LA Weekly from Los Angeles, California • 82

L.A.WEEKLY November 16-22, 1984 82 FILM RicRKOfkTitmWmK I fitr? mmi (tp AtfmwiximiiimM (titm mnr wmAtgy i (Ftp iw (fmWkv (Ftp MilPiHl I xA. Paris, Texas PARIS, TEXAS (3 mm irector Wim Wenders, working from a script by Sam Shepard (with dialogue and scenes composed on the set by L. M. Kit Carson), consciously set out to discover his movie as he made it and with it some new, previously unseen dimension of life itself. Paris, Texas succeeds each way.

Harry Dean Stanton plays the lead. His role is the fulfillment of a long career of good work, and he pays for this opportunity before our eyes, with his heart's blood. Stanton plays Travis Henderson, a man rising from the dead (so to speak) after four years of wandering the desert in the wake of a nervous breakdown. He reconciles with his brother, sort of; passionately resumes the fathering of his abandoned son; and attempts a reconciliation with his ex-wife and the piecing together of his shattered family, but does so in his own unique, desperate fashion. Wenders' vision of family, of human relationships, is almost unbearably bleak.

Yet he faces this abyss with such vulnerability, such openness (not to mention a camera eye worthy of a Japanese landscape master) that we feel the truth of what he sees, and with it the beauty. The performances stand in exciting defiance against the usual cliches of movie acting. Everyone Dean Stockwell, Aurore Clement, Hunter Carson, even Nastassja Kinski (a supernatural presence complete with an adopted Texas accent) is instinctive, original, completely alive to the surprises and possibilities within a given scene. Born in Germany, groomed by fate (and, I think, by prophetic appetite) to live and work in America, Wim Wenders is the ideal bard of human exile yours and mine especially, even though we're supposedly from here. He imagines Texas, Los Angeles every place in truly planetary terms.

This is a great gift to offer viewers in this messy, restless Age of Our Homogeny. Harry Dean Stanton flawlessly embodies Wenders' theme. Midway through the film there's a wonderful little moment when he sings an old Spanish love song to himself while he does the dishes at three a.m., in a kitchen that doesn't belong to him. This would be a nice "character bit in any movie, but as framed by Wenders and performed by Stanton it's a beautiful metaphor for the human condition. Paris, Texas is a landmark work in every sense: understated, powerful, sublime.

(Mann Fine Arts.) F. X. Feeney -Hrr MU ART RIALTO 799 9567 FAIR OAKS MONTEREY (Across from Vonsl 11272 SANTA MONICA BLVD. 478 6379 THE GYPSY CAMP VANISHES INTO THE BLUE Sometimes you see a film and you not only love it, you not only admire it critically, you not only are excited by its meanings besides all this, you get a crush on it. I have a crush on The Gypsy Camp Vanishes into the Blue.

Made in Russia in 1976 by somebody I never heard of named Emile Lotinau, here is a film that comes from such a depth of dreaming that every every scene, every shot seems made of the raw and steaming archetypes from which we are formed. This love-tale between the greatest gypsy horse thief (Gregory Grigoriou) and a magnificent witch (Svetlana Toma) is a story made of elementals no superfluities in sight. And of ultimates no compromises considered. So. it rages with the raw contradictions of Eros and Thanatos, casting sparks all the way like a Lorca ballad.

Every shot seems to come not out of a need for plot, development, but from the haunting music with which the picture shines. And the camera's dances seem to be in response to the almost constant dancing of the gypsy women. The only dancing I've seen with this flavor is the dancing of voodoo ceremonies, except that this gypsy dancing is lighter and flashes with defiance. When you see these gypsy women and girls dancing and singing with such pride-as they walk through the shocked, conservative city, you will be seeing something no American film has ever shown you. And when you see how the gypsy men seem to wear death as a cloak, you will be far beyond the Western panic at what we must all do one day.

But a warning: I wouldnt want to see The Gypsy Camp Vanishes Into the Blue alongside someone with whom I was bored even a little bit bored. It can be hard, at times, to look into this film's eyes. (Fox International, Nov. 16-18.) Michael Ventura We also recommend: The Killing Fields, A Love in Germany and Mi key and Nicky. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15 SABOTAGE: 5:00, 9:45 SECRET AGENT: RICH AND STRANGE 6:30 FRI SAT, NOV.

16 17 VERTIGO FRI: 7:20, 11:45 SAT: 5:00, 9:40 FAMILY PLOT FRI: 5:00, 9:30 SAT: 2:40, 7:20 SUN MON, NOV. 18 19 THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY NIGHTLY: 5:05, 9:30 SUN MAT: 12:35 SUN MON, NOV. 18 19 SABOTEUR NIGHTLY: 7:30 SUN MAT: 3:00 Plus Surprise: SUN: 2:30, 7:00 MON: 7:00 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20 JAMAICA INN 5:00, 9:35 THE PLEASURE GARDEN 8:25 fiilents: 6:55 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21 DIAL FOR MURDER THE WRONG MAN 7:25 THURSDAY, NOV. IS NORTH BY NORTHWEST: 8 55 SUSPICION: 7:00 FRI SAT, NOV. 16-17 PSYCHO: FRI: 9:25 SAT: 4:55, 9:25 MARNIE: FRI: 7:00 SAT: 2:30, 7:00 SUN a MON, NOV.

18-19 TORN CURTAIN SUN: 4:35, 9:05 MON: 9:05 SHADOW OF A DOUBT SUN: 2:30, 7:00 MON: 7:00 IRC3L Stop by the theatre today and pick up an entry blank to win an exciting variety of prizes and a trip for two to San Francisco via AIR CAL.