Paris, Texas (1984) - The Criterion Collection
New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire) brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in Paris, Texas, a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sam Shepard. Paris, Texas follows the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape all its own) as he tries to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing wife (Nastassja Kinski). From this simple setup, Wenders and Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family, as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons and neon.
Cast
Travis Harry Dean Stanton Walt Dean Stockwell Jane Nastassja Kinski Hunter Hunter Carson Anne Aurore Clément Dr. Ulmer Bernhard Wicki
Credits
Director Wim Wenders Producer Don Guest Written by Sam Shepard Adaptation by L. M. Kit Carson Executive producer Chris Sievernich Music Ry Cooder Director of photography Robby Müller Editing Peter Przygodda Art director Kate Altman DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Wim Wenders (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentary featuring Wenders
- Video interview with Wenders by German journalist Roger Willemsen
- Excerpts from a 1990 documentary on Wenders, featuring interviews with Wenders, cinematographer Robby Müller, composer Ry Cooder, actors Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, Peter Falk, and Hanns Zischler, novelist Patricia Highsmith, and director Samuel Fuller
- New video interviews with filmmakers Allison Anders and Claire Denis
- “Wim Wenders Hollywood April ’84,” a segment from the French television program Cinéma cinémas, showing Wenders and Cooder at work on the score
- Deleted scenes and Super 8 home movies
- Gallery of Wenders’s location-scouting photos
- Behind-the-scenes photos by Robin Holland
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Nick Roddick, interviews with Stanton, writer Sam Shepard, and actors Nastassja Kinski and Dean Stockwell, and excerpts from Wenders’s book of photos Written in the West