Jemima
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
Janis
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Walter Sloane
Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
g-moff
"Everything has to change". This is the good-bye message which character Robert leaves to character Bruno after a few days of joint traveling through the 197ies West German countryside. Actually, not traveling: Bruno works as an independent cinema equipment repairman who visits small town cinemas to check their projector stuff and took Robert as a passenger after witnessing his rather clumsy suicide effort. Both are somehow reluctant (or unable) to really get involved with life and other people. They seem to have plenty of time, no hurry for both of them. And thus this movie proceeds at a snail's pace. Tormenting it felt sometimes and I was thankful for the "pause" button of my DVD player. "Kings of the road" was shot in 1976 West Germany. Watching it in 2017 felt really odd to me. Nowadays' motto sounds rather like 'modernize or tear down' - 'keep a tight schedule' - 'time is money' - 'everyone for himself' etc. - well, you know. 7,5 (=8) of 10 anyhow for remarkably beautiful takes (mind the side view mirrors!) and very adequate last minutes. In general, the combination of visually stunning shots and a rather dragging storytelling might actually strengthen the sustainable impression this movie is able to produce - if you can bear watching it all through.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
This is already the second time I watched Wim Wenders' "Im Lauf der Zeit" or "Kings of the Road" and even if I did not hate it as much as I did during the first watch, I still find it really underwhelming and nowhere near Wenders' best. I like "Wings of Desire" and "Alice in the Cities" a lot more. This 40-year-old film (made in 1976) we have here is a film is a two-man show basically from start to finish and quite a challenge for lead actors Rüdiger Vogler and Hanns Zischler as the film runs for almost three hours. Wenders made color films before and after, but here he made the creative choice of returning to black-and-white. This is the story of a friendship between two men as they spend together a whole lot of time on the road. One of them, a mechanic who does lots of repair work in theaters, is played by Vogler, while the other (Zischler) is a man who just turned single again after the relationship with his wife ended. I did not care for these two as much as I hoped I would. I like Vogler as an actor most of the time, but here he gave off a really unlikable vibe on many occasions and this was a huge problem as it certainly was not intended. Vogler's character was not half as interesting as he should have been with his background. Admittedly, the short performance of Marquard Bohm stayed more memorable to me, even if Wenders' attempt to show things could be way worse about wife struggles feels pretty clumsy. Lisa Kreuzer has a very small role only and as she is third in the credits, it shows how much the film is really only about the two main characters. She also adds very little as a short-time love interest to Vogler's character. The struggles of the latter were also really irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I personally enjoyed seeing Rudolf Schündler in here as I think he is by far the best thing about the Lümmel franchise, even if his character here is of course entirely different. As a whole, it is a film that is as slow as it gets and this is not necessarily a problem, can even be an advantage if the slowness still brings up interesting characters and elaborates profoundly on them. But I never developed interest in the duo here or even felt involved with their story and I do not think this is my fault, but the fault of writing characters that impossibly can carry this film, especially with this runtime. Still, with the whole atmosphere and setting of this road movie I am not surprised it received some awards attention, actually less than I expected. But I am very much surprised by this film's rating on IMDb as I think it is one of Wenders' weakest works from what I have seen so far and I don't think it has aged well at all. Also the parts about sexuality/masturbation add very little except cheap thrills. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
Ilpo Hirvonen
Im Lauf Der Zeit (Kings of the Road - In the Course of Time) directed by Wim Wenders was his first own production (Wim Wenders Produktion). It's the third film of his road-movie trilogy (1st Alice in den Städten, 2nd False Bewegung) and it summarizes the bottom idea of the two films into a masterpiece. Yesterday I saw Im Lauf Der Zeit for the second time in theaters and loved it even more than the first time. The big screen achieved to maximize the emotion in it and it let the music express the scenes better.When they started filming this they actually didn't have a ready script. They kept writing the script chronologically while they were filming the movie and I think that's one of the main reasons, which created this amazing atmosphere for Im Lauf Der Zeit. After the film was ready they got a nearly three hour long road-movie film. In spite of the unplanned script writing the movie is full of small details and it