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About What's happening. (Eugene, OR) 1982-1993 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1985)
CINEMA Review Paris, Texas Directed by Wim Wenders; adap tation by L.M. Kit Carson; written by Sam Shepard; director of photog raphy Robby Mutler; with Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Hunter Carson. A grizzled figure in a weather beaten suit and tie stumbles across the chalk white Mexican border into Texas. He totes a plastic bot tle of water which he discards when he catches sight of a dilapi dated truck stop. Finding a freezer in a near empty tavern, he slowly munches on some ice before col lapsing. The man is Travis (Harry Dean Stanton), presumed dead, having disappeared four years ago. He doesn't talk, remaining totally silent when questioned by the doctor and when retrieved by his younger brother Walt (Dean Stockwell), who flies in from Los Angeles and drives to the nowhere hospital Tavis has been taken to. The phantoms that drive Travis on have not left him, and he twice attempts to hit the road solo again, only reluctantly rejoining his brother in the car. Finally, on the second day, the silence is bro ken when Travis mutters "Paris." "What?" 'Paris. Have you ever been there?" Travis is like a child in his con dition. His four years away have done more than simply change him; he seems purged of the past and now he slowly rebuilds, ask ing questions about his mother, re-establishing his relationship with brother Walt, pulling out the photo of a bare plot of land he bought years ago through a mail order. The land is in the small town where he believes his parents conceived him, the town of Paris, Texas. Travis is rebuilding more than his memory, though. He is redis covering his identity, and that en tails meeting his seven-year-old son Hunter (Hunter Carson), who only barely remembers him if at all, and finding the wife he left years ago, Jane (Nastassja Kinski). Travis is out to rebuild the family that was destroyed all those years ago. Paris, Texas is the brainchild of Wim Wenders, in my mind Ger many's finest living director, and American playwright Sam She pard, who penned the dialogue for the story he co-wrote with Wenders. Like Wenders' previous works, most prominently Kings of the Road (quite possibly the finest film of the last ten years), and his 1978 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize winning The American Friend, Paris, Texas continues the exploration of his favorite themes —isolation of man in today's world and the triumph of relation ships in the face of such isolation. This is a road picture, and for Wenders the road is the highway to self discovery and enlighten ment. It is only natural for Travis to treat his life as a journey—from his family to the desert, from the desert to his brother's home (where he re-establishes his bond with his son), to his wife, and so on. Like all of his previous works. this is a leisurely paced film with few words but more silent com munication between characters than most people manage through conversation. Cinematographer Robby Muller's camera work is a veritable textbook of visual story telling. At an initial dinner scene where tensions are still high, the characters are captured in tight single shots, isolated in their own space. In other scenes the camera slowly, elegantly moves into the PAoWye* —HOI abRPR****** Hany Dean Stanton as Travis in Paris, Texas. characters, isolating one, zooming in for the close-up, regrouping and re-establishing relationships. Only once does the timelessness of Wenders’ impeccable pacing lag, and that is during the inevit able meeting between Jane and Travis, a brilliantly conceived ex change where the two are sep arated by a pane of glass while talking through a telephone, unable to break through the walls of isolation they have built around themselves through time. Travis finally tells the story of what happened four years ago, and we sit watching Jane's expres sion as she slowly realizes who she is talking to. For a visual director like Wenders, the static scene is too long; there is more spoken in this one exchange than in the en tire rest of the film, trivializing the monologue by its sheer overabun dance of words. Yet this is only a minor flaw in an otherwise near masterpiece of filmmaking. Paris, Texas is a heartfelt, heartbreakingly beau tiful meditation on human rela tionships and the American fami ly, told in understated power by one of the world’s most gifted directors. There's no denying that the film demands much from the viewer, but a film of this power and grace is so unique in the American cinema that the invest ment is well worth it. This is prob ably the finest American film made in years. —Sean Axmaker NOW SHOWING Browstar'S Millions: Richard Pryor is a baseball player who is bequeathed $30 million on the con dition that he spend it all In 30 days. National (344-3431). Desperately Seeking Susan: A good girl-bad girl social satire that offers rock star Madonna as the Manhattan queen of sleaze whose glitter, street-wise lifestyle Is coveted by a bored, virginal New Jersey housewife (Rosanna Arquette) who is married to a hot tub king. Someone aptly describ ed this film as a "New Wave Alice In Won derland .'" Susan Seidelman directed (her first film was Smithereens). Aldan Quinn (Reckless) plays the handsome projectionist Dez. Not a heavy message film, just a lot of fun. Mayflower (345-1022). Fletch: Comedy. Chevy Chase is a newspaper reporter who assumes many and varied disguises to get the story. Cinema World (342-6536). Goon las: Steven Spielberg (executive producer on this one) has kept the story a secret. What hap pens to this group of adventuresome kids from the Northwest? Shot in Astoria, OR. Directed by Ric Donner (Omen, Superman). Shows at the McDonald (344-4343). Just One of the Guys: Comedy. A girl (Joyce Hyser) who feels she’s being treated as a second class student, disguises herself as a boy, falls In love with her best male buddy (making complica tions for him) and volleys teenage one-liners with her little brother throughout the film. Young teens seem to laugh at this movie