The 1984 masterpiece, “Paris Texas,” occupies a top position in the careers of several artists: director Wim Wenders, scribes L.M. Kit Carson and playwright Sam Shepard, cinematographer Robby Müller, composer Ry Cooder, and last but not least actors Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, and Nastassja Kinski, all rendering iconic performances in roles that are perfectly suited to their talents and screen images.
On the surface, the movie seems based on contradictions, expansive epic yet at the same time intimate family drama, a contemporary Western in the mold of John Ford’s classic 1950s features (specifically “The Searchers”) yet defined by distinctly European sensibility of an art film. End result is gripping film that is effective on all of the aforementioned levels.
“Paris, Texas” bears the distinction of unanimously winning all the major juries awards at the 1984 Cannes Film Fest, the Grand Jury’s Palme d’Or (Golden Palm), the FIPRESCI (International Critics) Prize, and the Ecumenical Jury Prize. The film also won the BAFTA Awards for Best Director.
The cinematography is typical of Robby Müller, a long-time collaborator of German director Wim Wenders, who made some English-speaking films I Hollywood, but none as successful as this one. The shoot took place in Fort Stockton and Marathon in West Texas and Nordheim, southeast of San Antonio. The imagery of the Texas landscape is awesome. The first shot is a bird’s eye-view is of a bleak, dry, alien desert, followed by shots of advertisement billboards, placards, graffiti, rusty iron carcasses, old railway lines, neon signs, motels, never-ending roads, and finally ending in a place outside a drive-through bank in Houston.
The remarkably haunting music consists of a slide-guitar score by the genius blues composer Ry Cooder, based on Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground.”
The film’s opening sequence is stunning: A mysterious man—later revealed as Travis Clay Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton)–is aimlessly wandering alone in the middle of nowhere, that is, across a vast South Texas desert landscape. The Sky is crisp blue and the sun is scorching. Looking for water, he enters a saloon and collapses. The reticent, silent, catatonic Travis does not respond to any questions from the German doctor (Bernhard Wicki) who treats him, but the latter finds a Los Angeles phone number in his pocket, which he calls.
The number belongs to his brother, Walt Henderson (Dean Stockwell), who is summoned to pick him up. When Walt arrives in Texas, Travis is gone again wandering alone. The two brothers stop at a motel, but Travis wanders off again. Walt finds him, and they drive to a diner, where Walt inquires about Travis’ disappearance.
Walt and his wife, Anne (Aurore Clément), have not heard from Travis in four years. After abandoning his son Hunter (Hunter Carson), Walt and Anne took care of him. Moved by the mention of his son, Travis begins to cry, showing the first sign of human emotion.
Travis finally breaks his silence when he looks at the map, expressing a wish to go to “Paris,” though Walt (and we viewers) mistakenly thinks he is talking about Paris, France. Walt rents a car, and the brothers begin a road trip back to Los Angeles. Travis shows Walt a weathered photo of a vacant lot, his property in Paris, Texas, where he was conceived according to their mother.
In In Los Angeles, Travis meets Anne and his abandoned son, who’s uncomfortable around him. Walt shows old home movies, hoping to evoke memories and help break the ice between them. The movies show Travis with his wife Jane (Nastassja Kinski) and Hunter at the beach.
A more intimate and trusting relationship between father and son begins to evolve. They discover that Jane still deposits money into a Houston bank account for her son each month on the same day. Determined to find his lost wife, Travis and Hunter embark on a trip. During their journey, Travis and Hunter grow closer. Hunter shares things he learned in school, and Travis shares his memories.
In Houston, they spot Anne leaving the bank and going to a sleazy strip club. Travis enters the club, in which customers sit behind one-way mirrors and tell the strippers their desires via telephone. Though shocked, Travis rents a room opposite Jane, and after awkward silence, he walks out, heading to the closest bar to drink.
Travis drops Hunter off at the Meridien Hotel and heads back to the club. Entering a room with Jane on the other side of the mirror, and tells her a story of a man and a girl who fell in love, married, and had a child. At first confused by the story, Jane soon realizes the teller’s real identity. Travis explains how the drunken man suffocated his young wife with his jealousy and control, which led to self-loathing and disappearance to a place “without language or streets.”
Jane then opens up, telling Travis how hard it was to leave him. Facing the glass, he turns a lamp on his face so Jane can see him, and tells her where she can find Hunter. That night, Jane goes to the hotel to reunite with her son.
The subtext of the film is rich, especially when placed against John Ford’s Westerns and his heroes. Instead of a classic John Wayne’s heroes, who are strong, determined and focused, in this film, Travis is aimless, displaced, alientaed from himself and others, and emotionally numb. The ending of this journey of self-discovery is not reassuring, as Travis is again seen walking alone in the desert. Here is a man, who knows is roots and where he came from, but has lost goal and meaning of his life.
Is the film a parable of America in the 1980s, a nation in search of its soul and identity?
Cast
Harry Dean Stanton as Travis Clay Henderson
Sam Berry as Gas Station Attendant
Bernhard Wicki as Doctor Ulmer
Dean Stockwell as Walt Henderson
Aurore Clément as Anne Henderson
Claresie Mobley as Car Rental Clerk
Hunter Carson as Hunter Henderson
Viva as Woman on TV
Socorro Valdez as Carmelita
Edward Fayton as Hunter’s Friend
Justin Hogg as Hunter (age 3)
Nastassja Kinski as Jane Henderson
Tom Farrell as Screaming Man
John Lurie as Slater
Jeni Vici as Stretch
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