is very well written, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece if it wasn't. The story builds around two men and their relationship. Robert Lander (Hanns Zischler), who has just divorced from his wife meets a projection mechanic Bruno Winter (Rüdiger Vogler) who travels from one dead movie theater to other. They decide to travel together and during the journey they see movie theaters falling apart and a modern country that is being americanized day by day.In the beginning Robert doesn't have a direction for his life, but instead Bruno has, he has got a clear list of theaters' projection equipment to fix. A clear direction for his life. During the journey they learn about life and start to find new things. They realize that if you want to be satisfied with your identity you must get over your past. The journey they travel together feels so natural, there's not a single mistake. This is a movie where you could actually cry. Not because of it's sadness, but because you can actually feel what the characters are feeling, you can almost touch them.The film, among friendship and society is about the difficulty of communication. You can see this in the minimal dialog in the film. For Robert communication is mostly writing, printing a newspaper with his father. Then for Bruno it is the language, German and English. Wim Wenders also researches man's identity in Im Lauf Der Zeit. When you're in a state where your identity breaks, you become afraid and vulnerable. If you open yourself up to another human being your identity is in danger, the playing-with-the-shadows scene is a good example of this.All the movie theaters Bruno and Robert visit in Germany are decayed. The theaters have fallen apart or have decided only to show porn-films. Still Wim Wenders gives an optimistic choice to film-industry as it does to its characters "Everything must change." In the beginning we see a man telling about the great times of silent movies and in the end we see a woman pitying the modern cinema and thinking is it worth to even keep theaters up for this. But then we have just seen Im Lauf Der Zeit, which is a great modern film and it's a proof of the fact that there's still hope in cinema.This is a long film with many layers, which is why people can write so long reviews of it. We could analyze it for days but these are the main themes I wanted to mention from Im Lauf Der Zeit. It's basically about the difficulty of communication, friendship, identity and about the loneliness in us all. Even that the film works on an artistic and intellectual level, I think it will appeal to all the people. Because in addition to it's artistry it manages to be more entertaining than any silly Hollywood comedy.10/10 Im Lauf Der Zeit as a three-hour long black and white road movie requires empathy, patience and a lot of heart from the viewer.
Spikeopath
Projection engineer Bruno Winter is pulled up alongside the River Elbe, as he sets about giving himself a shave a Volkswagen drives straight into the river in what seems to be a half hearted suicide attempt. The driver of the Volkswagen is woman troubled Robert, after getting to the river bank he finds Bruno to be a most interesting person, and the pair then set off on a road trip that will shape their respective lives and outlooks considerably.Shot in 11 weeks between July 1st and October 31st 1975, Im Lauf der Zeit is now considered to be one of the seminal pictures of New German cinema. Director Wim Wenders and his crew set off along the Zonenrandgebiet with only an itinerary set in concrete, working completely without a script, his lead actors, Rudolf Vogler & Hanns Zischler manage to produce one of the most thought provokingly intelligent road movies to have ever been made.There are many musings on this picture across internet forums, and although the film has very deep meanings, I really feel that it's down to the individual viewer to align themselves personally with our protagonists to get the most from the piece. Wenders clearly had deep feelings for German cinema, and here as the guys move from town to town, on Bruno's projection repair route, the feeling that film in this country is dying is quite palpable. This all ties in with the theme of change that is the core essence in Wenders film, it's not just our characters who need to wake up to the need for change, it's essentially his home country as well.As the guys move on they meet people, they drink, talk, even fight, and it's all filmed in real time, we are forced to be part of this unlikely friendship, be it washing or shaving, or the act of defecating, it's all humane and sits perfectly as a normal way of life. Come the ending, after nearly three hours of engrossing cinema, we know what has been identified, not just for our two wonderful characters, but for all of us who may be wary of change. The black and white photography from Robby Muller is excellent, and manages to make the various landscapes the guys travel thru an extra character, but ultimately it's just one of a number of things that make Im Lauf der Zeit a truly smart film. My hope is that any newcomers to the film will get as much from it as I did, maybe something different perhaps? But at the very least a recognition that this is a truly wonderful picture. 9/10
