music. Instead, Wenders, who was very short on time, told them the film's story and then let them know what would and would not work as they came up with ideas and recorded, all over the course of one session.[6]
