Hollywood often makes films set in locations outside America, in exotic locales or European countries. Such films are almost always shot in English and intended first and foremost for domestic consumption. In doing so, Hollywood applies its distinctly American take on the various world cultures and scenic environments. It is far less common to find foreign filmmakers invading America to make a film set in the America as perceived by other nationalities. When, on rare occasions, European filmmakers do take the risk of challenging Hollywood on its home turf, the film is likely to be made in English and designed first and foremost for the American market. Wim Wenders’ brilliantly insightful film Paris, Texas is one of those rare instances of Americana from that distinctly European point of view.

Historical Background: Wim Wenders was born August 14th, 1945 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the son of a surgeon. His parents had settled on the given name “Wim” but the authorities refused to permit it because it was not a “proper” name. Since “Wilhelm” was the closest sounding proper equivalent, the birth certificate ended up reading “Ernst Wilhelm Wenders.” Wenders began his career preparation with some uncertainty, studying medicine for a year and then philosophy for another, before moving to Paris in 1966, where he took up painting and worked as an engraver. Returning to Germany in 1967, he began film studies at the newly opened Graduate School of Film and Television in Munich (where he now sometimes appears as a guest lecturer). He produced a few shorts while still a student, including one that led to his being arrested during a demonstration. Luckily, his six-month sentence was suspended.

Wenders' first film as a professional was The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1971), which was based on a novella by Peter Handke. Later that year, he joined forces with twelve other filmmakers to form a production company called Filmverlag der Autoren. Two years later he founded another production company with only his producer, Chris Sievemich, as partner. His most noteworthy films during the seventies were Alice in the Cities (1974), Kings of the Road (1976), and The American Friend (1977). The last of these was a noteworthy trendsetter for Wenders because it was an international co-production, produced in West Germany and France but featuring scenes shot in New York City. One lead (Bruno Ganz) was a German actor while the other was American (Dennis Hopper). Wenders would continue this trend and become one of the most international of directors.

In the early eighties, Wenders came to America at the invitation of Francis Ford Coppola to make a film called Hammett, but production problems delayed its completion until 1982. Wenders next made the film The State of Things (1982), which was about the problems he had experienced while making Hammett with the script and artistic conflicts with Coppola! It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

After a brief respite back in Germany directing a play, Wenders returned to America to film Paris, Texas (1984). With it, Wenders solidified his cult status and won critical acclaim, though relatively few Americans ended up seeing the film. Wenders followed that success with what many consider his finest film to date, Wings of Desire (1987), which earned him the Best Director award at Cannes. The eighties also included publication of his first book (about the American West) and an honorary doctorate degree from the Sorbonne.

His best films in the nineties were Until the End of the World (1991), scripted by an Australian writer Peter Carey, and Buena Vista Social Club (1999). Most of the films that Wenders has directed since 1980 have been in English and made in the U.S. His films often feature music (especially American rock) and emphasize the American West. They are typically contemplative and visual, and relegate the narrative to a subordinate role.

The Story: As I just stated above, Wenders is not known for a lot of plot in his films and this one follows that rule. Many viewers rave about this film, but those who dislike it mainly complain about boredom attributable to lack of plot and leisurely pace. It would therefore be unfair to spoil what little plot there is for those who have yet to see the film. Moreover, the plot, such as exists, is presented in a somewhat suspenseful manner and the uncertainty about where the story is leading is part of the film’s special appeal, for those who enjoy it. I’ll limit my description to the set-up.

A bedraggled middle-aged man, Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) wanders alone through the desert of southern Texas, finally reaching an isolated settlement and collapsing in exhaustion. He is soon under the care of a local doctor, but Travis is unresponsive and appears to be mute. The doctor locates a business card in his patient’s jacket and dials the number, reaching Travis’s very surprised brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell). Travis, it seems, has been missing for four years and had been presumed dead. Walt, who lives in Los Angeles, agrees to fly to Texas immediately.

Walt and his wife Anne (Aurore Clément), a native of France, have been raising Travis’s son Hunter (Hunter Carson) since Travis’s disappearance. Travis’s estranged wife, Jane (Nastassja Kinski), had been too overwrought to care for Hunter and had turned him over to Walt and Anne. Walt and Anne have grown to adore Hunter as though he were their own. Hunter calls them Dad and Mom.

