Paris, Texas -- What Makes This Movie Great? (Episode 21)
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- Опубліковано 17 бер 2020
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Time for a tearjerker. It's Wim Wenders' 1984 classic, "Paris, Texas."
Paris, Texas is an Americana road trip movie involving a drifter who walks back into civilization. It's got a great slide-guitar score by Ry Cooder, several great scenes of driving across southern America, and a fantastic final hour.
The movie stars Harry Dean Stanton, Natassha Kinski, and Dean Stockwell.
See joshmatthews.org for more great movie criticism. - Фільми й анімація
I feel like I learned a lot about myself as a cinephile watching this movie. So often I feel manipulated by a directors desire to shock the audience that I kept expecting something bad to happen in a moment or so on. A couple examples include me thinking the we’re going to end up following the wrong red car, thinking Travis was walking away during the bridge scene (even if him doing that would make no sense) just to name a couple. I can’t wait to watch this movie again and really enjoy it and it’s story.
excellent, I"m glad you liked it.
Sameeeeeeee. I thought Hunter will probably gef lost. Or something bad will happen with Hunter and Travis on trip.
i legit thought the same, turned out i was wrong
I expected Travis to jump off the rooftop in one of the last scenes. 😅 So yeah, I feel you.
I just watched this film last night and I was thinking the EXACT same thing, it's pretty genius how basically all the bad stuff happens before the film starts, and it's kind of the foundation for the story rather than the payoff
not a single second of this film is boring, all masterfully shot
yes!
My God it is a heavy movie. I honestly don't have the courage to watch it more than once a decade. Beautiful and oh so tender, but absolutely brutal
...Re...Or...in...
🎩🔝
Ruthless Friday.
Watched the movie for the first time tonight, left me feeling a little overwhelmed. Came here searching... subbed!
thank you. enjoy the channel!
Travis is a broken man at the start of the film. When we see the super 8 footage we get a sense of the person he was. But now a different man he realizes he is unable to pick up the threads of his old life and leaves. Just another lost soul in the great American wasteland. The film points out the things that keep us together. And also the things which bring us apart. Just my take on it.
quite good, thank you.
I agree that’s what the movie is saying but honestly that’s bullshit. Travis is selfishly too concerned with his own pity party to recognize he has a responsibility to Hunter and by just leaving him in Houston with Jane, who clearly doesn’t want to take of him, he proves he’s learned nothing.
@@ZachClossin I think it's a popular theme in movies. The denial of responsibility. American Beauty is another example.
I think it's because it's a European made film that Europe's films are a lot more tasteful
If I had to pick my favorite movie of all time, it would be Paris Texas. You nailed it when you commented on how this movie gave you feelings that you don't have names for; that's a big reason why I love Paris Texas.
thank you.
literally why it was so boring
Me too
You are right about that last hour. From the moment they arrive in Houston until the end, I was hooked and eagerly waiting to see how it would all turn out.
I got nervous that he left the kid in the hotel room so long.
Maybe at first you don't see how the two would ever be together. But near the end, when Travis is telling her their story and the way he's telling it, it just feels so natural. And you understand that even if they weren't meant to be together, they were and it was amazing for a while. So glad I decided to finally watch the movie, it was just beautiful.
Yes, but why is Travis' brother married to a French woman? and why was Travis married to a beautiful woman half his age? It has to do with their father and where Travis was conceived, It's the essential theme of the film.
@@Chasstful I’ve never thought of that before and quite regularly, softly bludgeon myself with this film.
i guess i have to rewatch this film because i didn't initially feel what most people feel when they've watched this film
After my first viewing, I feel really bad for the kid. He was hastily uprooted from the life he knew and dropped off a thousand miles away with essentially a stranger. Not to mention, maybe he was happy living with his aunt and uncle who now have lost a child too.
yes, exactly. he is drawn into their sad world, which they try to restore, but don't.
