Paris, Texas
1984 Directed by Wim Wenders
Synopsis
A place for dreams. A place for heartbreak. A place to pick up the pieces.
A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeared four years earlier.
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Around the World in May-ty Days Challenge
Movie #11 - Paris, Texas (Germany)Director Wim Wenders made the beautiful and exceptional film called "Wings of Desire" and i fell in love with it immediately. In some ways, "Paris, Texas" recalls the kind of a storytelling that he usually does but its a very different film. Paris, Texas begins with a wonderful shot, a view of the desert and the endless arid landscape of it. But then we see this man walking, who is he? Where did he come from? What is he doing in this place? Where is he headed to? These kind of questions suddenly comes to your mind and you have no answers for them. Neither does the…
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Criterion Collection, Spine #501
"Top 100 of all time selection"
"Top 50 of the 80's selection"
"Top 10 of 1984 selection"Wim Wenders Paris, Texas is the closes I seen to a perfect film (I needed to put that out there).
In a time of fast cuts, is good to see Wim Wender taking his time and allowing the film to breath giving weight to every scene.
The cinematography is exquisite, I could pause any scene and hang it on my wall, the use of color gives the film itself a life of it's own.Paris, Texas is a haunting film of endless melancholia and redemption, a film that will stay with you for a long time.
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Paris Texas, my latest Criterion purchase, tells the tale of a mute wanderer emerging from the harsh canyons of deep Texas like an ancient figure from a biblical tale.
This mute traveler of the Mohave, (Travis, played marvelously by Harry Dean Stanton) however is not a mute wanderer at the end of the film. Right before the credits roll he is almost the exact polar opposite of what we saw of him at the beginning. He was a lonely man with no personality, backstory, or reason. We feel nothing for him. But at the end he is a man with all of those things: a name, a reason, and a backstory. At the end the movie makes us feel like…
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In 1977, Wim Wenders released one of my all-time favourite movies The American Friend. A harrowing and exhilarating portrayal of one man’s compromises and the lengths he will go to solve his problems. I had never seen anything like it. It gripped me from its early moments all the way through the courageous force of its action to the beautiful final sequences. It was not just a film that displayed tension in a way unlike others, but it made me fall deeper and deeper in love with cinema – a film that I desperately admired for all its unsettling framing and the addictive display of emotion. I loved it so much that I become infatuated with the talent of Wenders,…
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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It was only by coincidence that Paris, Texas became my 100th entry for 2013 - and a what pleasant coincidence.
Wow!
I literally just got done watching this movie and I don't have the words to describe what it made me feel. Every shot, every frame seems like a painting, every set seems to be constructed thoroughly to the last detail, the use of color is nearly flawless....
I give up. There is no review I can write that will make this movie justice.
I love Paris, Texas, let's just leave it at that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must find Harry Dean Stanton so we can go on a roadtrip through the desert.
Recent reviews
More-
Around the World in May-ty Days Challenge
Movie #11 - Paris, Texas (Germany)Director Wim Wenders made the beautiful and exceptional film called "Wings of Desire" and i fell in love with it immediately. In some ways, "Paris, Texas" recalls the kind of a storytelling that he usually does but its a very different film. Paris, Texas begins with a wonderful shot, a view of the desert and the endless arid landscape of it. But then we see this man walking, who is he? Where did he come from? What is he doing in this place? Where is he headed to? These kind of questions suddenly comes to your mind and you have no answers for them. Neither does the…
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Holy monkey schnitzel!
Did anyone mentioned the name Robby Müller?Amazing cinematography was the first thing that caught my eye.
A movie with a great story, acting and strong dialogues.
Especially one of the last scene on the phone, was really beautiful and emotional.Will definitely watch it again, and this time focus more on the camera perspectives.
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A painfully moving drama about a man and his mysterious past. Gorgeous landscape shots and an intensely life-like performance by Harry Dean Stanton.
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I've been conducting a great deal of research into the road movie of late, working toward an essay on the great American independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt's use and abuse of genre tropes to reflect the current state of the nation. It's fascinating stuff, the symbolic potentiality of infrastructure and the resurgence of popularity in the road formula as measured against political climates considered, but that's not what I was thinking about while watching Paris, Texas. What I was thinking about was how profoundly, how tragically human Harry Dean Stanton is. As Travis, the vacant everyman whose gradual recollection of his memory and identity forms the bulk of the narrative trajectory, he is not a pawn in a grand formula of…
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A heavy drama with a slow, picturesque, relaxed narrative. The story follows a man trying to reconstruct his life from his damaged memory, and the evolving relationships around him. Texas is the chief attraction of this movie in all it's rough, majestic and expansive elegance. Wenders uses his colors masterfully, and some sequences towards the end are emotionally draining. Deserves much more recognition.
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Beautiful film about a man once "lost in a deep, vast country where nobody knew him" slowly coming back to the life he left behind. Slow, deliberate pace; some fanstastic shots; interesting cinematography (especially liked how the scenery is connected to the development of the main character); and the striking of a personal chord. Wim Wenders, I salute you.
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Beautifully poised vision of emotional disconnect, as a man who has been missing for four years returns home in an effort to reunite his family.
The luminous camera of Wenders captures the Texas desert land like an enigma, an America of unspoiled ideals, and hypnotic beauty. It's an America most Americans would want to look at, and it's interesting to note Wenders fascination with the big American city, much like Herzog and Fassbinder, similar German new wave directors. In this case the vastness of the land serves to emphasise the loneliness of the main character, it's not improbable that he could simply get lost, a misplaced enigma.
Maybe the foremost question asked is if humans can ever really truly communicate…
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Fantastic film,slow poignant and beautiful.Loved the cast and the leads especially are great here.Going to buy it and rewatch it soon
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2nd Official Meeting - Harry Dean Stanton Appreciation Society
A modern masterpiece in which a once happily married man, Harry Dean Stanton, wanders the desert for four years until he finds the words to articulate his heartbreak -- and also the people who need to hear him.