Paris,Texas

Directed By Wim Wenders

A man wanders in the desert: he doesn't talk, and suffers from severe amnesia. When his brother Walt finds him, his mystery starts unravelling: the man's name is Travis, he has a young son that Walt and his wife Ann have raised; because Travis went off to the desert four years before and never spoke to his family again. It is Walt's duty, now, to re-integrate his brother into society; slowly Travis' heart seems to thaw, until he tracks down his ex-wife Jane, the child's mother, who had escaped Travis' mad jealousy four years before, causing him to escape himself. Jane and Travis meet through the glass of the peepshow where she works: at the end, she is reunited with her son, while Travis drives away again.

Beautifully photographed and scored, intensely acted, this masterwork won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival in 1984 and it's easy to say why. Since Travis has lost the love of his life he went silent, he lost any communication with the outer world, and his emotions are told primarily by his grieving face and by the environment that surrounds him: the desert, never so symbolic. The films builds up on a long silence and slow pace, but the apparent calm hides the turmoil of a wounded soul; even the sparse dialogue between the two brothers feel like they are straining to find a common ground. The real catharsis happens in the less emotional place though: through the mirror of a peepshow, Jane finally hears her husband recall their tragic story and we understand the characters' real motivations. But no matter how hard they can try to start again, the desert inside their souls always wins. There are some wounds that time cannot repair: this is what director Wim Wenders tries to tell us with this poetic and heart-rending film. For a thoughtful audience who is not afraid to cry, but is not keen on typical romcoms.

DVD available at www.amazon.co.uk

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