Extraordinary masterpiece. Purely from a cinematic standpoint, the last hour, and especially the last 15 minutes, are the act of a God.
yes!
The magnificence of this movie slowly creeps into an understandable reality as the storyline progresses.
Tears me to shreds every time I see it, there’s nothing like it, a pure, very powerful and beautiful work of art.
I have seen this movie four or five times and every time it has the same effect on me, bringing tears to my eyes at the end. I recommend this movie to everybody with whom I have any kind of conversation about movies. It is one of my favorite movies and one I'll never get tired of seeing again.
thank you.
I love how the mystery behind the family breaking up seems like it would be a dangerous one like they got involved in crime. But to take that suspense and questioning and deliver in a heartbreaking and satisfying way is incredible
thank you.
abusing your wife is a crime
There are a lot of movie review/discussion channels on UA-cam, but there are not a lot of them that talk about Paris, Texas. Thank you for that.
you're welcome. that's some of what we're doing on this channel: covering what the contemporary pop-culture and gamer-oriented channels don't.
First thought was: this guy probably has 100k subs. Wow! You deserve more duuuuuddeeeee
thank you. this channel started in earnest just over six months ago. We await the blessings of the algorithms, praise be their name! If that doesn't happen, that's fine, as there are already some very sharp commenters around here.
Me too hahaha
One of my favourite movies of all time. I'm happy to see this review and that people are still enjoying talking about it.
thank you.
I've spent the last several minutes watching your videos and am so glad to see one on this! Paris, Texas is a movie I've been contemplating on for the past week, worried I'd regret watching it, but your video convinced me to give it a try!
thank you. very likely you will appreciate the movie, and probably love it!
My favorite scene is when Walt started to say: "Travis, do you remember Hunter?" - I don't know why, but I think the scene is very warm and calming 👍
thank you.
I just got finished watching that movie and I literally started crying at the end 😭😭😭😭😭💘
the movie is an empathy test. you passed! :-)
@@LearningaboutMovies 🥺🙂✨🌈💐🎀
Just watched this movie last night and it might be my new favorite movie. Every scene had me absolutely hooked. I loved how much space they gave to let certain scenes breathe. Had to come check out your video afterwards!
I totally agree with your comments about the kid. I’m usually ambivalent about child acting but that kid knocked it put of the park.
thank you.
First time seeing your channel, talking about my favorite movie and that was awesome, really loved the content
thank you.
As a kid in Germany I watched Wenders' b+w road movie "Alice in den Städten". Yes, he definitively knows how to create atmosphere.
recently I got into phtography and this movie is basically amazing 70s color photographs made into a film. I think actually the film's origin is Wim Wenders' photographs of american west. the colors are so much like those of William Eggleston, Ernst Haas, Alex Webb, Harry Gruyaert. every single shot is masterfully composed with vibrant colors and contrasts.
thank you.
Just a few minutes ago I finished it for the first time, now is one of my favorite movies of all time. An absolute masterpiece
By the way, you have a new suscriber
thank you.
I really resonated with your words that it evoked unique emotions in you that you didn’t know you had. I think that’s the best way to describe this movie. Almost impossibly slow but never boring for a second. I’d like to watch it again but I keep avoiding it. It was so darn affecting.
I gotta say this movie always leaves me feeling lost and out of touch, as if I, some how, missed something. I don't feel bored watching it. But I just feel like maybe I don't feel the movie or struggle to feel emotions with it and that stresses me. Maybe I'm forcing myself to like it because I've been told it's a master piece. I feel left out form movies...
not left out from movies! Surely you feel something from some movie. If not this one, that's okay.
There are movies that manipulate emotions. And then there is Paris, Texas that truly earns the viewer's emotional response. It is cinematic perfection. It is two and a half hours long, moves at a snail's pace and I love every second of it.
yes!
Gets better and better with every viewing.
