In this 1994 Wim Wenders film, previously unreleased in America, Wenders veteran Rüdiger Vogler plays a movie soundman who receives a letter from a director friend (Patrick Bauchau) asking him to come to Lisbon. Once there, Vogler finds that his friend has disappeared, but he proceeds to take up residence in the director's abandoned apartment, adding sound effects to Bauchau's unfinished project, which consists of scenes of everyday life in the Portugese capital. Essentially a meditation on what it means to make films 100 years after their invention, Lisbon Story plays like a cross between Lumiere And Company—the first-rate tribute to the movies' centennial in which Wenders also participated—and The Third Man. It's a small, slight movie, but it's worth watching, and best appreciated by those who already admire the director. Wenders' high-profile failures (Until The End Of The World, The End Of Violence) have sullied his reputation in recent years; Lisbon Story suggests that something less grandiose might be a good next move for him. It's a small gem.