387 - Paris, Texas, West Germany/France, 1984. Dir. Wim Wenders.

Monday, January 22, 2018

387 - Paris, Texas, West Germany/France, 1984.  Dir. Wim Wenders.

Who knew that looking for your mother could be such an adventure?

Especially if you are doing it with your father and the two of you are bonding.

Hunter rides alongside his father Travis in the 1959 Ford Ranchero.  A pickup cab and bed placed on a station wagon chassis.  The original flat truck.  The one that the Chevrolet El Camino copied.

They are driving through the streets and freeways of Houston, looking for the red 1980 Chevy Chevette.  Hunter saw her at the bank.  He radioed his dad on the walkie talkie.  Travis was asleep in the Ranchero.  Would he wake up in time?

Now there are two red Chevys on the freeway.  Which one is she in?  Which one should they follow when they split up at the exit?


Paris, Texas is a sprawling, mostly silent, small-cast epic that follows the wanderings of a lonely man.  Through the desert.  To the service station.  The hospital.  The railroad tracks.  From West Texas to Los Angeles to South Texas.

Who is this man?

Where does he come from?

How did he get here?

Can he speak?

Can he remember?

Whatever happened to his family?  If he has a family.


It reveals itself slowly through expansive shots of open spaces.  In the cinematography of Robby Muller.  A European cameraman with a resume of European directors.  Barbet Schroeder.  Bela Tarr.  Raoul Ruiz.  Frans Weisz.  Michelangelo Antonioni.  Roberto Benigni.  Lars Von Trier.  Wim Wenders.  Jim Jarmusch. 

(Jim Jarmusch is American, but he has a European last name, so there you have it.)

The film is underscored by the score of Ry Cooder.

It was written by Sam Shepard.

And adapted by L.M. Kit Carson.

It is a German and French co-production made by a German filmmaker that feels all-American.

It features Nastassja Kinski in a heartfelt performance.

And Hunter Carson as the open-hearted Hunter Henderson.

And it belongs to Harry Dean Stanton.