Walt arrives in the small Texas town on the border of Mexico where Travis had shown up mysteriously, only to learn that Travis has wandered off again. Walt finds him loping along the side of the highway. Travis continues not to speak and seems to be amnesic. It is all Walt can do to coax his confused brother into his car. When they stop at a motel for the night, Walt goes to buy new clothes and shoes for Travis, to replace his raggedy outfit, but, by the time he returns, Travis is wandering, again, down a railroad track. Once again, Walt is able to coax him back into his car. Walt is gradually able to get Travis to speak again, though the distressed man offers very little by way of explanation for his situation. At the airport in Houston, Walt and Travis have to be disembarked from the plane because Travis panics before take-off. They’ll have to drive the rest of the way back to Los Angeles. Travis insists that it must be the very same car that they just dropped off at the rental agency, much to the irritation of the agent.

Back in Los Angeles, Anne receives Travis warmly but Hunter is understandably standoffish. Hunter, who is almost eight, knows that this is his “real” Dad, but has little memory of him. Besides, Travis’s mental state and behavior is not such as to inspire either confidence or attachment in the mind of a little boy. Travis offers to walk Hunter home from school, but the boy is too embarrassed by the shabby appearance of the man to want to be seen with him by his friends. The next day, in an enchanting scene, the maid, Carmelita (Socorro Valdez), notices Travis leafing through a magazine and asks what he’s searching for. Travis tells her that he is looking for a picture of a father. Carmelita understands immediately that Travis wants to revamp his image to that of a respectable father that will appeal to Hunter. Turns out that Carmelita is something of a makeover genius! She soon has Travis decked out in a spiffy summer suit and top hat and holding his chin up with an air of aloof superiority. When Travis then shows up at Hunter’s school as classes are being dismissed, Hunter happily explains to his best friend that the handsome looking man across the street is one of his two dads. The two then walk home “together”, though on opposite sides of the street, hamming it up the entire way, in a game of mimicry. That plus a round of old Super-8 home movies showing Hunter in the happy company of both Travis and Jane is enough to reestablish the bond between father and son. Anne understandably frets about the possibility of losing “their son,” but nature will take its course.

Travis feels that he must locate Jane, notwithstanding the terrible unspoken cataclysm that tore them apart four years ago. He has one lead. Jane sends money once a month to a bank account set up for Hunter. The money is deposited in a bank in Houston – always on the 15th of the month. Travis will stake out the bank until Jane appears. He invites Hunter to join him, but doesn’t insist on it. Hunter equivocates but chooses, in the end, to go with his father to search for his mother. The film now briefly becomes a “road film,” with father and son reconnecting along the way in some cute and original vignettes. I won’t say more about what transpires the rest of the way, except to add that Travis finds Jane and that the two dialogs that take place between these estranged spouses are classics and the emotional highpoints of the film.

Themes: The main theme of the film, I believe, is the issue of loss and consequent loneliness and self-loathing. The pain of the loss that afflicted Travis and Jane was of such great severity that each was virtually incapacitated and reduced to living in a twilight zone of their own despair. Travis finds his redemption through his own son: “I was hoping to show you I was your father, and you showed me I was.” Travis then dedicates himself to trying to redeem the wife that he so badly traumatized, if redemption is still possible.

There is perhaps another lesson in this film that has to do with being too lucky in love. For both men and women, pairing up with a partner who is much more attractive, younger, or sexier than oneself would seem on the surface to be a recipe for bliss, but such matches typically lead only to endless paroxysms of jealousy and insecurity. Travis was a good deal older than his gorgeous young wife, not an especially effective breadwinner, and too fond of alcohol. Though spirited and fun loving, he was rather average in the looks department. So tormented was he by jealousy and insecurity in relation to his lovely wife that he would periodically quit the jobs that he found in order to be with her, so as to keep an eye on her. Disparity awoke his inner demons. It’s always best to pair up with someone who is as “lucky” to have landed you as you are to have landed him or her.

Production Values: There are echoes in this film of both Wenders' own Alice in the Cities (1974) and John Ford’s The Searchers (1956). The script was written by Sam Shepard, a man highly regarded in cinema as both writer and actor (The Right Stuff (1983), Steel Magnolias (1989), The Pelican Brief (1993), Black Hawk Down (2001)). It is a magnificent script, full of gentle human touches, humor, and suspense. It keeps you guessing to the very end, which is something I very much appreciate in a film. The suspense is of an odd variety – it stems from the reticence of the main character, Travis. His emotional trauma, amnesia, and initial unwillingness to speak result in a character that is mysterious and only very gradually unpeeled, like an onion, layer by layer. Shepard unfolds his story at a leisurely pace that seems dictated by what the characters require.

