Six days in the life of Wilhelm: a detached man without qualities. He wants to write, so his mother gives him a ticket to Bonn, telling him to live. On the train he meets an older man, an athlete in the 1936 Olympics, and his mute teen companion, Mignon. She's an acrobat in market squares for spare change.
Cinematography
Robby Müller's landscapes make melancholy look gorgeous.
Acting
Nastassja Kinski's silent presence outshines everyone without speaking.
Direction
Wenders turns a road trip into an existential treadmill.
Director
Wim Wenders
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Loosely adapts Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship—Wenders strips out the bildungsroman growth because 1970s Germany felt pretty growth-resistant.
Nastassja Kinski was 14 during filming; her role as the silent, exploited Mignon adds uncomfortable layers to her scenes with much older men.
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