20 Favorite Wim Wenders films

One of my all-time favorites, this is a perfect road/buddy movie. The chemistry between the man (Rüdiger Vogler) and the little girl Alice (Yella Rottländer) is ridiculously charming. The girl's mother randomly runs off, leaving her daughter with some guy they'd just met. It's hilarious and heartwarming, and needs to be seen.

I can't say anything about this movie that hasn't already been said. It's about a lost/deserted father reconnecting with his son, his past, and his wife. It cuts to the core. Certainly the most visually-colorful film ever shot in Texas, with a spellbinding slide guitar score from Ry Cooder, and amazing acting all around, it's simply perfect.

Filmed all over the world (though the second half is solely in the Australian outback), featuring actors from all over the world, it's another brilliant example of the road movie. The acting and story is fabulous, and kept me captivated through the whole 4.5 hours. (Read: the director's cut is way, way better than the unfortunate, criminally-edited theatrical release.)

The sing-along campfire scene of everyone singing the Kinks' "Days" is just...one of those moments.

Fantastic movie about filmmaking and languages. Wenders has many examples of experimenting with language in his films, and this one is my favorite. Wenders is a German, and uses actors from all over Europe, America, and Australia in his films. It's always fascinating.

Rüdiger Vogler is really funny in this one.

The sequel to Wings of Desire may be less beautiful, but I find it a little warmer and more playful in a lot of ways. Still, it's fairly arbitrary to rank this above Wings, so here they are together.

Gorgeous movie that unfortunately inspired that pile of drivel known as City of Angels. Same premise, but the cinematography and atmosphere of this film are extraordinary, and the acting and music are phenomenal. There's no other movie like this one, except for its sequel (Faraway, So Close!).

Come on, you can tell immediately that this is a classic road movie.

His ten-minute short "Twelve Miles to Trona" is completely brilliant, and a good illustration of his talent. Check it out on YouTube, or watch this whole collection of shorts from some of the world's very best filmmakers. It's probably my favorite short-film collection. Individually, the shorts are amazing, and they add up to a brilliant whole.

A shamefully-derided movie, I think this is equally hilarious and heartbreaking. Despite knowing from the opening that the main character will die, by the end I was screaming in my head, "No! NO! Change the script!"

I felt so much for this great characters, and it's beautiful and tragic to watch the story unfold.

Milla is simply adorable (and that's coming from a non-fan of her work in general), and Mel Gibson is pretty funny here. Of course, Jeremy Davies is wonderful.

This movie has some of the most amazing shot-framing I've ever seen. Half of these shots could be published in a book. Up there with a lot of Tarkovsky's shots, if you ask me.

That's just the best aspect of a film with a lot of good things going for it.

I know I'm biased, but I think Wim's later work is hardly less relevant than his other stuff. Between this, Land of Plenty, and Don't Come Knocking, he's still churning out great, great movies. This one's beautiful, a bit surreal, and not at all clear-cut. I like that. It raises a lot of interesting questions, too, and lets you decide the answers for yourself. It's slow and a bit strange. If that's all "pretentious," Iron Man 16 is in the theatre next door.

I'll admit that I'm barely interested in dancing in general, but I found this documentary fascinating. It's like surreal ballet, interwoven with interview clips and re-enactments. Fantastic.

A timeless doc about a timeless music: Cuban "country music" of the 40s and 50s. It's lovely to see these elderly, forgotten musicians get together for the love and joy of music. The results are unforgettable.

There's great footage of modern-day Cuba, a colorful and dusty-looking place.

My favorite part is at the end when everybody goes to New York, the first time for most of them. The sheer joy they get from it is so great to see.

Yet another Rüdiger Vogler road movie. Yes!

Wonderful doc about Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, and J.B. Lenoir, especially if you don't know much about them. I was overjoyed to discover Lenoir, a guy with SUCH a cool voice who I'd never heard before.

Great movie featuring Dennis Hopper and The Kinks song "Too Much on My Mind". What more do you need?

A strange movie that takes a liiiitttle while to get going, I quite enjoyed this one. It really captures many of the conflicting post-9/11 feelings in America.

When Michaelangelo Antonioni fell sick (and later died) during the filming of this, Wenders took over and finished it. The result is a visually-mesmerizing film of three vignettes, dealing with love and the human body. It's gorgeous.

This would probably be ranked a tad higher if I could see it without super-annoying subtitles. It's a very famous story, based on a book I haven't read yet. Written for the screen by its author, it seems like a great rendering.

Some utterly fascinating looks at life in Tokyo (plus the little village where the Japanese cinema legend Chishû Ryû lived, who's interviewed here). We get to see how they make those delicious-looking "wax food models" for restaurants, young rockabilly fans dancing to 50s American rock in Yoyogi Park, pachinko halls, and other staples of Tokyo life. It's great, especially if you've been to Tokyo or want to go.