Paris, Texas (20th
Century Fox edition)
Picture: B+
Sound: B Extras: B- Film: B
Paris,
Texas is one of those films that seems to have all the right
pieces together, but still does not hold together as well as it might
seem. Take for example this being the
first English-language film from German auteur filmmaker Wim Wenders, who
collaborated here with lots of talent.
Those talents include cinematographer Robby Muller, writer/actor Sam
Shepherd, and add in a perfectly fitting score by Ry Cooder plus actors Dean
Stockwell, Harry Dean Stanton and Natassja Kinski (who may or may not count).
Stanton’s character is a man who is trying to redeem himself with his family
that he left years ago. He roams around
the Texas desert hoping to connect with civilization again.
All these things seem to be the right mix and for some
tastes this might work, but others might find it confusing, complicated,
lengthy, and perhaps downright boring.
As for me, I am sitting on the fence and with this DVD being my first
visit to the film I have no reservations in saying that the DVD certainly helps
the film as it looks and sounds pretty good.
Presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio and anamorphically
enhanced for widescreen televisions Robby Muller’s camerawork shines through
looking very open and wonderful. The
landscape is shot in a deliberate attempt to make everything seem wide and
barren, similar to the way many of John Ford’s westerns were. Dark and light scenes both hold up very well
with minimal amounts of artifacting throughout. Even the clarity is sharp for the most part with only some
softness that only a High Definition transfer would have any hopes of
straightening up. Some people prefer a
bit more grain though with certain films and in some cases that works just
right.
As for the sound, which is a 5.1 Dolby Digital track,
there are very few complains as nothing much really happens in terms of depth
or dimension to really gain a sense of ‘surround’ anyway. Dialogue is pretty standard up in the front
with some musical overtures here and there to give a slight ambiance. There is also an audio track with commentary
from Wenders, who talks almost similarly here as he does on most of his
commentary tracks, which is scene specific and somewhat detailed, but never
gives away anything in terms of ‘why’ he did certain things. He also never goes into much about the
actually story and firmly believes that the audience should just figure it out
themselves.
Two other extras are here as well included a deleted scenes
section with optional commentary, but after watching the 2 hour and 15 minute
film you almost wonder if anything was cut from the film at all. Certainly at this point you really don’t
have much enthusiasm to figure out why a scene fit in or not, but its up to the
viewer to take the liberty of watching these or not. There is also footage from the Cannes festival of Kinski, since
the film won the Grand Prize when it was released in 1984 and has been the
favorite of many critics ever since.
Fox has issued this film for a very inexpensive price,
which packs a nice punch for such little cost and is certainly worth checking
out at least once. Not sure if it holds
the weight to make it into most collections, but fans of Wenders other work
might want to give this one a whirl.
- Nate Goss
