Paris, Texas

press release:

PARIS, TEXAS: West Germany, France | 1984 | DCP | 150 min.

Director: Wim Wenders; Cast: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell

Wenders and screenwriter Sam Shepard cast Stanton in his first-ever leading role, and the resulting film won the Palme d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. As Travis, who we first meet as a homeless mute wandering the desert, Stanton is a revelation. Kinski and Stockwell, as figures from Travis’ past who reconnect with him, also give genuine, lived-in performances. Perhaps best of all is Hunter Carson (son of screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson and actress Karen Black) as Stanton’s estranged seven-year-old son. Along with the acting, Robby Müller’s vivid use of color and Ry Cooder’s evocative, elegiac score carry the film to a cathartic, intimately emotional climax.

Along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders completes the triumvirate of internationally acclaimed filmmakers that emerged in the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s. The titles selected for this retrospective series represent Wenders’ very best movies from the 70s and 80s. Many of the selections reveal Wenders’ particular talent in finding new kinds of “road movies” that feature his protagonists traveling through multiple cities and sometimes across continents.