PARIS, TEXAS | Dir. Wim Winders | 1984 | 148 min

Paris, Texas is Wenders’s best-known and internationally most successful film. Celebrated by critics, it won a series of important international awards, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes. This unconventional road movie is based on a script by Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard and tells the story of Travis (Harry Dean Stanton), a man who wanders out of Mexico and into the blazing heat of Texas’s Big Bend one day. Travis does not speak a word. He also seems to have largely lost his memory. But he is driven by his wish to find his family again: his young wife, Jane (Nastassja Kinski), whose life he seems to have placed in danger through his pathological jealousy, and his seven-year-old son, Hunter (Hunter Carson). For four years, Travis was thought to be dead. His brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), flies from L.A. to Texas to bring back his lost sibling. Walt and his wife, Ann (Aurore Clément), have become Hunter’s foster parents. It is very difficult for the two of them to now give up this role, especially when they learn that Travis wants to take his son in search of Jane. They know nothing about her, except that she probably lives in Houston . . . In addition to impressive performances by Stanton as Travis and Kinski as Jane, a unique soundtrack by Ry Cooder has made Paris, Texas a cult film.  – Janus Films

Awards
1984 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - WINNER (FIPRESCI Prize | Wim Wenders, Tied with Voyage to Cythera (1984), Palme d'Or | Wim Wenders, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury | Wim Wenders)
1984 GERMAN CAMERA AWARD - WINNER (Feature Film | Robby Müller)
1984 LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS - 2ND PLACE (LAFCA Award, Best Cinematography | Robby Müller, for Repo Man)
1984 NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW, USA - WINNER (NBR Award, Top Ten Films)
1985 GERMAN FILM AWARDS - WINNER (Film Award in Silver, Outstanding Feature Film), NOMINATION (Film Award in Gold, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role | Nastassja Kinski)
1985 SANT JORDI AWARDS - WINNER (Sant Jordi, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1985 CESAR AWARDS, FRANCE - NOMINATION (César, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1985 GOLDEN GLOBES, USA - NOMINATION (Best Foreign Film)
1985  DAVID DI DONATELLO AWARDS - WINNER (René Clair Award | Wim Wenders), NOMINATION (David, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1985 FOTOGRAMAS DE PLATA - WINNER (Fotogramas de Plata, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1985 FRENCH SYNDICATE OF CINEMA CRITICS - WINNER (Critics Award, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders, West Germany)
1985 BAFTA AWARDS - WINNER (Best Direction | Wim Wenders, Best Screenplay - Adapted | Sam Shepard), NOMINATION (Best Film | Chris Sievernich & Anatole Dauman, Best Score | Ry Cooder)
1985 BAVARIAN FILM AWARDS - WINNER (Bavarian Film Award, Best Cinematography | Robby Müller)
1985 BODIL AWARDS - WINNER (Best European Film, Wim Wenders)
1985 LONDON CRITICS CIRCLE FILM AWARDS - WINNER (ALFS Award, Film of the Year)
1986 GUILD OF GERMAN ART HOUSE CINEMAS - WINNER (Guild Film Award - Silver, German Film | Wim Wenders)
1986 SESC FILM FESTIVAL, BRAZIL - WINNER (Critics Award, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1986 YOUNG ARTIST AWARDS - NOMINATION (Young Artist Award, Best Starring Performance by a Young Actor - Motion Picture | Hunter Carson)

Paris, Texas is the third work of focus in our MASTERS: WIM WENDERS series.