King of the Road

Movie projector repairman Bruno (Rüdiger Vogler) drives a large truck around the German countryside, doing odd jobs for rural screening halls, looking forward to finding a job and meeting the woman in his life. After Robert (Hanns Zischler), a child linguistics research expert, broke up with his wife, he drove his car alone on the road. On the way, the car was driven into a river. He seemed to be trying to commit suicide. Bruno happened to meet him when he was passing by and helped him out of trouble. Afterwards, Robert made a tacit understanding and drove in Breno's truck through the German countryside to screen movies for cinemas. Together they witnessed the decline of German films caused by the invasion of American culture into the German film industry, and together they experienced the loneliness and alienation along the way. Just as their friendship became closer, the two people who had long been accustomed to loneliness had to face separation. "King of the Road" is the most successful part of German director Wim Wenders' "Road Trilogy" after "Alice in the City" and "The Crossing". It won the 1976 Cannes Film Critics' FIPRESCI Award.