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Staring: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Sam Berry, Bernhard Wicki
Director: Wim Wenders
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Product Details
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 5060020620706
Format: PAL
Number Of Discs: 1
Region Code: 2
Running Time: 147
Theatrical Release Date: 1984-11-09

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Editorial Review
Product Description
Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Spanish ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN, SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Collectors Edition, Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Documentary, Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) is wandering through the Texas desert, a bit shaky and in desperate need of water, when he stumbles into a bar and collapses. A German doctor of dubious credentials finds a phone number in Travis' wallet, which belongs to his brother, Walt ( Dean Stockwell). Walt is shocked to hear about his brother's condition, since no one in the family has seen or heard from Travis in four years; Walt flies to Texas to bring him home, only to find Travis wandering by the side of the road, and they begin the long drive back to Los Angeles, where Walt lives with his wife, Anne (Aurore Clement), and Hunter (Hunter Carson), Travis' seven-year-old son. At first, Travis refuses to speak and is oddly distant, but in time he begins to talk again, and when he arrives in California, he begins the painful process of reacquainting himself with his son and trying to reconcile with his wife, Jane (Nastassia Kinski).
SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Ceasar Awards, David Donatello Awards, Golden Globes,

Amazon.com
Something like a perfect artistic union is achieved in the major components of Paris, Texas: the twang of Ry Cooder's guitar, the lonely light of Robbie Muller's camera, the craggy landscape of Harry Dean Stanton's face. In his greatest role, longtime character actor Stanton plays a man brought back to his old life after wandering in the desert (or somewhere) for four years. He has a 7-year-old son to get to know, and his wife has gone missing. The material is much in the wanderlust spirit of director Wim Wenders, working from a script by Sam Shepard and L.M. Kit Carson. If the long climactic conversation between Stanton and Nastassja Kinski renders the movie uneven and slightly inscrutable, it's hard to think of a more fitting ending--and besides, the achingly empty American spaces stick longer in the memory than the dialogue. Winner of the top prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

painfully slow and obvious, 2007-12-04
this film is simply too long, especially considering the no-surprises-anywhere plot. I consider myself an "art house" film buff, and this is exactly the sort of movie that gives the "drama" category a bad name. I can't give it lower than two stars though, because it has lots of redeeming features like splendid acting, the music and especially the cinematography. But nothing can save a film from bad editing and an unimaginative script.

Beautiful Blu-ray of Wenders' Dark Classic, 2010-02-18
Criterion's Blu-ray transfer is magnificent. The image is very natural, with great depth - I viewed this via a 1080p projector, and the transfer was as film-like as could be hoped for. The soundtrack is as impressive - with Ry Cooder's music being so integral to the heart of the film, this improvement over DVD is very welcome.

I remember first viewing this at the cinema in the 80s. To be honest, I found it a bit greulling. At that time I hadn't seen much in the way of European cinema, and the American setting and actors had me expecting a film with not just a different pace but a different emotional world.

Now I find 'Paris, Texas' makes me think of a strange mix of other films.

Firstly, classic Westerns; most notably, 'The Searchers' - primarily for the mood evoked by the vast expanse of landscape, but also for the ultimately unfathomable motivations of the characters - however much you learn about Travis (or Ethan Edwards) the story behind their actions remains incomplete.

Terrence Malick's 'Days of Heaven' also comes to mind - again there is ravishing cinematography, and the overwhelming sense of immense space; there is also the direct connection with Sam Shepherd writing for Wenders and acting for Malick; the characters too share a terrifying vision of love, a vision that seems embodied in their physical surroundings - the superficial beauty is tied to an emotional emptiness, a kind of directionlessness, where ordinary morality is limited in its powers. It's as if both films speak of a freedom, intoxicating and full of promise, but which is also frightening, in that anything is possible and everything feels insecure.

More distant allusions reach to the 'existentialist' American road movies of the late 60s and early 70s, such as 'Vanishing Point' and 'Two-Lane Blacktop'. Where are all these men going? The image of the driver staring out at the world, on an inescapable journey, towards something unknowable (at the most obvious level, towards death), and away from his past - all these films share this perspective.

Ry Cooder's music envelopes the film, augmenting mood, and somehow heightening the importance of any particular image - as an aside, Ry Cooder recorded the entire score in little over a day! The music's role reminds me of Jim Jarmusch's 'Dead Man' - Neil Young's guitar likewise permeates the bones of that film.

Wenders' own European background also suggests links to German cinema of the 70s, notably his own works, but also those of Herzog and Fassbinder. The emotional pathology of the protagonists is starkly reminiscent of the narcissism, dissociation, and quasi-psychotic states of various characters inhabiting Fassbinder's prolific career, and there is a gentler association with Bruno S., especially in 'Stroszek' (once again set in America) - Travis reveals a dislocated child-like aspect to his character, touchingly played out through his contact with his son, Hunter. The pieces of his character are not coherent, however - his chaotic inner life is glimpsed literally through windows or through telephone wires, and along with child-like sympathy, there is rage, envy, jealousy, and despair. These emotions are impossible to bear, and so they are beaten down, his face scored but impassive. His efforts at denial detach him from reality, and Wenders' film charts his brief, and inwardly conflicted and complicated, return to the world shared by others.