Absolutely, I watch it at least once a year
I'm still not 100% certain at which point Jane realizes that it's Travis on the other side of the glass
That whole scene with the two of them talking but not being together is a gut wrenching masterpiece
Paris Texas is as close a perfect movie as you will ever see. Every frame is a masterpiece on top of the extraordinary score.
The film is perfection.
yes!
Love love love this so much. There are relationships, although they feel and look perfect, are not meant to stay together (and I think it's mostly by choice or that feeling of alienation). Better far apart than to be near or they will hurt each other, something like that.
it's remarkable that so many American love stories end in separation, including this one. I think they also couldn't overcome their past. There's so much in between them -- and note that that final scene has a wall, with a one-way mirror, and Insulation, all literally between them. They are even just five feet apart and yet she can barely see him (if the lights are out), and they can only talk through the wires of the phone. Achingly sad!
Women like Natassha Kinski might be attracted to other traits then those associated with alpha males which could justifiy that she loved Harry Dean Stanton in the film haha.
Other then that I agree with most of what you said. It's one of my favorite film, the whole scene toward the end where Dean Stanton finds Kinski and they have this long discussion might be my favorite scene in the history of cinema, it captivates both your attention and your emotions.
I know, except he's not cute or rich or muscular. Must be his winning personality?
that scene is too much to take. it is surely one of the best ever.
Yeah, I also didn't agree with the comment about Harry Dean Stanton, didn't take long to find a comment echoing that, seemed like an unnecessary snide comment.
@@LearningaboutMovies I enjoyed this reading. I do however agree with mb9607. I don't think KInski's character is that shallow--falling for cute or rich or muscular. In the super 8 footage, as another viewer mentioned in comments, we see Travis's swagger and ease, the kind of wild but loving man he was. As we hear her character recount, their's was a deep and then tortured love.
Just because a woman is good looking doesn't mean that she automatically goes for an alpha male. Remember that she was in a relationship with Travis more than the four years ago, years before that. Travis was a younger man,
Still trying to hold on to dreams, which eventually withered away through circumstance of time and the realities that evolve creating a hopelessness for Travis. This is one of my favorite movies, reminded me of my own relationship heartaches that didn't work out. I never tire of watching this movie. Harry Dean Stanton has left us, what a fantastic actor he was.
This is an underappreciated classic and the cinematography is brilliant
Its essentially a European film., and those are never seen by AMerican masses.
Y’all just say anything this film has never been under appreciated
Great review, only nit pick is you said Wim Wenders shot the movie. He directed it, Robbie Mueller shot it, and what an incredible job he did
thank you. I give general credit to directors for overseeing the movie, which is really what I mean. It is a good criticism.
I caught this movie a few nights ago and liked it. Thank you for your insightful review.
appreciate your comment, thank you.
Took me a second watch to really appreciate this movie, and man was I glad I did revisit it. I would gladly place it in my top 5 without a second thought.
Excellent!
Watched last night for the first time. I could tell immediately that it was a masterpiece. It never steps wrong, and it's so beautiful in so many ways.
Beautifully shot and with a very good heart. I liked this movie a lot.
4:27 thats how i feel driving around on long road trips
This was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. A masterpiece.
As someone who generally overthinks all the time and is suffocated by the movies who have so many banging shifts in them I enjoyed this one so much. Brilliant movie! Wonderful music, beautiful scenery, top class acting and what a beauty Nastassia Kinski is! I love that it's just a story with everything else that makes it art like I mentioned earlier scenery, music, acting. Not some bombastic mind boggling story that kills me for two days. I loved this😊
excellent, glad you loved it!
Possibly my all time favourite film.
Each time I watch it there is something new to see
I just love this film.
excelelnt, glad you love it.
My favorite moment of the movie is the Super 8 film, with that music underneath. Brings tears to my eyes, evokes the feeling of looking back on the time when things were better... Something about that music underneath was just perfection, what a momentous choice on the part of the director... Sort of like choosing Marlon Brando to play Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now...just had to be.
