Paris, Texas (1984)

November 12, 2024 9:46 AM

Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.

Paris, Texas restored 40 years after winning the Palme d’or
Wenders: "4K gives you the chance to see the picture as it was captured by the analog camera at the time. It shows all the beauty of the original film and Robby’s genius, frame by frame. Seeing our new DCP for the first time, I was blown away. It was like a veil had been lifted from the film. "

posted by vacapinta (7 comments total)

This movie also has an amazing soundtrack by Ry Cooder that sounds exactly like what the north Texas landscape looks like.
posted by adamrice at 9:58 AM on November 12 [4 favorites]

Even as an indy movie buff back in the day, I was a fan of the Ry Cooder soundtrack (which is stellar, and to which I still listen with some regularity) before I ever saw the movie. As a result of this, and of not yet being familiar with Wenders' oeuvre, it was much different than I expected. I was actually disappointed w/ Kinski's performance, thinking both that she was miscast and that I thought the role would be much bigger.
posted by Pedantzilla at 10:04 AM on November 12

The film was as I remembered it, not having seen it for 30 years or so. The ending becomes a play, with two people in a small space and long bouts of monologue. A huge contrast to the beginning which is all wide open spaces and, yes, that Ry Cooder soundtrack which has stayed in my head all these years.
posted by vacapinta at 10:16 AM on November 12

I liked the first half of this movie a lot, with the very-gradually-simmering tension between Harry Dean Stanton and Dean Stockwell. But then it just went right off the rails with the road trip and the Houston scenes. All the conflicts and mysteries set up in the first half were just abandoned - e.g. we never did find out exactly what Stanton was up to for the last 4 years, nor what his mental state/acuity is right now - his long monologue really doesn't jibe with his behavior for the rest of the film. Was unsurprised to learn that there were script troubles and rewrites during filming.

But agreed the soundtrack is great. And the visuals are stunning. Lots of great lighting.
posted by equalpants at 9:27 PM on November 12

I watched this for the first time a few weeks ago without knowing much about it. I thought it was great, generally, although what I expected the plot to be after the first 20 minutes or so and what the plot ended up being were very different. I kind of want to see the movie that does explore all of the mysteries it shows us - it's fine this isn't it, though.
posted by odd ghost at 6:37 AM on November 13

Wait, this soundtrack had a movie?
posted by umbú at 8:59 PM on November 13 [5 favorites]

I have this memory that is like another person in me; I look down a little and to the side and there is a day or week or hour, all there. I was watching this film, when it was released, in the theater, shifting around because it was so slow, nothing was happening, and then...I realized that was the point. It wasn't a merkun movie; it wasn't even modern, or was it. It made me realize how I'd been so trained to expect beats, pauses, scenes, payoffs.
It was jarring to wait the whole film to see Nastassja Kinski; she was an well known model /indie film star when this came out (Tess, Cat People, Hotel New Hampshire, plus that other Kinski person fame) and then the blond hair. But she's mesmerizing. Exactly what the obsession yearns after but cannot hold.
This film is about memory, loss, the lengths people go to to try to hold on to happiness without seeing how badly they're damaging everything around them. It's like sifting through old postcards and realizing, whoa, gramma had quite a life before all of us.
Soundtrack, oh yes. One of my first times of realizing to run out and buy the soundtrack right away, and follow all the artists associated with it.
posted by winesong at 3:21 PM on November 15 [1 favorite]