Paris, Texas 1984

Director Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Perfect Days) fuses his expertise with the road movie – this was his fifth – and fascination for bygone and contemporary Americana in this intimate epic. A man emerges from the desert, mute and dishevelled. After reconnecting with his brother and seven-year-old son, he embarks on a quest to find his missing wife.  

Wenders crafts his film as something of a modern Western, full of memorable cameos, wide-open landscapes and sharply observed local colour, but it’s a western that’s profoundly sceptical about the values embodied in the genre’s male archetypes.  

Harry Dean Stanton, the venerable character actor cherished by Monte Hellman and David Lynch, gets a rare opportunity to stretch out in a lead role of Travis, and he’s subtly magnetic as a man slowly recovering from a mysterious existential crisis. His climactic encounter with Nastassja Kinski, in a profane confessional that offers no guarantee of absolution, is a mesmerising tour de force for both actors. 

After the debacle of Wenders’ first American project, Hammett, this was the film where everything went right, from cinematographer Robby Muller’s magnificent opening shots of Monument Valley to Ry Cooder’s dusty, iconic score. The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1984 and secured the Best Director BAFTA for Wenders the following year. It has gone on to become a modern classic, inspiring generations of filmmakers (the film provided visual inspiration for Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City) and musicians (such as Kurt Cobain, who named it his favourite film). We are delighted to present Paris, Texas in a new 4K restoration, direct from its 40th anniversary screening at Cannes. — Andrew Langridge

“It’s one of those films you can watch again and again and it will always be young. I guess that’s what a masterpiece is.” — Sebastián Lelio