The Wrong Move
| The Wrong Move | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Wim Wenders |
| Written by | Peter Handke |
| Starring |
Rüdiger Vogler Hanna Schygulla Marianne Hoppe Nastassja Kinski Hans Christian Blech Peter Kern Ivan Desny Lisa Kreuzer |
| Cinematography | Robby Müller |
| Edited by | Peter Przygodda |
| Distributed by | Axiom Films (UK and Ireland) |
Release dates | 1975 |
| Country | West Germany |
| Language | German |
The Wrong Move (UK) or Wrong Movement (USA video title) (German: Falsche Bewegung) is a 1975 German road movie directed by Wim Wenders. This was the second part of Wenders' "Road Movie Trilogy" which included Alice in the Cities (1974) and Kings of the Road (1976). It marks the debut of Nastassja Kinski, who later played one of the leading roles in Wenders' film Paris, Texas (1984), as well as appearing in his Faraway, So Close (1993). She was thirteen years old at the time of filming.
With long carefully composed shots characteristic of Wenders' work, the story follows the wanderings of an aspiring young writer, Wilhelm Meister, as he explores his native country, encounters its people and starts defining his vocation. His thoughts are occasionally presented in voice-over. The work is a rough adaption of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, an early example of of the Bildungsroman or novel of initiation.
Plot
Aiming to be a writer, Wilhelm leaves mother and girlfriend in his home town of Glückstadt in the flat far north of Germany and sets out for Bonn. Changing trains at Hamburg, he is struck by a beautiful actress, Therese, and obtains her phone number. In his compartment are an older man Laertes, who mostly communicates by blowing a mouth organ, and a young female acrobat called Mignon, who is mute. The pair have no money, so Wilhelm pays their fare and puts them up in his cheap hotel, where Therese joins them. Bernhard, an awkward Austrian who wants to be a poet, befriends the four. He says he has a rich uncle with a castle on a peak overlooking the Rhine, but when the five turn up it is the wrong place. The owner welcomes them however, because their arrival stopped him shooting himself, and says they can stay as long as they like.
But tensions grow, for Wilhelm is not giving Therese the affection she wants, while Mignon signals her availability to him. Laertes, feeling guilt but not repentant, disgusts Wilhelm by revealing some of his role in the Holocaust. Then the owner of castle hangs himself, upon which the five leave hastily. Bernhard goes off while Therese takes the other three to her small flat in Frankfurt, where the tensions grow worse. Leaving on his own, Wilhelm completes his symbolic journey by reaching one of the most southerly, highest and emptiest points in Germany, the summit of the Zugspitze.
Cast
- Rüdiger Vogler: Wilhelm Meister
- Hans Christian Blech: Laertes
- Hanna Schygulla: Therese Farner
- Nastassja Kinski: Mignon
- Peter Kern: Bernhard Landau
- Ivan Desny: Castle owner
- Marianne Hoppe: Wilhelm's mother
- Lisa Kreuzer: Janine, Wilhelm's girl friend
External links
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