PARIS,
TEXAS
1984
Director:
Wim
Wenders
Screenplay:
Sam Shepard
Director of Photography:
Robby
Müller
Editor:
Peter
Przygodda
Music:
Ry Cooder
Cast:
Harry Dean Stanton Nastassja Kinski
Dean Stockwell
Aurore Clement
Hunter Carson
Production
Design:
Kate Altman
Producers:
Chris
Sievernich Wim Wenders
Production:
Road
Movies Filmproduktion/Berlin Argos Films/Paris
Festivals/Awards:
1984 Cannes, Golden Palm (Best Film)
1984 British Academy Award
1984 French Film Critic's Prize
1984 German Film Prize in Silver (Production)
Length:
148
min.
Format:
35mm
Color
Original Language:
English
|
|
Paris,
Texas is probably Wim Wenders' most well known, critically
acclaimed, and successful movie, winning a number of
international prizes including the Cannes Palme D'Or
for Best Film in 1984.
This unusual road movie, with screenplay by acclaimed
playwright Sam Shepard, tells the tale of Travis, a
man lost in his own private hell. Presumed dead for
four years, he reappears from the desert on the Mexico
border, world-weary and an amnesiac.
He traces his brother Walt who is bringing up Hunter,
his seven-year-old son, his ex-wife Jane having abandoned
him at Walt's door several years before.
As virtual strangers, Hunter and Travis begin to build
a wary friendship and conspire to find Jane and bring
her back to be a real family.
With extraordinary performances from Harry Dean Stanton
as Travis and Natassja Kinski as Jane, the film also
boasts a soundtrack by Ry Cooder, ideally suited to
the film's sun-bleached landscapes and melancholy undertones.
(1) DESERT LANDSCAPE
EXTERIOR, DAY
A fissured, empty, almost lunar landscape- seen
from a bird's-eye view. The camera hovers over it. In
the distance, a lone man appears; he is crossing this
desert.
A hawk lands on a boulder.
The man stops, looks at the bird.
Then he drinks the last drops of water from a large
plastic bottle. He is wearing a cheap Mexican suit,
a red baseball cap
and sandals with bandages wrapped around them. His clothes
are covered with dust and soaked with sweat. He has
been walking for a long time.
This is Travis.
Travis
throws away the empty plastic bottle,and continues on
his way across the bleak, hot plains that lie before
him.
(2)
A LONELY GAS STATION EXTERIOR, DAY
Travis
comes up to a gas station on a remote country road.
He.................
|