Paris
Texas
Music composed by RY COODER
Performed by RY COODER, guitars & JIM DICKINSON & DAVID LINDLEY
includes Cancion Mixteca (traditional) and Dark Was
the Night (BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON)
Warner Bros 7599-25270, 1984 |
Wim
Wenders declared in an interview about his last project with Bono (metropolis,
Arte 25- 3- 2000) that music was always extremely important to him.
Talking about "Paris texas " he
said the music is not functional" as in a traditional movie. It is not
used create suspense or underline the action or any other uses. For him
Ry Cooder's electric guitar is "almost like a character in the film" having
a 'life' of its own. He added putting the music to the pictures was like
making a second time the film itself. He went as far as to explain that
in way the shooting and the editing could be seen as preparations to this
second stage where he went through the film with the music.
Nevertheless, whatever Wenders may
say, Ry Cooder's music has a functionnal role in Paris Texas.
Music has been used for nearly 70
years with pictures. This practice has been little by little codified
and has become one of the most important element of the cinematographic
language. Film directors and the audience are very well aware of this situation.
The association of music and film creates new meanings and connotations
which obviously are different from the meaning of images on their
own.
For example there are countless
examples of 'spacey' guitars tracks used with wide open landscapes pictures,
from documentaries to road movies. One could even say this one of the worse
clichés in film music !
Also music can help to define the
psychological make up of a character. This is the case in Paris Texas:
the first time Harry Dean Stanton appears on the screen he presents a totally
blank indecipherable face. It's only the music which gives clues about
his character, his story, his emotional state. And very easily the music
is associated in the spectator's mind with his inner turmoil, his sufferings
and also the magnificent Texas landscape.
The
story imagined by Wim Wenders and Sam Sheppard being so simple becomes
a kind of modern mythical parable. A man, Travis - Harry Dean Stanton -
because of his madness (jealousy) destroys his family. After four years
of atonement in the desert, helped by his brother, and after having travelled
through a good part of the USA he gives back his son to his wife - Nastassja
Kinski. So the music had to possess the same primeval simplicity and also
a very strong emotional appeal. The film starts when Travis is out of the
desert and about to start his quest about his life and his family. This
opening sequence showing him walking in the desert with the music of Ry
Cooder is absolutely striking. It encapsulates the whole story of Travis:
his wanderings his longings and also his relationship to this sun drenched
place along the Mexican/Texan border. Ry Cooder laid back playing is faultless;
with barely no accompaniment, every nuance, every movement of the bottleneck
on the guitar is heard in sharp focus. A perfect choice of music for a
wonderful film. |
