Wednesday, December 22, 2004
I don’t quite understand how this DVD can be so inexpensive (less than ten U.S.D.). Paris, Texas is one of my favorite movies - I’m very happy it has finally been released on R1 DVD, in a high quality transfer, including Wim Wenders commentary (which I’ll probably never listen to, but still...) and twenty minutes of deleted scenes (which I may not watch). This was one of the key movies in my life. When I first watched it in the early 90s (cropped, no doubt) on a cable TV broadcast, it helped to open my eyes to a whole ‘nother way of looking at cinema - helped to open my eyes to wanting a lot more out of motion pictures. And it still holds up. Certainly, this is the role of Harry Dean Stanton’s lifetime - I’m sure he has never been better (even in Repo Man). But the true star is the look of the picture... especially throughout the first half - it’s one of the most beautifully photographed movies I’ve ever seen. Those shots in the desert - the shots of Los Angeles - the freeways - even coming into the nightmare of Houston never looked better. I’ve got my fingers crossed that in 2005 we’ll finally see some more of Wenders key films make it out onto DVD, including The State of Things, Kings of the Road, Alice in the Cities and a R1 release of the uncut 5hr version of Until The End of the World.
