Director: Wim Wenders Screenplay: Sam Sharp/L.M. Kit Carson Starring: Harry Dane Stanton/ Tom Farrell/ Ollol Klay Mang / Natasha Kinsky Genre: Plot Language: English Release: 1984 Length: 147 minutes
"Paris, Texas", Paris, Texas, shot in 1984, won the Palme d'Or. Some commentators said: It’s amazing to photograph American lives from a European perspective! Does this sentence reveal a particularly advanced atmosphere? But generally, my first reaction when I see this sentence is: Slow-slow narrative rhythm and narrative style. Sure enough, the film is 147 minutes long, please prepare the dry food, let's start from the European perspective!
At the beginning of the film, a long shot shows the stray Little Red Riding Hood, the actor Travis, who collapsed due to lack of water and was rescued and awoke without saying a word. The brother who rescued him found contact information in his personal belongings, and the story began.
After receiving the call, his brother Walt went to Texas. After several twists and turns, Travis was intercepted on the way back. When getting in the car, Travis kept looking into the distance, moving awkwardly, slowly and hesitantly. No matter what Walt said next, he said nothing.
Moving so slowly here, we have a lot of questions: What has Travis experienced? Where is he going? What is he going through? Why doesn't he speak?
Without saying a word, Travis ran away after seeing himself in the mirror of the first Motel. (Really a man who loves to walk...) Walt finds him again...After dressing and dressing Travis has changed himself, but he still doesn't take off his red hat. After shaving off the beard, a blunt white is left on the face.
Since Travis doesn't speak, Walt has the responsibility of telling the story. We learned of Walt's fragmentary stories through the phone and conversations with Travis. Travis's son was brought up by Walt; Travis and his wife Jane had something unknown, and the two disappeared four years ago. And when it came to his son Hunter, two lines of tears slipped on Travis's face, who was hesitant to speak. Attention, this time his Little Red Riding Hood is taken off.
After Walt's complaint, Travis finally said the first sentence at the gas station: "Paris, have you been to Paris? Can we go now?" Is this man really frustrated? Why didn't he go back to see his son directly? The following plot is dumbfounding, Travis panicked on the plane, so-it became a road movie! They will drive back to Los Angeles for two days.
In Paris, Texas, he bought a piece of land there-that's why he wanted to go to Paris. It seems that a little mystery has been solved. But Walt had no doubts in his mind. He asked about Travis' four-year experience. Travis, who was driving, refused to answer. Later, he remembered the reason for buying the land on the road, which had something to do with his mother. The chat on the highway, one ride and not one ride just like this.
At Walt's house, Travis reunited with his son Hunter, whom he had not seen in four years, and tried to get close to him, step by step, until Travis took his son on the road to find Hunter's mother Jane. The film took nearly 30 minutes to expand this paragraph.
Then came a long road trip. Travis and Hunter walked on the road for nearly 30 minutes of film length. Later, Travis found Hunter's mother in a peep show club, which was very similar to the current live broadcast. Travis didn't recognize it.
After he left, he chatted with his son about his mother late at night-this was the third time he mentioned his mother, and the second time was when looking through photos at Walt's house. He then left a voice message to his son, and then went to find Jane. It only took 20 minutes to explain our initial question: What happened to him? What happened between him Jane?
At the end of the film, he watched from a distance as Jane reunited with his son at the hotel, and then left. The film ended like this.
If you want to summarize this story briefly, it is the story of a man who had been away from home for four years after being found by his brother, reunited with his son, took his son to find his wife, and finally left alone.
Do you find the outline of this story unattractive at all? Yes. If the current standards of "story is king" and "narrative is king", this film is simply impossible to be filmed in China. However, the way the movie is expressed is not just "story".
What is the European perspective?
After mainstream movie genres such as Hollywood have captured the attention, a lot of speeches have emphasized "story", "rhythm", "convergence", and "three acts, five acts, and seven acts". In my opinion, European movies have two major characteristics: the first is to weaken the story and emphasize the process; the second is the concern and care for people, or the care for the subject.
When you watch this movie, you will find that the director has no preference and no prejudice. In the process of telling the story, he vigorously expresses the complex emotions of every important character. Walt mentioned to Travis many times that "Hunter is like a family with them", but he is also promoting the understanding between Travis and Hunter; Anne is passionate about Travis, she secretly sends Jane pictures of Hunter, but when Hunter leaves her Life, she is very sad; Jane's utterance alone and her last conversation with Travis are unforgettable.
Everyone’s emotions are complex, sincere, and deep. I think this is a big feature of the "European perspective."
So, what to watch when watching this type of movie? It's definitely not the excitement, the story, or the structure. We should see where the director is exerting his strength, and see how he uses pictures, light and shadow, and music to flow human emotions into your heart.
You can experience the conversation between Travis and Walt in the restaurant. The light outside the window was printed on half of their faces, Travis’ tears slowly wetted his right eye, and then flowed to his cheek;
You can feel it, and learn that Hunter and Travis left, Anne after hanging up, sitting on Hunter’s bed humming a lullaby;
You can guess that Hunter refused Travis to pick him up from school. When he got home, he pretended to drive by himself in the garage. Then he did this in the video tape and when he was waiting for Travis to find Jane. This meant to him. What's this?
You can guess that Travis turned his back to tell Jane the story between them, and Jane told Travis about her suffering after he left. She also turned his back, the director's intention; you can listen carefully to what Jane said to Travis In that long dialogue like a monologue, every sentence seemed to be drawn from her soul thousands of times.
【over. 】
Text丨BY Yuezhu Figure丨Video Screenshots/Network
This article was originally published on the public account of "Sugar Cinema" (WeChat ID: BrilliantFilms). Welcome to pay attention and open a new movie world for the first time.
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