Waiting is not just roaming in space, it is also a process of retrieving memories and discovering oneself. Through the movement of space, people's psychological state seems to gradually reverse the time.
"Paris, Texas" is the work of German director Wenders. This is a film about American life from a European perspective. It is a road movie with the theme of discovering one's past. From the identity of a bystander, watch the story that happened in the hot land of the neighboring United States.
In the Texas desert under the scorching sun, majestic sand and rocks stand up into mountains, like a sculpture that is silent for a long time. The sky is calm, and a touch of blue shrouds the foothills by the clouds. There is no wind here, but it is peaceful and tranquil like a fairyland outside the world. A tall and thin figure appeared under the boundless sky. He wore an oversized brown suit, which was already filthy; a short yellow tie was tied on his chest, and the tie was drooping and lifeless; he wore a rustic top. A red peaked cap, the hat covered his haggard face, forming shadows, like the ravines and rocks. An eagle hovered and rested on the mountain peak, staring at him, as if waiting for him to fall to the ground, but it was a good meal. He picked up the empty kettle, raised his head to drink the last drop of water, discarded the kettle at will in the desert, looked back at the eagle indifferently and fiercely, straightened his back, and slowly walked towards the depths of the desert. This is the opening scene of the German director Wim Wenders' film "Paris, Texas." The long empty shot, accompanied by Ray Kuder's melodious guitar music, creates a breathtaking beauty in the history of film.
He has traveled a lot of hard roads, large tracts of desert, and soon in a small hotel, he was thirsty, and after chewing a piece of ice, he couldn't stand the instant stimulation and fell to the ground. When I woke up, I couldn't speak. When his younger brother came to pick him up from far away Los Angeles, he chose to flee and walked alone on the desolate railway. Travis has an old and determined face. At first glance, this kind of man has a story and was a person who used to be in trouble. Finally, after his younger brother found him several times on the road, he finally agreed to go back with him. However, along the way, he seemed to have aphasia and rarely talked to his younger brother. He just silently took a picture he bought from Texas, a street sign in a desert. This is Paris, he said. Paris, Texas. Yes, for Travis, Texas is his dream paradise, his Paris, the home he wants to build for himself and Jane. He bought a piece of land in Texas, where he was going to build a new home after finding his wife who had left him, but four years poured in like water, and he searched the road for so long without a wife. For this reason, he was so decadent that he didn't want to go back to the bustling city again, and he didn't want to talk to anyone, He tried to close his mind. After returning to Los Angeles, he was reinvigorated by the affection for his son's blood and decided to find Jane again. So, when he finally finds Jane after all the hardships, he finds out that she works in a pornographic establishment. The sudden cruelty of all reality stunned Travis, and the four-year search turned out to be such an end. Travis saw Jane's shot again, and the director handled it extremely well. He walked over from a distance and saw the back of a woman in red. From her speechless back, Travis was sure that it was the Jane he had been dreaming about. However, he didn't have the courage to go up and stop her directly, after all, four years was too long, so he turned around and went down. At this time, the camera turned to Jane, who had been facing away from him, and she turned, only to see Travis coming downstairs. In this way, I missed four years of searching and waiting. Travis went downstairs and saw Jane up close through the glass in the reception room. She couldn't see his face. So they talked through the glass, and Travis couldn't speak without saying a few words of excitement. He didn't know how to face such a Jane, he couldn't talk to her any more, and then Travis put down the phone and left without saying goodbye. After returning, he left his son at the hotel and went to find Jane again. Telling their story to her, two couples who were mad with love and escaped because they loved too deeply finally met each other through a layer of glass. Jane recognized Travis by the voice, but she couldn't see Travis behind the glass. It's like they clearly love each other but chose to separate. It wasn't the glass that blocked them, but the thick barrier that became more and more incommunicable between people. Travis knew that Jane had always wanted a home like Paris, so he had been trying to build their own Paris in that part of Texas that meant so much to him. Because Texas is where Travis' parents fell in love and nurtured him, where he started, he wants to find what he has inadvertently lost where he started and keep it. However, he never imagined that the place where he started is also where he ends. In the end, he still found that the invisible ravine between him and Jane was already deep, so deep that anyone who took a step closer would be shattered. He said goodbye to Jane with tears, although their parting did not say goodbye every time, but, They have always faced parting. Jane sat in the room and looked at the glass where she couldn't see each other. The 8-minute close-up showed Jin Singer's skill. Her beautiful and broken face was finally overwhelmed by the tears that were too late to shed. She knew that this parting would be their forever. Travis fulfilled Jane and his son, and when he felt the reconciliation of mother and son under the 15th floor, he went back to the birthplace of his dream with tears in his eyes. His Texas, where he's going to find his Paris. The film portrays human beings' fragility and worrying about gain and loss in the face of deep love to the bone marrow, which breaks the hearts of the audience. The car is driving on the road to Texas. The place where the dream begins is also the place where the dream shatters. Only the road that does not know where it will lead has been extending outwards. The final ten-minute climax of the film, Travis and Jane exchange their thoughts, but the ending is confusing and sad: Travis leaves Hunter to Jane, alone, under the night wind and street lights , and embarked on a long journey to find an unknown other party. This is by no means an ending for an authentic Hollywood director, but even if it's a bewildering ending, the 1984 Palme d'Or at Cannes was awarded to this eloquent film, and perhaps it showed more than It's just a simple search story, but the tortuous journey of director Wim Wenders from filming. Like Travis, he searched for a dream all his life, but gave up when the dream came true and when he woke up.
