4K restoration of Wenders’ masterpiece ‘Kings of the Road’

Wim Wenders, like many of his fellow directors who made up the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s, was deeply influenced by Hollywood movies — he grew up in post-World War II West Germany listening to American Forces Radio.

In 1977 he would even cast Dennis Hopper and American directors Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller in “The American Friend.”

The 1976 film is about two men, one a film projector repairman, the other his traveling companion, who drift between theaters along the border of West and East Germany.

The Pacific Film Archive is screening a 4K restoration of the three-hour film, which some critics consider one of the best films of the 1970s, on Sunday, June 12, while “The American Friend” screens Friday, June 10.