You are so right. The most perfect 5 minutes ever put on film. Thank you Wim Wenders, Thank you Robby Muller, Thank you Harry Dean Stanton, Thank you Nastassja Kinski, et al.
I loved every shot of this film
Just watched it for the first time - this must’ve been the most beautiful movie I’ve ever seen, from directing/cinematography/sound design. I have some problems with the characters but nothing that I would’ve changed or done differently.
One of my favourite films. The mother had the same jumper as mine which I loved cuddling into.
I saw this movie in the theater in 1985, and have seen it several time since. I really appreciate your review--I think you nailed it. I would mildly quibble with you about cutting it by ten minutes, but that's just me, and it's a minor point. Great review!
Thank you
This is easily one of the best ever made. I think this movie is great for anyone the story is amazing and omg this cinematography
Also you had me dying talking about Harry dean pulling that girl. I was thinking the same thing
You are both wrong, I believe. Harry Dean did exactly that when the two were working on the film: they had an affair. Anyway, what the hell do alpha males have to do with Nastassja? Is Roman Polanski an alpha male? Alpha males are good at fighting other males over women, not at seducing females
could be the 4th time i watch this movie, every time a love it more
Great!
never seen that movie - but your review makes me curious!
hope you enjoy!
My favorite movie ever
I really enjoyed the vibe of this movie, especially because of the music and the cinematography. My attention was held for the entire movie, but what finally cemented this as a really great movie in my opinion was the final, lengthy comversation between Travis and Jane. I can't help but feel as though the kid would've been better off if he was left with his aunt and uncle, though. If Travis was just gonna leave after reuniting his wife and son, he never should have taken him and reintroduced them in the first place. Definitely need to see it again.
I have one major problem with the story.
Spoiler warning
Travis takes his kid back to Texas to reunite him with his mother. The problem is the mother is in no position to be raising a child as she is some kind of sex worker and Travis has no plans of sticking around. In the end he leaves the kid with his mother. The kids best option was living with his aunt and uncle. They loved him as a son and were providing a very stable environment for him to live in. So Travis effectively ruined all of that. I suspect that in real life the kid would end up back with his aunt and uncle making this whole movie pointless.
All that being said I thought it was an incredible movie. I love how everything was revealed in the end. It was unlike anything I have ever seen.
this seems reasonable if you ask the movie to offer practical solutions to its problems. I think the movie offers a country-music myth of momma getting her baby back because daddy loves them both. It's based on the nuclear-family values of its place and time. As such, it's more of a wish that articulates values rather than a realistic scenario.
The story is how the relationship with the other sex project our happiness. The want and need of unconditional love. Travis messed that up playing games with her to the point her lost her. When all he wanted was to feel wanted. He sees that what his son needs, love of the mother. Oedipus complex. A type of love that can only be felt through blood relation. Imagine growing up not feeling love from your own birth parents. You’ll question all relations.
It's funny Roger Ebert brought up this very point in his review. The explanation that the movie reflects more of an archetypal myth rather than realism makes a lot of sense, especially when you consider the director.
You can never again look at that crumpled old guy sitting alone drinking coffee in Wendys at 6:30 in the morning and not imagine that he was for a time in love with a woman soaring above it all and for a while was incredibly happy…and even though she betrayed him and left he still can’t let it go. And though he knows it may be a sin the rest of life has been disappointing.
What great art is for.
Thank you Sam Shepard
I only began watching this movie because I am a big Dean Stockwell fan, but the first third was so slow that I had to quit watching. Later I came back to watch the rest and I’m glad I did because I ended up really enjoying it. I didn’t want it to end because I cared about all the characters so much.
yes, that is a common experience. anybody reading this: be sure to finish the movie at least.
This is one of the best movies I have ever seen 😍
excellent!
First Wenders film I saw was "Kings of the Road" back in 1975. An unusual but provocative story of a motion picture projector repair man whose clients are on the border between East and West Germany.
neat that you have been able to track Wenders this entire time. I have not seen that movie -- worth it?
