Paris, Texas (film)

• Harry Dean Stanton: Travis
• Nastassja Kinski: Jane
• Dean Stockwell: Walt
• Aurore Clément: Anne
• Hunter Carson Hunter
• Socorro Valdez: Carmelita
• Bernhard Wicki: Doctor Ulmer
• Sam Berry: Gas Guardian
• Tom F. Farrell: Screaming Man
• Edward Fayton: Hunters friend
• Justin Hogg: Hunter with 3 years
• John Lurie: Slater

Paris, Texas is a German - French film from the year 1984. The filmed in English Drama Wim Wenders directed, wrote the screenplay LM Kit Carson after a presentation of the playwright Sam Shepard. Argos Films, Channel Four Films and Road Movies Filmproduktion produced the road movie. The main role was played Harry Dean Stanton. The German premiere in cinemas on 11 January 1985. By the end of 1985, there were approximately 1.1 million admissions in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Action

Travis, the main character of the film wanders aimlessly through a long neglected and Texan landscape. Looking for something to drink he turns into a lonely bar, takes a handful of ice cubes and collapses. By means of a business card to make a doctor Travis ' brother Walt in Los Angeles identified. This travels to to pick up his brother missing for four years.

But Travis does not speak, not eating and not sleeping. He also refuses to fly in a plane back to Los Angeles, so that the two brothers must travel the road by car. Only gradually Travis begins to speak and eat.

In the house of his brother Walt 's wife Anne and Travis ' son Hunter waiting for the return of the brothers. Hunter was at the time of his father's disappearance three years old. He grew up in the care of Walt and Anne and sees them as his parents. The truth about his real parents was indeed never concealed him, but the suddenly emerged father of the boy approaches hesitantly.

Travis learns that Hunter's mother, Jane transfers every month on a specific day of a bank in Houston money to Hunter. He decides to rediscover through the bank Jane. When he dedicates Hunter in his plans, this would accompany him. Against the opposition of Walt and Anne both make their way to Houston.

Jane now works in a peep show: In a cabin with mirrored wall, only transparent for paying men, she presents herself, listens, takes off her clothes. Travis, who is not ready to make himself known, visited their booth. But he can overcome, to say something, and returns to Hunter barely. You will stay in a hotel.

The next day, Travis returns to Jane's establishment. Again he visited her cabin, without giving to identify themselves. He talks to her about a room phone you do not recognize his voice. Gradually, Jane understands that the story told her the invisible stranger is their own, and that the stranger must be Travis.

Travis tells the story of her love, which was so great for him that he " would have considered unthinkable " it. The young, barely 18 -year-old girl and the much older Travis live in a caravan and love seemingly limitless. His love is so powerful that he could no longer bear to be separated from her. When he left his job in order to spend more time with her can, this leads to money problems. He begins to work again, announcing a second time. Jane begins to worry, while Travis is getting jealous.

When Jane is expecting a child, the relationship seems to fall into place. Travis, now sure of her fidelity starts to work again. But after Hunters birth, Jane changed. It is increasingly depressed, feels trapped and suffers from nightmares. Travis can make her anything more right, and he begins to get drunk regularly. When Jane Travis tells of a dream in which she runs away, turn his fear of loss back harder than ever and he fears Janes and Hunters escape. It binds Jane a bell on the foot, so that he will notice if she escapes at night. One night she stuffs a sock in the bell and steals it, but when she is nearly escape, she finds the bell out of the stocking. He wakes up, caught it yet and binds it to the caravan. Then he lays down on the bed, listening to her and the child crying, dreams of escaping from his desperate situation in a desert landscape, and finally falls asleep. When he wakes up, burn bed and caravans, woman and child are gone, and he runs away. Since then he has Jane Hunter and not seen again.

At the reunion of the couple, it is not, it remains at the meeting by the mirrored wall. But Travis shares with Jane, where they can meet Hunter. From the parking lot of the hotel watched Travis, like Jane and her son Hunter hug at the hotel room window. Then he drives away.

Reception and impact

The film premiered on May 19, 1984 at the competition at the International Film Festival of Cannes. In the following time he was shown at several other festivals, including at the Toronto Film Festival. On September 19, 1984 Paris, Texas came to the French, in the U.S. and on January 11, 1985 in West German cinemas on November 9. In the U.S., the film played in the first theatrical release a 2,164,507 U.S. dollars.

