'Paris, Texas' and the art of a lowkey film

With the average person's ability to concentrate deteriorating by the minute, it’s hard to make films where nothing really happens.

The 2020s already bag some film classics, but they all hold one thing in common; they are loud, bright, or in your face. 'Babylon', 'Top Gun: Maverick', and 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' are movies released this side of the COVID-19 pandemic that will be well remembered and rewatched decades down the line.

All these movies are jam-packed with explosive content that will keep the eyes of the viewer glued to the screen; if it’s not the pulsating jazz music and the cocaine-fuelled parties in Chazelle’s Babylon or the multi-versal travel in Danielle Kwan’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, it’s the arguments and explosions in Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick.

Technically, also released in 2022 and directed by Matt Reeves, 'The Batman' is a movie that is guilty of ‘nothing happening’ but not in a similar sense to 'Paris, Texas' or 'Lost in Translation'. Nothing happens in The Batman in the sense that Robert Pattinson’s character really has no effect on the outcome of the movie’s events.

Gone are the days of the quiet smash-hit movies but we need more. It’s a talent that nearly no one can replicate, creating a movie that totally immerses the viewer solely through dialogue, acting, and emotions. Directors should be forced to study Wim Wenders Paris, Texas until they can replicate it.

It’s like a lullaby for your eyes. Unfolding with an expansive ariel view of the main character, Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) in the desert – a beautiful shot that sets the standard as Wenders and cinematographer, Robby Muller, work together to paint a masterpiece.

To call a film “heart-wrenching” is a strong statement to make but Paris, Texas is just that – without the help of fighter jets or evil masterminds forcing the protagonist to work through a riddle. This film follows the story of Travis, a father who has been missing for four years, trying to rekindle his relationship with his son who has grown distant in his absence.

The film takes Travis from a man, rescued as a mute muttering shell of himself in the desert to a desperate sensitive father baring his soul towards the mother of his child. It’s a film that draws a tightness in your chest and a stinging in your eyes, almost as if you’ve been asked to bare your soul like Travis did. Having to rely on silent human emotion and rich cinematography to communicate with the audience is a challenge, yet you can easily understand every character in this film.

The scenes in this film are dripping with colours, but it’s never over-the-top. The final act in this film has Travis and Jane, the mother of the kid, sitting across from each other in a style that mirrors that of a priest and a man confessing his sins; perfect imagery as Travis recalls all his worst regrets. Everything about this movie feels real, it is acted to perfection. Full of so much clarity and ambiguity.