The other characters in 'Paris,Texas' also live at one remove from reality. The depressing darkened world of Jane, Nastassja Kinski, is a literal as well as a metaphoric house of fantasies - one wonders if David Lynch was watching. Travis's brother Walt, Dean Stockwell, and his wife Anne, Aurore Clement, also maintain a problematic relationship with the world, despite a superficial normalcy - their stories are only hinted at, yet there is an element of fantasy in their adoption of Hunter as "their own" child, and Anne in particular is worried that losing Hunter will see their relationship, or in her words their "world", collapse.

Unsurprisingly, what I've mentioned goes nowhere near exhausting ideas inspired by the film. It is long, and the narrative is simple - but this is not what makes watching the film a demanding and taxing experience. The emotional foundation of the film is very disturbing - there is pain, and fear, and a real sense of people being broken. This is not meant to be merely a pleasant entertainment. It is harrowing, and it is a meditation not a diversion. The fragility of the human experience is here - in the faces, the images, the words, and most poignantly in Ry Cooder's haunted music.

The Criterion Collection Edition Delivers!, 2010-02-01
Films made about the United States by foreign filmmakers are interesting because quite often they provide a unique perspective - someone from the outside looking in. German filmmaker Wim Wenders did just this with his film Paris, Texas. It was a collaboration with acclaimed playwright and actor Sam Shepard and can be seen as a kind of lament for an era of the American west that no longer exists. It's an American road movie about characters living on the fringes of society and was made during the peak of the materialistic Reagan era. Paris, Texas went on to win the coveted Palme d'Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival and firmly established Wenders as an art house darling.

The first disc features an audio commentary by filmmaker Wim Wenders. The director talks about how he and Ry Cooder decided to use the music that is in the Paris, Texas. Wenders also talks about the origins of the film and working with Sam Shepard on the screenplay. The director talks about the genesis of the film's title and how it relates to Travis. Wenders tells many filming anecdotes on this informative track.

Also included is a theatrical trailer.

The second disc starts off with an interview with Wenders from 2001. He had wanted to make a film about America but hadn't done it to his satisfaction with his previous films. It wasn't until Paris, Texas that he felt like he had achieved this goal. It was also the first time he worked in a spontaneous fashion without a pre-planned shot list.

"The Road to Paris, Texas" is a collection of interviews with key collaborators of Wenders over the years. They all speak admiringly of the man. Wenders talks about the influence of rock `n' roll and road movies on his work.

Also included are interviews with both Claire Denis and Allison Anders, who worked on the film as first assistant director and production assistant respectively. They went on to become directors in their own right. They give their impressions of Wenders, how they met him and what it was like to work with the filmmaker. In addition, Anders reads from the diary that she kept while working on the film.

"Cinema Cinemas" is a segment from an April 2, 1984 episode of this French television programming featuring Wenders and composer Cooder working on the score for Paris, Texas. Wenders talks about his love of rock `n' roll music. It was a dream of his to have Cooder work on his film.

There is a collection of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Wenders. We see more of the German doctor taking care of Travis at the beginning of the film. Most of this footage is bits and pieces that just didn't fit and were ultimately cut. Also included is fantastic Super 8 mm footage, some of which was used in the flashback sequences so as to resemble old home movies.

Finally, there are "Galleries," one a collection of photographs that Wenders took while location scouting in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. The other gallery is a nice collection of on behind-the-scenes stills taken on location.

A Small Place in a Large State, 2008-11-05
Texas is a desolate state where Paris is the town with an active, bustling train full of freight cars. Somewhat like the Norfolk Southern but smaller and not quite so loud. It is like the Mohave desert in places. Houston was a metropolis in comparison, where Rodney Crowell grew up. Maybe I was mistaken, but this is the place where Lettie visited Carl during the war years and she was rewarded with a pair of little grannie glasses.

Travis went there and got lost, ended up buying some land close to the Red River. He was the typical male, taking no blame for anything and ran from responsibility. These were two damaged souls revived by a child. Afraid of what I might find, it was easier when I just imagined him. Mark is real, but not in Texas.

Destructive power of jealous love, 2008-07-08
It has been almost 25 years since this film won the Cannes Film Festival prize. You know this film was made a while ago becuase in one scene we see one of the characters smoking while on the air flight from California to Texas. It is a story of a man who has been missing for four years. He has been wondering thru Texas until his brother was notified about his wheeabouts. It is a reluctant gathering between the two brothers particularly once it becomes obvious that the missing brother has 8-year old child that has been cared for by his aunt and uncle for the last four years. Emotions, family ties, future are all at stake. There is a mystery about marriage break up of the older brother and almost simultaneous disapperance between himself and his wife. As story slowly unforld we learn about strong and passionate love between two people that brought them both destruction and separated them from their little boy. It is also a story about the things that we most strongly imagine that become frightening reality. Can it be that our thought and actions are so powerful that things we fear the most can become reality? Well this film certainly shows that is quite possible. As Travis (main character) is found by accident, the only way he can give his family a second chance is if he disappers again. Because his love for Jane, his wife, is still strong, but he knows well by now that it has destructive powers to it. Emotionally charged movie that requires certain sense of maturity from its audiences. Definitely an acquired taste. Nastassja Kinski is so young and beautiful!

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