Wenders has been deeply influenced by Hollywood "Western Movies" and "Road Movies" from the very beginning. He admires directors such as John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, and Nicholas Rey; he deeply loves men who shape and build bloody men such as "Farland", "Easy Rider" and "Midnight Cowboy" He directed the European-style "Road Movie Trilogy", "Alice in the City", "Wrong Move" and "King of the Road" in Germany; he was deeply fascinated by American culture and dreamed of one day driving in the United States. West, making a movie of his beloved. The day came so quickly that Hollywood director Francisco Ford Coppola extended an olive branch to Wenders and invited him to shoot a thriller "Hammert" for the Diorama Company. The ambitious Wenders, despite his high ambitions, was repeatedly hit by water during filming due to his script and directing style, his films were revised to pieces, delayed release due to severe overruns, and the box office was sporadic and dismal. The failure of "Hammert" left Wenders at a loss in the face of the firm American dream. Later, although he directed a film "The State of Things," which won applause for depicting the inside story of the studio and director, Wenders did not. Not excited because of this, but wanted to make a real German film in the United States, "Paris Texas" came into being at this moment.
"Paris, Texas" has a very strong American color, and film critics once called it "marking the peak of Wenders' Americanization". In general, European directors who have been successful in the United States, such as Joseph von Sternberg and Jean Jacques Arnold, have had a hard time breaking away from Hollywood's influence throughout their lives. After "Paris, Texas", Wenders returned to Germany to shoot purer national films such as "Under the Berlin Sky", and produced documentaries such as "Looking for Ozu". "Days on the Clouds", because for Wenders, everything is hidden in a key word in the movie "Paris, Texas": Paris. Paris in France is the dream of many people. For European directors, Paris is the place where movies started, and Paris is also where Bazin, Godard and Truffaut were born. And Paris, Texas, for Travis, is the place where his parents had sex for the first time, where he was conceived; the place he and Jane bought when they were most in love, full of dreams; it was his jealousy A place of atonement after being paranoid and wrong, so full of sacred meaning. Thus, Paris is a place that represents life, love and existence. Therefore, whether it is Paris in France or Paris in Texas, for Wenders, it is a place to confirm self-life, self-worth and self-existence. When the world is so noisy, the distance between people is expanding, and life is becoming more and more lonely, Paris, only belongs to the place where the soul is placed, and belongs to Wenders' Europa nostalgia. Travis once had happiness, which is a universal and real happiness, just like the American dream that Wenders pursued when he was young; Travis lost happiness in paranoia and confusion, just like Wenders It's an awkward and discordant shoot; Travis finds happiness and then gives up, just as Wenders turns around when he gains fame. The existence of Travis symbolizes separation and estrangement. The fire of love is like holding a torch. The more demanding it is, the more painful it will be. Only by constantly wandering and searching, and returning oneself to the vast sky of nothingness, may one obtain inner peace. . And Wenders was indifferent after the burning pain, and finally returned to the original place, where his films started, where the Parisian dream of art was about to wither, and then the "Four New German Film Masters" were defeated one by one, only Wenders still remained. Sticking to the European film art position and vigorously supporting young directors may be the return and continuation of his dream of film.
Reprinted from Paris, Texas: Wim Wenders' Lonely Soul Place Wenshaw Finds Lost--Film Literature Invasion
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