PARIS, TEXAS  

 

West Coast Premiere (Restored Version) • Drama • Germany, France, UK 1984

DCP • 1.66 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 145 min

Directed by: Wim Wenders

Written by: Sam Shepard, adaptation by L. M. Kit Carson

Cinematography: Robby Müller

Film Editing: Peter Przygodda

Original Score: Ry Cooder

Produced by: Anatole Dauman (Argos Films), Don Guest

Cast: Harry Dean Stanton (Travis), Nastassja Kinski (Jane), Dean Stockwell (Walt), Aurore Clement (Anne), Hunter Carson (Hunter) 

International Sales: Argos Films

US Distributor: Janus Film • janusfilms.com

 

Harry Dean Stanton disappears into the role of Travis, a forlorn and grizzled loner who emerges from the Texas wastelands after years of despair and penitence for an unnamed misdeed. Emotionally dead and unable to speak, only a phone number in his pocket connects him to a brother in Los Angeles. Travis is like a ghost walking through the rusted junkyards of his past, always on the cusp of vanishing back into the barren terrain from which he came, but as he slowly recovers his strength, he is possessed of a mad dream to put the shattered pieces of his life back together. Nastassja Kinski, in her most important role since Tess, portrays Jane, the unsophisticated Texas girl who escaped a troubled childhood by marrying too young. This fable of alienation and redemption features a spare but evocative score by Ry Cooder and spectacular sprawling vistas by the influential cinematographer Robby Müller. COLCOA is pleased to present the West Coast Premiere of the restored version of this largely French production, casting a European’s eye for intimacy on the epic horizons of the American West.

 

Part of the trinity of German New Wave directors, along with Werner Herzog and Rainer Fassbinder, prolific writer/director Wim Wenders has had a long fascination with the road movie, in which lost men seek out America’s wide open spaces in search of answers. Wenders had originally met with playwright Sam Shepard to cast him in his first American film, Hammett (1982), but ended up developing the script for Paris, Texas, from Shepard’s play Motel Chronicles instead. Wenders began shooting before the script was finalized, and brought in L. M. Kit Carson as an on-set writer. The film was the first occasion for legendary French producer Anatole Dauman to work with Wenders, and the pair would take home the Palme d’Or in 1984 for their efforts. Dauman would go on to produce Wenders’ Palme d’Or nominated Wings of Desire (1987). Other Wenders films nominated for that coveted honor include The American Friend (1997) and The End of Violence (1997). Equally known for his documentaries, Wenders has been nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar three times: The Salt of the Earth written with Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, David Rosier and Camille Delafon (2014), Pina (2011), and for his hit Buena Vista Social Club co-written with Nick Gold (1999).

 

Quotes:

“This is a defiantly individual film, about loss and loneliness and eccentricity. It is true, deep, and brilliant.”

– Roger Ebert ROGER EBERT.COM

“Every moment generates a sense that anything is possible - that feeling we all hope for from the movies, but is so rarely delivered.”

– Casey Burchby DVDTALK