Almost all critics took the film to positive. The American Roger Ebert said in the Chicago Sun - Times in 1984, Paris, Texas is a movie with the kind of "passion and the willingness to experiment " that had been fifteen years earlier than usual in today's film industry. Even German -speaking critics were impressed by Paris, Texas. The lexicon of international film praised: "A movie aesthetically captivating and emotionally compelling synthesis of audience - effective genre film and European auteur cinema as a realistic image of America road movie, love story and mythical allegory equally believable and fascinating. " However, Dieter Weller Hoff wrote in Time: " The real scandal of the film is its central message that children belong to their biological mothers, no matter how unmütterlich these behaved. Could not we at Brecht in " The Caucasian Chalk Circle " to learn that the children of the maternal and women are not under all conditions of their child-bearer? "

The band took its name from the Texas Independent Film, the band Travis after the main character of the film.

Awards

At the International Film Festival of Cannes 1984, the next to the Berlinale Film Festival Venice Film Festival most important, the film won the top prize, the Palme d'Or. He also was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.

The German Film Prize won Paris, Texas as Best Feature Film in Silver. The German Camera Prize Robby Müller in the category Camera feature film. He also won the Bavarian Film Award for Best Cinematography. At the ceremony of the David di Donatello Wim Wenders won the René Clair Award. The Fotogramas de Plata Prize, the Sant Jordi Award and the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Award, the film received a Best Foreign Film, the Danish Bodil for Best European film.

At the 1985 BAFTA Awards, the film won the Best Director and was also in the categories Best Film, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay nomination. In the London Critics Circle Film Awards, he received the ALFA Award. Paris, Texas was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe in the category, but David Lean's A Passage to India had to concede defeat. 1985 Paris, Texas was awarded by the French Syndicat Français de la Critique de Cinéma for Best Foreign Language Film.

Product Placement

For the production of the feature film, a contract for product placement in the amount of DM 60,000 was concluded with a cigarette manufacturer, which provided to be present the brand exclusively by the main character. The brand should always be highlighted positive. According to the contract text were " settings are shown in the product kits with full ashtrays, to avoid ... ". The cigarettes name had to be at least a total of 45 seconds fully and clearly recognizable.

Dispute over the theatrical release

The original plan was that Paris, Texas should start in the West German cinemas already on 28 September 1984. The production company Road Movies Filmproduktion and film distribution film publishing of the authors, whose member Wenders had been since its inception in 1971, had agreed to initially start with forty film prints in smaller cinemas. After the film was awarded at Cannes and praised by critics, Wenders, however, a different strategy appeared promising. He wanted to give at least eighty copies and make the film show in larger cinemas. Here, the experience with his previous film The state of things played a role, who won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, but not a success at the box office was distributed by the Filmverlag. Although the film publishing on the other hand also took into account the success at Cannes, but only planned to increase to 64 copies. It also played a role that the previous films by Wenders did not achieve the hoped-for good business for.

Beginning of August 1984 announced Wenders and his producer Sievernich the rental contract with the publisher of the film authors. In return, the Filmverlag Wenders had prohibit public comment by injunction. An interview with Wenders in the ZDF program aspects was then broadcast without sound.

Road Movies was looking for a new hire, and found him in the company Tobis film. However, the film publisher was not prepared to give up the distribution rights. Meanwhile, the film was shown in cinemas abroad with great success. From West Germany were organized bus trips to performances in Switzerland. On the film festival in Paris courtyard was Texas first shown in English in western Germany.

In November Sievernich imputed Rudolf Augstein, the main shareholder of the Filmverlag, a strategy of annihilation. Hark Bohm, Uwe Brandner and Hans W. Geissendörfer based thereupon position for the film publishing and demanded Wenders on to relent. Nevertheless Brandner and Geissendörfer left in December 1984 the film publishing the authors. Wenders also withdrew from the film publishing, and Rudolf Augstein sold in 1985 its shares in Theo Hinz, under which the film publishing increasingly moved away from its original goals and became more commercial.

On January 11, 1985, the film publishing the authors brought the film finally in the West German cinemas after Wenders had declared their intention to not be the release date further in the way. The film saw 1,129,600, West German audience in 1985.