I live in Paris Texas. Dude you got a lot of movies
you mean background? if so, those are books.
2:35 Sam Shepard, for the most part, didn't write the last hour of the movie, as he moved on to a different project before the movie was done; Wim Wenders and L.M. Kit Carson came up with the Houston act (scrapsfromtheloft.com/2017/08/15/wim-wenders-interview/)
This is one of three L.A.-set, Robby Müller-shot movies released in 1984-85 (the other two being Repo Man and To Live and Die in L.A.)
thank you, good info.
I love a movie like Paris Texas that manages to be complex and riveting with no villains. Bad guys are overrated.
yes, movies without villains that are great art are fascinating. I suggest the films of Bill Forsyth for more of this kind. Also, The STation Agent; Big Night; Whale Rider.
Great video!
thank you.
One of the greatest movies ever made that leaves a long lasting impression :-)
yes!
My favorite and most personal film,
just a couple of notes about this movie I deeply love...
1 - one of the best begininning of in the history of the movies.
2 - about the writing... Sam Shepard actually did leave the writing incomplete, about the half of the movie (the second half) did not really had a screenply, it was decided day by day, by wim wenders with a help by the real father of the kid.
I got the same feeling watching this as I get from looking at Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.
I thought the ending was dumb. To take a child out from the only home he knew, a good stable, loving home to be housed by a single woman who abandoned him, did not ask for him and scrapes a living working in peep shows.
many similar viewers.
I totally agree, the first 90 mins’ not so hot but the last hour is absolutely masterful
thank you.
I understand people feeling that way. The reclamation of his memory is told via facial expressions and body language. On repeat viewings Stanton's performance in the first half of the movie makes so much more sense because we know what he is beginning to remember.
i just don’t understand why he left them at the end
Hello, good video and I live the movie. Can you tell me why Travis left after reuniting Hunter and Jane?
not sure -- that's the mystery of the movie, although it is typical of American romances going way back, where the guy and the girl cannot and do not get together in the end.
I thought the same, It should be 10 minutes shorter.
IMO the beauty of Nastassja Kinski is there to persuade us that Travis really loved her. The body apearance helps telling the story in American movies...
thanks.
I saw it in a pile of DvD's a few years ago at a cabin i was hiding out in while i was going through some kind of ego death /manic episode /existential crisis type thing. I never watched it though ....but I've always been curious ....
I recommend trying it and seeing what you think.
Phew,a genuine chuckle fest this one .
certain substances help that effect.
One of the greatest openings I've seen in a movie. I don't there's been another movie that has touched me emotionally like this. In the Mood for Love might be close.
I completely agree with you about the plot. It was not easily predictable but not in a way where the writer is deliberately trying to swerve you. Do you have any other similar movies you could recommend?
Great reivew, also, I hate there is a popup on the video for walmart trying to sell me the movie.
yeah, I am experimenting with UA-cam's new affiliate stuff, and I just realized yesterday that these are playing throughout the videos.
I wish he stayed with them 😭
yes!
Masterful
thanks.
Revisiting Paris Texas after watching Perfect Days.
Harry dated Rebecca de Mornay who was barely 20 in the 80s. He was as alpha as they come 😁
Great video 👍
he had money, though, most likely. that helps, I'm told.
thank you.
That’s actually really creepy wouldn’t call that a flex
@@LearningaboutMovies dude you gotta re-evaluate how you see relationships, its not that easy
What a guy
Last 20-30 minutes of Paris, Texas is just 💯💯💯
yes!
My favorite film
good one to have as a favorite.
My only complains for the movie is Jane explaining why she's forgot Travis's voice over time. It doesnt have to be that way, its proven that human's auditory memory isnt that great. Additionally, her job alone exposed her to various frequencies for extended periods of time.
I love this movie
I liked this movie a lot but I was at a loss of words for some reason. Maybe it’s cause i just watched it for my first time
ive been to that city
Masterpice, in my great list
thank you!
