The locations vary from vast open spaces like the desert to small confined spaces like the peepshow club where Jane works. They map out a journey of the film, with its different movements across America, the changes of dynamics between the characters and how the space affects them psychologically and emotionally. I looked at three main points: Travis as the aimless wanderer, the failure of the ‘American Dream’ and the confined spaces. Roger Bromley in From Alice to Buena Vista: The Films of Wim Wenders (2001), writes: « The title of the film announces boundary and division, a seemingly contradictory state, an entre-deux-never reducible to the differences it joins and separates (bonding and separation are themes which recur throughout.) ». The video essay is concerned with the themes of boundary of division in relation to space in Paris, Texas. He has described television, a major symbol of American modernism and technological innovation, as a source of ‘optical toxins’, but he also honours those landscapes by magnifying their strange beauty. His attitude towards America is both critical and compassionate. His European approach is interesting as he combines both cultures in his cinematic language. The film delivers a portrait of 1908s Western America from the perspective of a foreigner, Wenders being a German filmmaker. The emotional depth is deeply interrelated with its unique use of space, which creates distance between the characters. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984) is by far one of my favourite films.
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