The cinematography is beautiful and highly effective. Much of the film is set against a backdrop of either the spacious, barren Southwest or the equally barren American cities dominated by skyscrapers. Viewers can’t ignore the similar capacity of these two disparate landscapes to evoke a sense of isolation and alienation. Beyond that, however, Wenders and his cinematographer, Robby Müller, have a gift for framing and composition. You can pause the film at almost any point and imagine taking that frame, making a print of it, and hanging it on your wall. There is one shot that especially stands out in my mind’s eye as I write this review. Travis is talking to a woman via a telephone through a one-way mirror at a sex emporium. We see his face reflected in the window precisely framed by the woman’s hair seen through the mirror, as if their two souls had momentarily merged.

I can’t say enough by way of praise for the musical soundtrack of this film. Ry Cooder provided the bluesy riffs on his slide guitar. Cooder, a talented musician, captures the mood and character of the settings, more than trying to illuminate the emotions of the characters. The music becomes part of the general milieu, along with the scenic backdrops.

All of the five key performers in this film deliver outstanding work. The secondary actors are just fine as well, but the weight of the film rests with the top five. Stanton has been a highly regarded character actor for many years in Hollywood films, but Paris, Texas provided him with the role of his career, a lead role. He made full use of the opportunity. Stanton projects a sense of forlornness and interior pain better than just about any other American actor. Harry Dean Stanton’s long list of credits include Straight Time (1978), Alien (1979), Private Benjamin (1980), Escape from New York (1981), Repo Man (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), and The Pledge (2001).

Dean Stockwell is best known to the average American for his role in the popular television series Quantum Leap, but his resume is long and varied. I happen to be especially aware of this actor because my first wife’s maiden name was “Stockwell” and, being a genealogist, I long ago figured out exactly how she and this talented actor were related (9th cousins once-removed!). He has appeared in films for more than fifty years, including Anchors Aweigh (1945), Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), Compulsion (1959), Sons and Lovers (1960), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962), Blue Velvet (1986), Married to the Mob (1988), and The Player (1992).

Nastassja Kinski is nearly as important to the emotional punch of the film as Stanton, though she gets far less screen time. Nastassja was just twenty-three or so when this film was made, being born January 24th, 1959 in Berlin, daughter of the notorious Klaus Kinski (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo). Nastassja is gorgeous, measures 33-23-33.5, is fluent in English, German, French, Italian, and Russian, is sister of Pola Kinski and cousin of Lara Naszinsky, shared an apartment with Demi Moore around the time that this film was being made, and is a vegetarian. How do you keep a woman like that down on the farm? It’s no wonder that Travis suffered from jealous delusions. Nobody’s perfect, however. It seems that Nastassja has a criminal record! She once used public transportation without paying! Then she refused to pay the fine and later refused to perform the public service that she was assigned by the juvenile court. Finally, in 1978, already famous, she was arrested and had to spend five days in jail before being released “for good behavior.” Let’s not speculate about what that “good behavior” might have been! Some of the rest of her work includes Tess (1979), The Moon in the Gutter (1983), and Your Friends and Neighbors (1998).

I thought Aurore Clément quite effective as well. Some critics complain about having a French actress playing the part of an American, but I find it refreshing. There are many first-generation Americans who speak with accents, so why does Hollywood insist on mostly excluding such characters from its films, other than when a film is set specifically in an immigrant neighborhood? I very much liked her interactions with Stanton’s character. Clément was born October 12th, 1945 in Soissons, France. She previously appeared in Lacombe, Lucien (1974).

Hunter Carson, as the little boy, provided one of the most natural and altogether enjoyable performances I’ve ever seen from a boy actor. His part required quite a range of emotional stances – from standoffishness to playfulness to loneliness to ecstasy – and he provides the full range effortlessly and believably.

Bottom-Line: The name of this film derives from the protagonist’s recollection that his mother used to say that she and the boys’ father had first made love in Paris, Texas. The father had taken great pleasure in the repetition of a simple joke. He would introduce his wife as “The woman I met in Paris,” adding after a very pregnant pause, “Texas!”

The opinions on this film expressed at various internet sites vary tremendously. Clearly, Wenders has a strong fan base as well as some equally vociferous detractors. It seems quite evident to me, from reading a number of such opinions, that those who dislike this film are those who expect films to have a strong narrative and to move along at a brisk pace. Those are two of the handful of issues that most distinguish foreign films from Hollywood fare. You probably will not enjoy Paris, Texas if you tend to get restless with moody, atmospheric films emphasizing character revelation more than action and plot. On the other hand, if you already have a taste for European or Asian films (excluding Hong Kong action films), Paris, Texas ought to be right down your alley and achingly satisfying. This film was fully deserving of the Golden Palm it received from Cannes. Paris, Texas is in English though European in its feel. The running time is 145 minutes. My copy was VHS. I understand that there is a DVD version as well which provides an excellent video transfer but few extras other than the trailer and profiles for Wenders, Stanton, and Kinski.

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age