I think having Nastassja Kinski be his wife adds to the whole mystery of the movie.
That's exactly right and very much on purpose. Its goes to why Travis' brother married to a French woman and why was Travis is married to a beautiful woman half his age. It has to do with their father and where Travis was conceived, It's the essential theme of the film. The fruitless obsession of having a "fancy" woman. They don't come any fancier than Nastassja Kinski
@@Chasstful - That makes sense! I haven’t seen Paris, TX in decades, so, I should watch it again with your theory in mind.
For broken hearts this is a cold hot warm bath
I just hate how he comes into his brothers life and completely destroys his family. Can’t connect with the ending.
Having seen all kinds of bizarre pairings in real life, I don't have any issue with the greatest man who has walked this earth being paired with Kinski.
The part where Hunter's mother reacts to the realization that Travis is right in front of her is def the best part, perhaps even worth sitting through the relatively more mundane first 75%, despite how beautiful shot it is. Might be right up there with The Straight Story in films where the ending was worth sitting through a slow beginning and middle.
Another Friday...
I think Travis look so inappropriate it was reason why they broke up(metaphor maybe too). She really didn't love him. Maybe they met cos she was living in village and nothing knew about life and world. They made a child. But then she leave him and decided retain boy in his brother's family cos his wife cant have childs and she will be better mather than she will be can. But Travis bring back her child, cos believe that she will be can.
thank you.
Yes, but why is Travis' brother married to a French woman? and why was Travis married to a beautiful woman half his age? It has to do with their father and where Travis was conceived, It's the essential theme of the film.
The HDS in the home movies scene, paired with what we later learn about his posseiveness, paints the poitrate of a simple man.
A western cowboy type.
Ruggedly attractive.
And fully capable of romancing a nieve young beauty.
Older men are awesome.
And the relationship was hot.... Too Hot.
heh, thanks.
He's Nayied!
Ugh! I get so frustrated when I don't get a movie everyone loves. This was torture to endure. I still don't get it. I would be terrified if that guy tracked me down. Why would the aunt and uncle let this happen? What the hell happened at the end? The only emotion I had was relief when it finally ended. I had high hopes cause I like those emotional rollercoaster films.
no problem though. It does happen to everybody, and you might end up being more right than the rest of us!
Paris, Texas is in the forests of Texas, not the arid West Texas.
i feel so stupid that i didn’t really like this movie :(
nothing is for everybody. perfectly okay to not like it!
U might like after another view.
I just saw this movie today in a cinema in London... I was trying to kill a couple of hours of a very hot day... although I know of the soundtrack very well, I didn't know the plot of the film... OMG... I am not ashamed to say... I cried at the end...
wow, I am glad they are still showing this in theaters.
@@LearningaboutMovies yeah.. for some reason it has a limited re-release over here in London/UK
was Anne lusting travis? i enjoy movies but definitely no cinephile but heres my take. I saw this as potential the answer to your doubt if travis could romantically attract Jane. The scenes where Anne displays some sort of lust or fondness for travis sort of shows or describe that there is a quality possibly previous to his mental brake that make him desirable even to i guess a happily married lady. when you say travis would need to be a alpha i think he possible had some form of alpha or sexual energy that Anne can still see in him even tho we see him as weatherd and dishevelled, previously Anne remembers him as something else. any way thats how i made sense of a few scenes with travis and anne.
Loved the movie and if the opening hour was done in modern 4k it could of gone for another hour
I disagree with what you said about him not being alpha male enough to land a woman like her. I think that’s part of the whole point. He was an angry, controlling alpha male. When she said “I can hear your voice it’s the same as every other man’s” that’s what she’s referring to. The Travis we are following around now is not the same Travis that she experienced at least not fully. When he said he can’t see her it’s because he knows that if he stays it will bring out that part of him and he simply can’t help it. He has to stay in his world lost, and wandering, because that’s the only way he can stay nondestructive. He doesn’t want to be that person again.
Thanks.