1. Kings of the Road
1. The State of Things
3. Alice in the Cities
4. Wings of Desire
5. Paris, Texas
6. The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
7. The American Friend
8. Tokyo-Ga
9. Lightning Over Water
10, Hammett
11. Buena Vista Social Club/Willie Nelson Live at the Teatro
12. The Scarlet Letter
13. Until the End of the World
14. Don’t Come Knocking
15. Faraway, So Close
16. The End of Violence
17. Land of Plenty
18. Million Dollar Hotel
your list is mostly right matt@ except possibly for tokyo-ga i’ve always found it too simplistic.
I’ve only seen four of his films and each has received 5 stars from me on Netflix and MUBI.
The American Friend, Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire and Land of Plenty.
I find it hard to not like a film of his, so far.
Interesting list Matt!
My top 5:
1) Paris, Texas
2) Wings of Desire
3) Alice in the Cities
4) The State of Things
5) Kings of the Road
i’ve only seen 5 from him yet he is one of my fave director, im kinda new to wenders so couldnt wait to see more from him
1 & 2. wings of desire & kings of the road (cant decide which is which)
3. alice in the cities
4. paris, texas
5. land of plenty
I have only seen Wings of Desire so far but really thought it was a great, excellent film! I will definitely be checking out more of his stuff
WINGS OF DESIRE & KINGS OF THE ROAD are for me far and away the greatest. Both are masterpieces.
THE AMERICAN FRIEND, LIGHTNING OVER WATER, and TOKYO-GA would be next.
and how about the 5 hour version of UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD!
@ Ryan
Yeah, Wings of Desire is a good place to start and if you go backwards from their rather than forward Wenders is pretty fascinating.
I won’t bother with a complete list. We all know that his run of films from 1970 to 1990 is, largely, without failure, and that after the grand folly of ‘Until the End of the World’ things get a little bit “spotty”. However, I would like to offer a short celebration of the hugely underrated ‘Lisbon Story’; his 1994 ‘part-travelogue/part-character study/part-film about filmmaking’ curio, which unites the two great avatars of Wenders’ career – Rüdiger Vogler’s Phillip Winter from ‘Alice in the Cities’ and Patrick Bauchau’s Friedrich Monroe from ‘The State of Things’ – and has them engage in a metaphorical discussion about the future of cinema.
The film, like most of Wenders’ greatest work, as it its best when simply observing and documenting the actual spirit of the titular location, and playing it back through the lonely (but never self-pitying) perspective of his central character.
JL
Best films? Worst films?
I loved Wings of Desire, Paris Texas, and the short documentary he did that was included in the Tokyo Story DVD.
Don’t Come Knocking was very good too.
Million Dollar Hotel…not very good.
The End of Violence was terrible.