Harry Dean Stanton is superb in Paris Texas, screening in Whanganui

Harry Dean Stanton stars in Paris Texas screening in Whanganui on Monday night.

Recently departed actor Harry Dean Stanton plays laconic drifter Travis in the 1984 award-winning film Paris Texas to be screened by Whanganui Film Society next Monday night.

Directed by German film maker Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders, the screenplay was written by L.M. Kit Carson and playwright Sam Shepard, while the musical score was composed by Ry Cooder.

"Paris Texas follows the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape all its own) as he tries to reconnect with his young son Hunter, living with his brother Walt (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing wife Jane (Nastassja Kinski)," wrote the Criterion reviewer.

"​From this simple setup, Wenders and Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family, as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons and neon."

The film was shot in just a few weeks in the American Southwest and the Texas town of Paris the film was named after did not feature in the film at all.

Paris Texas was awarded the ultimate Cannes Film Festival Prize, the Palme d'Or, in 1984 and Wenders picked up numerous international best film awards.

Shepard and Cooder, with producers Chris Sievernich and Anatole Dauman, were nominated for British Academy Film Awards.

Hunter Carson, who played Travis' 9-year-old son, was nominated for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film.

Carson, now 41, is the son of screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson and late actress Karen Black.

Paris Texas, which screens courtesy of the Goethe Institute, is open to non-Film Society members for a donation.

Film Society half-year memberships are available to buy online at wanganuifilmsociety.org.nz at $45 or $40 discounted (for students, GoldCard holders and Community Service Card holders). Memberships can also be bought before screenings.
Paris Texas screens at the Davis Theatre, Whanganui Regional Museum, Watt St, on Monday,October 16 at 7pm.