directed by Lisa Gott lieb. Shows with Lost in America at the Fine Arts (747-2201). Ladyhawke: Medieval Romance. Rutger Hauer (the evil replicant in Blade Runner) Is the dashing swordsman Navarre who suffers from the unre quited love of the fair Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer, Scarface). John Wood (Wargames) is her rejected jealous lover who bestows a curse which transforms Isabeau to a hawk by day and Navarre to a wolf by night. Directed by Richard Donner (The Omen, Superman). Shows with Rustier’s Rhapsedy at Oakway (342-5351). Lost in America: Albert Brooks wrote, directed and acted in this funny, Winnebago-Easy Rider comedy about a Yupwardly mobile couple who quit their high-paying L.A. jobs, buy a Winnebago with a microwave, and hit the road to "find them selves." Shows with Just One of the Guys at fine Arts (747-2201). Mask: Cher is the perfect biker mama In this “Elephant Man" (true-life) story about a teenage boy with a horribly disfigured face. Newcomer Eric Stoltz (The Wild Life) Is sensitive and poignant as the misfit whose mother's love gives him the courage to live. Cher is tough and funny and sweet. The bikers give the film Its comic relief, and provide a support community of misfits in which Mom and son live, work and play. Spring field Quad (726-9073). By the author and filmmakers of Watership Down, Plague Dogs pits two dogs against the scientist/captors who were using them for medical experimentation. This serious animated film—rated PG—is showing this week at Cinema 7. Parts Texas: Nobody does "On the Road America” like West German director Wim Wen ders. (Recall Kings of the Road and Alice in the Cities.) In this story, a displaced man (who is presumed dead) returns home after a mysterious four-year disappearance to find his wife gone and his brother and sister-in-law parenting his child. Harry Dean Stanton (the sleazy car-repo guy In Repo Man) gives a brilliant performance as the lost father trying to reclaim his identity. Hunter Carson plays the irresistible child; with Nastassja Kinski as the wife, Dean Stockwell as the sensitive brother and Aurore Clement as the sister-In-law. (This film won the top award at Cannes In 1984). Written by Wenders, Sam Shepard and Kit Car son. Bijou (686-2458). Perfect: Based on a Rolling Stone article (Looking for Mr. Goodbody) the film features John Travolta as a reporter Investigating health clubs. Travolta falls in love with the Club director (Jamie Lee Cur tis) and exciting things reportedly happen. Real life Rolling Stone magazine publisher and editor Jann Wenner plays a fictional editor in the film. Directed by James Bridges. Cinema World (342-6536). Plague Dogs: Take the kids! From the creators of Watership Down and the best-seller novel by Richard Adams. A new animated film about two dogs who escape an animal research lab in search of freedom and are chased because they are rumored to have the plague. Cinema 7 (687-0733). Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment. Cop comedy. A punk gang terrorizes the precinct, and Inept rookies foul the rescue attempt. Spring field Quad (726-9073). Prizzi’s Honor: Mobster hit man Jack Nicholson marries a beautiful woman (Kathleen Turner, Ro mancing the Stone) who turns out to be a bona fide hit woman herself. Should be intense. John Huston directs. Cinema World (342-6536). Rambo— First Blood Port II: If you liked Code at Silence, you'll love Rambo. This film picks up where First Blood left oft—that is. with Sylvester Stallone in prison for shooting apart a whole town. The government hires Rambo to go to Vietnam and get proof of POW’s. West 11th (342-4142) and Springfield Quad (726-9073). Return of the Soldier: Rom Rebecca West's 1918 novel. Directed by Alan Bridges. A shell shocked captain (Alan Bates) has amnesia and has forgotten 20 years of his life. The three women who love him (Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson and Ann Margaret) consider confronting him with the awful truth or leaving him in his innocently childish and happy state. Valley River Twin (686-8633). Romancing the Stone: Kathleen Turner (Body Heat, A Breed Apart, The Man with Two Brains) plays a strait-laced writer who with mercenary rogue Michael Douglas (the film's producer) sear ches the jungles of Columbia to find her missing sister. West 11th Tri Cinema (342-4142). Rustier’s Rhapsody: Directed by Hugh Wilson (Police Academy, TV's WKRP in Cincinnalf). A western spoof reported to be somewhat in the genre of Blazing Saddles. Stars Andy Griffith and Tom Berenger (The Big Chill). Shows with Lady Hawkrat Oakway (342-5351). Secret Admirer: An anonymous love-letter throws a group of people into confusion and self deception. Cinema World (342-6536). A View to KN: James Bond (Roger Moore) engages In mortal battle with a psychotic Indus trialist (Christopher Walken, Brainstorm) and Villainess Grace Jones to save Silicon Valley from being captured, blown-up and GASP! tumbled into the ocean. Springfield Quad (726-9073) and Valley River Twin (686-8633). Yellow Hair: West 11th (342-4142). -S.R. FUTONS & FRAMES Buy Direct—And SAVE! ECONOMICAL FIR BEDFRAMES!! Bed Frames and Couch Frames starting at $95 _Futons starting at $85_ May be seen at Saturday Market or Michael's Custom Woodworking 89703 Demming Rd. In Elmira For more information call 935-2443 VISA MasterCard Deliveries available CINE/AA 66707 ‘Oregon Premiere— June 14-20* Shows nightly, at 7:00 and 9:00 pm Based on the bestselling novel by Rich ard Adams and from the people who brought us "Watership Down" comes a new, fully animated, realistic film that has audiences cheering and critics rav ing. “The most intelligent movie cartoon in ages,“ Christian Science Monitor. 1 THE PG iPLAGUE J A Special Kind Of Movie DOGS Magic From The Creators Of Watership Down BIJOU 492 E 13th +86 2458 Fri.Sat. 7:15 4 10:00 Sun.-Thurs. 6:45 4 9:30 Sat. Sun. Bargain Mat. 4 pm $3 , Miser Monday Admission $3 : | Unanimous Winner GRAND PRIZE , PALME D’ORCannes Film Festival [: “ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR. It’s visionary, it's realistic, it’s poetic, it’s heart breaking." - Ri er I bert ai no MOVIF RI PARIS,TEXAS
