Director: Wim Wenders
Writers: L.M. Kit Carson (adaptation), Sam Shepard
Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell
Paris, Texas is a 1984 road movie directed by Wim Wenders and starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, Nastassja Kinski, and Hunter Carson. The film was a co-production between companies in France and West Germany, and was shot in the United States.
The plot focuses on a vagabond
named Travis (Stanton) who, after mysteriously wandering out of the desert in a
dissociative fugue, attempts to reunite with his brother (Stockwell) and
seven-year-old son (Carson). After reconnecting with his son, Travis and the
boy end up embarking on a voyage through the American Southwest to track down
Travis' long-missing wife (Kinski).
At the 1984 Cannes Film Festival,
the film won the Palme d'Or from the official jury, as well as the FIPRESCI
Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. It went on to win other honours
and critical acclaim.
Breath-taking.
Travis Henderson walks alone
through the West Texas desert in a fugue state, before stumbling into a bar and
losing consciousness. A German doctor examines him and determines he is mute,
but discovers he possesses a telephone number and calls it. The call is
answered by Walt Henderson, Travis' brother from Los Angeles. Walt has not seen
or had contact with Travis for four years, and agrees to travel to Terlingua,
Texas, to retrieve him. His French wife, Anne, is concerned about the matter,
as they have adopted Travis' son Hunter, with Hunter's biological mother Jane
also missing. Walt reaches Terlingua, and finds Travis wandering from the
clinic where he was found. The two brothers begin driving back to Los Angeles.
With Walt becoming increasingly frustrated with Travis' muteness, Travis
finally utters the name "Paris", asking to go there. Walt mistakenly
assumes he means Paris, France. Farther down the road, Travis shows Walt a
photograph of empty property in Paris, Texas, which he had purchased, believing
he was conceived in that town.
The brothers reach Los Angeles
where Travis is reunited with Anne and Hunter. Hunter, aged seven, has very
little memory of his father, and is wary of Travis until the family watches
home movies from days when they were all together. Hunter realizes that Travis
still loves Jane. As Hunter and Travis become reacquainted, Anne reveals to
Travis that Jane has had contact with her, and makes monthly deposits into a
bank account for Hunter. Anne has traced the deposits to a bank in Houston.
Travis realizes he can possibly see Jane if he is at the Houston bank on the
day of the next deposit, only a few days away. He acquires a cheap vehicle and
borrows money from Walt. When he tells Hunter he is leaving, Hunter wishes to
go with him, though he does not have Walt or Anne's permission.
Travis and Hunter drive to
Houston, while Hunter recounts the Big Bang and the origins of Earth. When they
arrive at the Houston bank, Hunter identifies his mother in a car, making a
drive-in deposit. He calls for Travis via walkie-talkie, and they follow her
car to a peep-show club where she works. While Hunter waits outside, Travis
goes in, finding the business has rooms with one-way mirrors, where clients
converse with strippers via telephone. He eventually sees Jane, though she
cannot see him, and leaves.
The next day, Travis leaves
Hunter at the Méridien Hotel in downtown Houston, with a message that he feels
obliged to reunite mother and son, as he feels responsible for separating them
in the first place. Travis returns to the peep show. Seeing Jane again, and
with her seemingly unaware of who he is, he tells her a story, ostensibly about
other people.
He describes a man and younger
girl who meet, marry and have a child. When the child is born, the wife suffers
from postpartum blues and dreams of escaping from the family. The husband
descends into alcoholism and becomes abusive, imprisoning her in the trailer
they live in. After a failed attempt to escape, the man ties the woman to the
trailer stove and goes to bed, dreaming of withdrawing to an unknown place
"without language or streets" while his wife and child scream from
the kitchen. He wakes up to find the trailer on fire and his family gone, and
in despair runs for five days until leaving civilization entirely.
Jane realizes she is speaking
with Travis, and that he is recounting the story of their relationship. He
tells her that Hunter is in Houston and needs his mother. Jane has longed to be
reunited with her boy, and that night, enters the hotel room where Hunter is
waiting, while Travis watches from the parking lot. As Jane embraces Hunter,
Travis climbs into his vehicle and drives away.
Themes and interpretation
Robert Phillip Kolker and Peter
Beickene wrote the film presents the U.S. as "a fantasyland, a place of
striking images, a mise-en-scène of desert and city". Aside from
the landscape, there are references to U.S. culture and film, and similarities to
John Ford's 1956 film The Searchers. Academic Roger Cook argued there is a
connection between the character of Travis and his surroundings observable on
the ride to California. The character gradually moves from the
"desolate" to civilization, and Travis continually tries to break
away from this difficult transition. His vehicles of choice possibly also
reflect his characterization, as his preferred rental car has a bump, and he
switches to a clearly used 1958 Ford Ranchero for his return to Texas.
Thomas Elsaesser discussed how Paris,
Texas fit in with Wenders' depiction of women, saying many of the travels
in his filmography are to find a particular woman. In the case of Paris,
Texas, this is with the aim of "escaping her 'now' in order to find
her as she was 'then'". Kolker and Beickene commented on the lack of
touch, or even "emotional fulfilment" between Travis and Jane at the
end, aside from their faces merging in the glass and their discussions of their
emotions.
Marc Silberman examined how
personal identity is also a theme in the film, as the name "Paris" is
deceptive, conjuring images of France but referring to Texas. This is evident
in what Travis refers to as "Daddy's joke" about Travis' mother being
from Paris, and his belief that he was conceived there causes him to believe
going there will achieve self-realization. Elsaesser believed the ending
signified Travis sending Hunter in his stead to reunite with Jane. Elsaesser
found this to be an example of a complicated system in which various characters
see each other through fantasy, and remake each other as they desire. Travis'
father had seen his mother as a Parisian, and this became "a
sickness".
Cook opined that returning to the
sanctuary of the road is Travis' response to having suffered the worst modern
American experience, turning his son over to the boy's mother. Stan Jones
suggested the story involves a European theory on perception, as Travis evolves
as a character from the one who perceives, to a driving force, returning to
perceiving, and then withdrawing. Jones quoted French critic Jean-Louis
Comolli: "Never passive, a spectator works". The ending can also
suggest hope for a fresh start for Jane and Hunter. Wenders himself said it
marked a beginning for the next chapter in his own filmography, explaining
Travis' exit: "This scene for me had a liberating effect ... I let him
disappear in my own way, and all my previous male characters went with him.
They have all taken up residence in a retirement home on the outskirts of
Paris, Texas".
Paris, Texas belongs in
the road movie genre, but The Guardian critic Guy Lodge suggested it could also
be considered a western film. Stan Jones noted Mark Luprecht had classified Paris,
Texas as a tragedy and had detected Oedipal themes in its depiction of
family.
